Notre Dame vs Texas A&M 2024 Week 1 Recap

[Music] yo what's going on everyone and welcome to the Powersports Network I'm your host Jackson powers and we talk about college football now and I hinted at it a little bit in my last video uh go check that out if you haven't by the way but uh yeah I said I was thinking about doing Notre Dame Recaps yeah I kind of already had the decision made that I was going to do them I just didn't want to fully give it away I just kind of wanted to hint at it a little bit no one commented so I'm just doing it anyway because I want to so yeah yesterday Notre Dame played against Texas A&M and they won 23 to 13 very ugly game for sure but it's very very inspiring because five years ago we couldn't win these types of games and if Brian Kelly was coaching that team yesterday we would have lost by 28 points at least because when Brian Kelly was coaching Notre Dame we would lose anytime we went into a hostile environment at least it felt like it we would lose by a lot in a hostile environment or if the team was really bad in the hostile environment it would be a very close game just not great stuff but this game showed why Notre Dame is different without Brian Kelly even though we haven't had the success it's different we win the games we're supposed to win and it's it's overall better and like I said this was an ugly this was an ugly game but those are the types of games you have to win to win national titles so so I'm just going to get right into it uh the first person I want to talk about is Riley Leonard now I know his stats weren't off the charts and there was a lot of bad I said about him in this game I'm sure a lot of you Notre Dame fans did the same talking about can we give them back to Duke and all types of but in that fourth quarter on that last Drive where we scored the touchdown to take the lead he was awesome he was running the ball he was fighting for extra yards getting first downs being unselfish making good throws that is why we brought him here from the from Duke from in the transfer portal cuz we needed a guy who could who could do that who can win you games late and yeah he didn't play the greatest he also wasn't getting great play calling but that got a lot better as the game went on um but yeah once they started pushing the ball down field the offense really started to click a lot more and I I like Riley Leonard a lot uh even though his stats like I said his stats were not off the chart statistically he did not have a good game he only had like 150 passing yards but he had I think he had like 60 something rushing yards and you know in that fourth quarter really put the team on his back when we needed him to drove us down the field and got us in the end zone so very happy with how RI Leonard played in that fourth quarter and I just want to say it was a completely different offense in the second half because the next thing I'm going to talk about is our running backs cuz our running backs they looked very good uh jerion price and Jeremiah love both looked very good and honestly they were very good last year too it's just they were they were outshined by audri ese because audri ese was the clear number one but now AUD EST he's in the NFL so it's Jeremiah Love and Javon price who uh are going to be leading this back field and once they got going they were going uh Jeron price he had a 47 yard touchdown run in the third quarter which ended up being the first touchdown of the game and Jeremiah Love had the go-ahead touchdown late in the fourth quarter that put us up 20 to 13 and then ultimately led to us winning like when when we run the ball well we don't lose at least we don't lose a whole lot when we get the Run game going when we get the Run game going and we keep the other team off the field that's that's the game we want to play and helps our defense out a lot too and when it gets going it gets going I think we had like 200 rushing yards total and you know it it didn't look like that at first cuz in the first half Texas A&M they were stuffing all of our runs but once we started throwing the ball a little deeper instead of doing check downs and screens we letting Leonard throw it like 10 15 yards down field it opened up the Run game who would have thought right but uh in all seriousness I was very happy with how the running backs played the receivers they were decent nothing too crazy I know Collins he had a crazy catch in the fourth quarter but other than that the receivers didn't really do nothing crazy I I do want to talk about the off offensive line because I think in total our whole offensive line coming into this game had six total starts and that was between two people if I'm not mistaken and they struggled at first but they got a lot better as the game went on and the commentary team which was Kirk herb Street and Chris Fowler were saying that they really grew up a lot in that game just getting there playing against a very good Texas A&M defense that's another thing I haven't mentioned yet like Texas A&M has a very good defense and our offense did struggle but a lot of that was because Texas Anam had a great defense so yeah I I was very happy with the offensive line in the in the second half especially they looked a lot better in the second half they played very good in the second half very disciplined they really jelled and grew up and played really well together and Notre Dame is is known for sending offensive lineman to the NFL I mean we did just have Joe Walt get drafted to the Chargers in the top 10 so and obviously my Colts got quit Nelson so Notre Dame we're definitely o line University for sure Iowa can have tight end University we got o line University uh I don't know what University's quarterback University they come from everywhere but yeah I was very I was just very satisfied with how our offensive line played they grew up and played very good in that second half now I do want to talk about the defense oh my god dude our defense is so good like that was that wasn't a doubt coming into this we knew the defense was good they looked a little rocky at the start but they allowed two field goals early but they never they didn't really play Bad the only really bad Drive they have was the driver Texas M scored their touchdown they couldn't stop the run but that was cuz our offense kept stalling but other than that like the defense was spectacular our secondary is very good had two interceptions uh Schuler I think his name Adon Schuler I definitely said his name wrong I apologize he had an interception Xavier Watts had an interception Xavier watch I believe he led the nation last year in interceptions so he got one both in the first half so the defense did their thing the only complaint I have about the defense is they've got to clean up the penalties we had almost a 100 yards in penalties and a lot of those were on the defensive side of the ball stupid ass pass interferences they were jumping off sides a lot at the beginning of the game which is just something you can't have and that's that's like the one concern I have about them because penalties that was our biggest downfall last year was just untimely penalties get a big stop on defense and then it'd be like pass interference or like horse collar tackle or face mask or legal hands to the face something something dumb always happened it felt like the the defense still very undisciplined something we need to work on for sure but other than that the defense is single-handedly the reason Notre Dame won that game I'm going to say it right now cuz the offense like I said it did struggle now a lot of that has to do with Texas A&M having a good defense but we won that game because of our defense for sure they got huge stops and they looked very good I think this is the best defense I've seen Notre Dame have in a long time like last year's was good but I think this year is even better we have a phenomenal defense and defense wins championships that's all I'm going to say I can't wait to think we're going to win the national championship the next few months until we get humbled by a top 10 team happens every year I'm just waiting on it I'm jaded to it at this point but hey it is what it is I'm happy Notre Dame football is back uh I think we play Northern Illinois next week if I'm not mistaken at home it's either Northern Illinois or another Mac team I don't remember I didn't look before I recorded this I'm pretty sure it's Northern Illinois I put it at the bottom of the screen a few seconds ago so if I'm wrong I'm wrong it is what it is but yeah that should be a nice little nice little game for us to work out some Kinks and should be a win and that's another thing I want to say about nutre Dame is we opened up against a tough opponent and in one of the hardest stadiums to play in and we rallied put in a ton of effort and won and like I said at the beginning of this video These are the types of games you're going to have to win if you want to win a National Championship and we won so that's all you can really ask for I think that this is going to be a fun season and especially with the 12 team playoff I can definitely see us getting in and I don't know if we can make a run I'll have to see how they play against a top 10 team but hey we'll get there when we get there so with that being said thank you guys so much for watching this video on the power sports network it's an episode not a video but hey it is what it is don't forget to like comment subscribe most importantly turn on the Bell notifications so you don't miss an episode on the power sports network and follow everything in the description box I'll see you guys next time bye [Music]