Notre Dame’s 23-13 win at Texas A&M didn’t come easily but was certainly rewarding. The win makes everything Notre Dame hopes to play for in 2024 a true possibility.
Scheduling a massive Week 1 contest doesn’t come without risk, but a win in such a contest brings incredible reward and a high Notre Dame will be able to build off of.
The game finished 23-13 but was very much in doubt until the final minute. What numbers played the biggest factor in Notre Dame’s 23-13 win?
Texas A&M ran 68 plays on Saturday night for a grand total of 246 yards. That’s an average of 3.62 yards per play allowed.
Even the Texas A&M running game that felt like it was working at various times for the Aggies still only averaged 3.8 yards per rush.
Notre Dame’s defense was hyped as one of the nation’s best entering the season and Texas A&M averaged fewer yards against it per play than the national leader in that statistic allowed in 2023
Notre Dame knew going in that getting the offense going at Texas A&M was going to be no easy task but perhaps it was even more difficult at times than expected. Notre Dame started the game converting just 1-for-10 third down attempts.
To its credit, Notre Dame converted the 11th on a 3rd-and-5 when Riley Leonard found Jaden Greathouse to kickstart the go-ahead touchdown drive in the fourth quarter.
Not all defenses will be Texas A&M’s this season but Notre Dame will need to get a whole lot better in that department.
To the credit of Notre Dame’s defense, Texas A&M was just 4-of-15 combined on third and fourth downs.
