Week 12 CFB Data Review: Notre Dame VS Virginia

The data story coming out of a rollercoaster win for Notre Dame.

Notre Dame football has been on a tear for a long stretch now. They’ve strung together some dominant performances that have gotten folks pretty excited about the rest of 2024. Their most recent outing wasn’t the cleanest or most consistent but the big trend continues.

Let’s get into the numbers.

Scoring Overview

The Irish beat the Virginia Cavaliers 35-14 in Week 12 of the 2024 CFB season. With this victory their win streak is up to eight with two games left to play in the regular season.

The 1^st quarter was pretty quiet with Notre Dame going up 7-0 against Virginia. Things exploded in the 2^nd quarter and the Irish tacked on 21 unanswered points. More on that later.

The action leveled out significantly in the second half. The Cavaliers hopped on the scoreboard in the 3^rd quarter and matched ND 7-7. Virginia found the end zone again with 18 seconds remaining in the 4^th quarter.

Scoring Details

Notre Dame’s 35 points came by way of three passing touchdowns and two rushing touchdowns. UVA’s 14 second half points were both gained on the ground.

Rushing Details

It was a monster day for sophomore running back Jeremiyah Love. He led the team in carries by a wide margin and produced 137 yards and two touchdowns with his 16 attempts. Jadarian Price had the second most productive day with 6 carries and 44 yards. Riley Leonard finished the day with eight carries for 32 yards and Aneyas Williams had seven carries for 23 yards.

Love is having a phenomenal season but it’s good to see him get a big stat day like this. Even if we expected a few more of them going into this season.

Receiving Details

The seniors led the charge on the receiving front. Tight end Mitchell Evans pulled in four catches for 34 yards and Jayden Harrison recorded three catches for 41 yards. The pair also claimed two touchdowns. Freshman running back Aneyas Williams showed off some of his receiving capabilities and finished the Virginia game with three catches and 35 yards.

Jordan Faison tallied up 25 receiving yards, and sophomore tight end Cooper Flanagan claimed his second career touchdown.

Drive Summaries

You really get to see Notre Dame’s Week 12 pain points when the drives are dissected.

Drive Summaries: 1st Half

The first half had 20 unique drives, compared with nine in the 2^nd half. The first wave of the game’s first half had three drives, including the opening Irish touchdown from Jeremiyah Love. There was a total of ten plays for a collective 38 yards.

Then came the first major inflection point. The Cavaliers strung together a 5-play, 35-yard drive, the longest of the game at that point. Unfortunately for them, the ND defense forced a turnover on downs.

And then wave 2 brought a whole bunch of mid. The two teams got into a punt off that spread out over six drives. Twenty-one plays were called but they only produced 43 yards. All of the wave’s drives were 3-and-outs, except for a six play, 22 yard UVA outing in the middle.

That offensive stagnation was followed up by some of the craziest college football we’ve seen all season. UVA put together a four play, 30-yard drive but flashed back to earlier in the game and turned the ball over. This time via a fumble recovered by rockstar safety Xavier Watts.

The Irish started wave 3 with a touchdown pass to Jayden Harrison but then both teams stalled out over the next couple of drives. Except that three play, -1 yard drive for Notre Dame fell victim to the ACC referee shenanigans and a crazy two touchdowns were called back.

It was a wild ride but the Irish definitely got the last laugh. Wave 4 was probably the worst sequence of events in Virginia football history. Quarterback Anthony Colandrea tossed back-to-back-to-back interceptions. And none of them came on drives that lasted more than four plays. Adon Shuler snagged the 1st interception and has three overall now. Leonard Moore was next up and the freshman now has two career interceptions. Senior Xavier Watts completed the hat trick to bring his 2024 total to four and his career interception total is now 11.

The Irish offense scored off two of those pics and ended the half up 28-0.

Drive Summaries: 2nd Half

The second half of the game offered a lot less excitement, especially for Irish fans. Notre Dame’s opening drive ended with an interception after seven plays and 35 yards. Fortunately, Virginia followed up with a 3-and-out, 5-yard punt drive.

Both teams pulled together long drives that capped off with successful short drives, from a play count perspective. The Iris covered 88 yards in three plays and finished with a touchdown. Virginia covered 75 yards in five plays and also tagged on its first touchdown and points of the game.

But the last section of drives were not good for ND. They pulled off 14 plays for 72 yards but only got a turnover on downs for their efforts. Virginia didn’t take advantage but Notre Dame followed it the Cavalier punt with a missed 36-yard field goal. UVA did make use of that opportunity and closed out the game with a 16 play, 80 yard touchdown drive.

Final Thoughts

The data behind the UVA game is strong, even if there were some trouble patches. But that 2^nd quarter was peak college football chaos and overshadows any other gripes. We’re moving into Week 13 and seeing this Notre Dame team still playing with that much energy and obviously have a fun time out there is really cool.

I’m still pretty bullish on how they close it all out.

Cheers and Go Irish!!