Notre Dame Football: 3 players who earned game balls in rout over Virginia

Notre Dame football has been playing really well as of late and that continued on Saturday night against Virginia on the road by a final of 28-3. With the victory Notre Dame has now improved to 9-1 on the season with two regular season games remaining on the schedule.

The Irish offense was stopped on fourth down on the opening drive but that was really the only downside of the whole first half as Notre Dame dominated it and took a 21-0 lead into the locker room at halftime. In the second half they added one more score to go up 28-0. A field goal by Virginia in the fourth quarter broke the shutout to get the Cavaliers on the board to make it 28-3 which ended up being the final score.

Notre Dame played great on both sides of the ball for four quarters. The offense was very efficient throughout the game as was the play on the defensive side of the ball. Yes, Virginia starting quarterback Brennan Armstrong missed the game due to a rib injury but Notre Dame was missing guys as well including their All-American safety in Kyle Hamilton.

You have to give credit to both coordinators for Notre Dame in Tommy Rees and Marcus Freeman. Rees offensive game plan was on point with balancing the running and passing game, and Freeman’s defensive schemes were outstanding as well. The Irish defense recorded eight sacks and were causing havoc all night long with pressure which lead to multiple turnovers for Virginia.

Notre Dame has won 23 straight games in a row over ACC opponents, 40 straight games against unranked teams, and nine straight road games overall. Winning is not easy at home or on the road so all are very impressive stats.

Here are three players who earned a game ball for Notre Dame in their blowout win over Virginia.