Notre Dame vs. Virginia: First-Quarter Analysis

Decent start for the Irish.

Notre Dame appeared to begin its Senior Day game against Virginia in exciting fashion. Former Irish running back-turned-receiver Chris Tyree muffed the opening kickoff, and the ball was scooped up by [autotag]Max Hurleman[/autotag], who ran it into the end zone. However, the ball could not be advanced because there was a muff instead of a fumble on the play.

The Irish instead had to start the game at the Cavaliers 25-yard line, but the setback proved to be temporary. The Cavaliers appeared to force a three-and-out, but a roughing the passer penalty gave the Irish a fresh set of downs from the 4. [autotag]Jeremiyah Love[/autotag] promptly scored, and the Irish had a 7-0 lead.

The first-quarter scoring halted after that though as both teams mainly had a bunch of three-and-outs with the Cavaliers turning the ball over on downs somewhere in between. At least some of that though can be attributed to the Irish’s dominant defense. They’ll need that to justify the College Football Playoff committee’s decision to include them in the rankings so far.

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