The Fighting Irish stay fightin’. Marcus Freeman and his Notre Dame side will indeed further their escapades into the CFP. Their performance in the 27-17 round 1 win against Indiana was an allegory for a game-manager archetype quarterback. Effective and controlled, seemingly averting much exertion. It was almost as if Notre Dame didn’t leave 2nd gear. This was perhaps warranted, as they look ahead to what should be a game requiring their all to succeed.
Notre Dame will clash with the Georgia Bulldogs in the Sugar Bowl in round 2 of the CFP. Georgia are coming into this tie off a bye week, afforded to them by virtue of winning the proverbial crown to the southeast. As the Dawgs were resting, Notre Dame’s perceived attempts at saving themselves from an energy deficit largely worked. However, leaving a playoff game unscathed was never really on the cards. Marcus Freeman and co. were exacted a worse toll than just energy.
Their defense lost a key member to injury. D-Tackle Riley Mills sustained a hit to the knee in the 3rd quarter as he attempted to sack Kurtis Rourke. Mills was unable to continue and is now out for the remainder of the playoffs. This creates a conundrum for coach Freeman, who’s already missing elements of his pass rush via injury. In a morbidly fortunate development, Mills’ sidelining has coincided with the return of All-American Howard Cross III. Cross was himself out with an injury since November. In light of this, ESPN’s Greg McElroy has placed the onus of what he thinks is the key to ND’s success against Georgia on his shoulders.
BREAKING: Rylie Mills is out for the season with a knee injury, per Marcus Freeman.
Brutal loss for the Irish.
— Jack Soble (@jacksoble56) December 23, 2024
Breaking down the matchup on his Always College Football podcast, McElroy claimed that the edge (pun intended) for Marcus Freeman’s Fighting Irish team is their pass rush. He acknowledged the injuries to the D-line. Before stating Cross and 5-star tackle Bryce Young will dictate what Georgia’s offense conjures. He elaborated on why this is the case.
“The reason why pressure is so significant is Gunner Stockton,” said McElroy. Backup QB Stockton was thrust into the lineup after Carson Beck’s season-ending injury. “[It’s] his first career start. [Stockton] was blitzed on just 4 drop-backs in the SEC championship game. He was sacked once [and] he had 1 completion in those 4 dropbacks, and it went for negative 2 yards. He also threw an interception. So he has not handled the pressure well, albeit [with a] super-small sample size of just 4 dropbacks against Blitz. I would think that number is probably going to go up a little bit when you face the Fighting Irish of Notre Dame” he remarked.
This facet is a huge proponent of the skepticism around Georgia’s chances in this game and, by extension, the playoffs.
Marcus Freeman tasked with scheming a battle against an unknown quantity
Cast your minds back to the 2018 iteration of the SEC Championship. After Alabama’s QB1 Tua Tagovailoa gets injured, backup Jalen Hurts then leads Bama to a win against Kirby Smart and Georgia. What goes around comes around, and this year it was the Bulldogs who benefited from similar circumstances. Gunner Stockton gave the offense a new dynamic, and might one say a new lease of life.
Almost overnight, Stockton has gone from a relative nobody to the most important man in Athens. The fate of this perennial contender rests on his inexperienced shoulders, and this has created divergence. Some believe he’s going to cost Georgia a run to the Natty. Others believe he’s going to instigate them to one. Greg McElroy’s discernment would suggest there’s a potential chink in the armor, open for exploitation.
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