Notre Dame guts out 23-13 victory at Texas A&M

It wasn’t always pretty, but when it mattered most, the Notre Dame offense produced a clutch drive in the fourth quarter to escape with a hard-fought 23-13 win at Texas A&M.

The Fighting Irish took over on their 15-yard line with 6:23 remaining and the game deadlocked at 13-13, and marched 85 yards on eight plays. Sophomore running back Jeremiyah Love capped the game-winning drive by bursting through the middle for a 21-yard touchdown to put the Irish up 20-13 with 1:54 left in the contest. The Irish defense did the rest, stifling the Aggies’ comeback bid.

The two teams engaged in a slugfest for most of the evening, neither offense able to break the through. The game was knotted at 6-6 at halftime, but starting in the third quarter, the floodgates opened just enough.

Notre Dame got its first big play on from sophomore running back Jadarian Price, who took the ball on second-and-14 from the Texas A&M 47-yard line and made something happen.

Price got the ball and saw a massive hole, cleared by sophomore left guard Sam Pendleton in his first career start. He stared down sophomore linebacker Taurean York, one of the Aggies’ best defensive players, at the 45.

Price darted left, and York fell to his knees.

With help from a terrific block by senior wide receiver Jayden Thomas, Price bolted to the left sideline and he was gone. Notre Dame took a 13-6 lead.

Two drives later, though, Texas A&M struck back. The Aggies exploited Notre Dame’s run defense, which had been up and down throughout the night. The three-headed monster of junior Le’Veon Moss, junior Amari Daniels and graduate student EJ Smith ran 6 times for 37 yards in the late-third and early fourth quarter, with Moss punching it in to tie it again at 13.

Notre Dame had its opportunities to break the game open in the first half, intercepting Weigman twice. First, an overthrow under pressure wound up in the hands of sophomore safety Adon Shuler. And later in the second quarter, graduate student safety Xavier Watts jumped a route over the middle for his eighth.

However, the Irish only turned those two picks — both giving them the ball back around midfield — into three points. They had to settle for a field goal near the goal line after Shuler’s, with a miscommunication in the end zone between senior quarterback Riley Leonard and sophomore running back Jeremiyah Love proving particularly costly.

After Watts’ interception, which occurred with 46 seconds left in the half, a holding call on freshman left tackle Anthonie Knapp snuffed any chance the Irish had of threatening.

Penalties crushed Notre Dame, committing 11 for 99 yards. The offense, aside from Price’s run, was also inefficient. Leonard finished 18-of-30 passing for 158 yards, an average of 5.3 yards per attempt.

However, Leonard made big-time throws to sophomore wide receiver Jaden Thomas and senior wide receiver Beaux Collins to spark Notre Dame’s final drive.

Notre Dame is back in action at 3:30 p.m. ET on Saturday, when the Irish take on Northern Illinois in South Bend.

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