An old saying in college football, to the point of near cliche, is “don’t let (insert team here) beat you twice.” The epigram applies when assessing a game that immediately follows up a season defining kind of clash staged the previous week.
Brian Kelly, coach of the #10 Notre Dame Fighting Irish said, in pretty much every media opportunity since the close loss at Georgia last week that we’ll learn who this team is in the game against the #18 Virginia Cavaliers today. Right now, the results aren’t encouraging. We’ll be back with more after the game, but at half they’re trailing UVA 17-14, and behind in yardage 233-160.
If not for a massive and timely fumble recovery by Julian Okwara, it could be much worse right now.
However, there have been some positives:
-The play of Cole Kmet, who has 3 grabs for 44 yards
-The run defense, which has held the Cavaliers to -2 yards rushing at the break
The finish on this catch by Kmet. A++ pic.twitter.com/5frVQJwTO8
— Sara Sanchez (@BCB_Sara) September 28, 2019
-Quarterback Ian Book has made some good throws, and done a fine job distributing the ball around to multiple receivers.
-The weather! No rain right now and none in the forecast. The ugly gray overcast skies have given way to bright blue.
Now on to the bad:
-Bryce Perkins is 18-22 passing for 235 yards, two touchdowns and no picks. Right now he is, to use a soccer term, “man of the match” and there is no one else even remotely close right now.
-If Perkins keeps getting what he wants, this could be a long day.
-Ian Book has made a couple mistakes (the intentional grounding penalty really stands out) that he definitely should not be making at this stage in his career.
-The officiating, and the clock resets are really disrupting the flow of this game, for both sides.
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net, which is partnered with News Now. Banks, the author of “No, I Can’t Get You Free Tickets: Lessons Learned From a Life in the Sports Media Industry,” regularly appears on WGN CLTV and co-hosts the “Let’s Get Weird, Sports” podcast on SB Nation.
You can follow Banks, a former writer for NBC Chicago.com and Chicago Tribune.com on Twitter here and his cat on Instagram at this link.