Report Card: Grading Notre Dame’s win over Georgia

By Tyler Horka

NEW ORLEANS — Maybe the most impressive reality of Notre Dame’s 23-10 Sugar Bowl win over Georgia is that the Fighting Irish beat the Bulldogs with their “B” game. When you average it all out, it’s tough to say it was “A” material.

The game called for gutting it out, though, and that’s exactly what Notre Dame did in getting outgained by the Bulldogs, 196 to 244 in total yards, and still winning the game by two scores.

Here’s how Blue & Gold graded each area of the Irish’s game in the victory.

Notre Dame Passing Offense: B

Riley Leonard’s final line is so meager — 15 of 24 for 90 yards. That’s 3.75 yards per pass attempt. But he didn’t throw any interceptions and still completed 62.5 percent of his passes. His touchdown toss to graduate senior wide receiver Beaux Collins was an accurate strike over the middle, too.

Accuracy and distributing the ball to a fair amount of targets — seven, or eight if you include himself after he caught a ball off the backside of one of his offensive linemen — save this from being a C. And again — he didn’t throw an INT. That goes a long way.

Sophomore Jordan Faison was a top target for Leonard again, catching all 4 of his targets for 46 yards, and senior tight end Mitchell Evans caught 3 of 4 for 22. Both of them had two first downs.

The numbers are modest. The results outshined them.

Notre Dame Rushing Offense: B

This had the feeling of a game Leonard would need to run well for Notre Dame to win. Sure enough, he had 91 yards on 13 carries if you take away the one time he was sacked for a loss of 11.

Leonard’s first four rushing attempts went for first downs. Then he had a string of three first downs on the ground in a row in the second half. In a game in which nothing was automatic, Leonard’s legs were as close as it got.

Sophomore Jeremiyah Love only ran 6 times for 19 yards before he left the game with a knee injury. Junior Jadarian Price had some good moments as Notre Dame’s No. 1 back without Love, but he only gained 37 yards on 10 carries.

In the end, the Irish ran 37 times as a team for 154 yards. No touchdowns. Nothing prolific for one of the top rushing teams in the country, but it got the job done.

Notre Dame Passing Defense: B

Georgia backup-turned-starter Gunner Stockton actually played quite well. He completed 20 of 32 pass attempts for 234 yards with 1 touchdown and 0 interceptions. Without his arm, the Bulldogs lose by a lot more.

Unfortunately for Georgia, though, the Notre Dame pass rush counteracted much of what he was able to do as a passer.

The Irish sacked Stockton 4 times. They sped him up, and Georgia’s worst moments on offense were when he didn’t have time to survey the field. That’s because the running game was essentially nonexistent.

More on that next.

Notre Dame Rushing Defense: A

Adjusting for sacks, Georgia ran 25 times for 101 yards. Just over 4 yards per carry. Georgia needed two things to be true to be comfortable it could beat Notre Dame; Stockton needed to run to take some pressure off of himself as a passer, and the Bulldogs tailbacks needed to run it well to open things up for their signal-caller in both phases.

Neither happened.

Stockton ran 6 times for 16 yards adjusting for sacks. The rest of the team ran 19 times for 85 yards. For an SEC team that felt it was going to beat Notre Dame up front, that wasn’t nearly enough to cut it.

Gotta give it to the Notre Dame run stoppers. They didn’t let the Georgia offensive line dictate terms of the game.

Special Teams: A+

Two names: Mitch Jeter and Jayden Harrison.

The former made all three of his field goal attempts. They were all between 44 and 48 yards. In the College Football Playoff, he’s 5 of 6. He was right when he said in the middle of the Indiana game that he’s “back.”

Harrison, meanwhile, returned the opening kickoff of the second half for a touchdown, his first return touchdown in 14 games at Notre Dame. He was an All-American as a return man at Marshall, and he picked a really good time to show that level of mettle again.

James Rendell punted 5 times for an average of 43.4 yards per punt, roughly 3.5 yards per punt better than Georgia’s average, so the Irish won in that way as well.

Coaching: A+

There was a head coach who clearly did more than the other to help his team win the football game and it wasn’t the one who’s won two national championships. It was guy in his third year. The guy who became the first head coach in Notre Dame history to lead the program to 13 wins in one season.

Marcus Freeman’s sideline presence was as imposing as it’s ever been. That’s impressive considering Kirby Smart was the guy staring him down from across the field. This was Freeman’s announcement to the college football world he’s asserting himself as one of the sport’s best in-game and overall leaders.