It was a bitter-sweet victory for Notre Dame last week at Virginia.

The Irish rallied for a 34-27 win but in the process lost the spark-plug of the offense and a team leader.Quarterback Malika Zaire is lost for the season due to a broken right ankle. In the first week, star running back Tarean Folston went down after just his third carry. But the loss of Zaire is the most troubling for head coach Brian Kelly and his staff. The offense was built around Zaire. He beat out fifth-year senior Everett Golson in the spring, which led to Golson transferring for his final year of eligibility to Flordia State, where he won the starting QB job.Zaire's backup, redshirt freshman DeShone Kizer, at 6-4 and 230-pounds, came into the game and did a credible job. But the frosh did not have the time to think about the situation and played, I think, strictly on emotion. He threw the winning TD to Will Fuller with just :12 remaining.Kizer has just 13 passing attempts in his collegiate career. Now that Georgia Tech knows Kizer will be the starter you can bet their defensive coaches will put in place a plan to pressure the young and inexperienced QB. And, with only true freshman Brandon Wimbush as a backup, ND opponents know that Kizer is not going to take off and run the ball as much as Zaire did, in an effort to prevent another injury.The Irish also learned earlier this week that starting tight end Durham Smythe is lost for the season due to a combination of injuries - a shoulder and knee. He underwent surgery on those injuries on Tuesday. He will probably be replaced by sophomore Tyler Luatua, however, Kelly indicated at least three others could get into the mix.Kelly's problems are not only the loss of Zaire, but he has to be very concerned about the highly touted ND defense. It looked like anything but a top rated defense last week. With 10 starters back for the defensive unit the Irish were expected to dominate opponents. Virginia made the defense look a lot like the one that fell apart in the final four games of the 2014 season. ND is also believed to have the best secondary it has had since the Lou Holtz era. It didn't look that way as ND's pass defense efficiency rating is ranked 62nd this week.Among the failures of the defense was not only the pass defense of the secondary but the lack of putting pressure on the Virginia QB.More on the game later.Today the Irish host a very good Georgia Tech team, which comes into South Bend at 2-0 with victories over Alcorn and Tulane and ranked 15th. True, those two teams don't exactly fit the mode as major college programs but prior to the season beginning the Yellow Jackets were rated in the top 20 and many considered them a team that is a serious threat for any opponent.The Jackets are led by QB Justin Thomas. The Jackets are producing fewer passing yards per game so far this season, but are ranked No. 1 rushing and No. 2 scoring. And, when Thomas does throw, he usually completes. Because of the rush game, which is led by backs Trey Braien and Broderick Snoddy, the Jackets don't throw that often. The Jackets were 11-2 last year.The game will be televised nationally by NBC-TV with a 3:30 p.m. airtime, 3:40 p.m. kickoff. ND leads the series 27-6-1. The last time the two teams played was in 2007 with Georgia Tech winning, 33-3.IRISH NOTES: Kizer was 8 of 12 for 92 yards in the game and two touchdowns. The first TD toss was a fake field goal when he flipped the ball to Smythe for the score. Kizer is the holder for extra points and field goals. Kizer's second was the winning toss to Fuller. He also threw a two-point conversion to Tori Hunter Jr. Other game stats had Zaire completing 7 of 18 for 115 yards in his last 2015 game. C.J. Prosise took over as top running back and had 155 yards on 17 rushes while frosh Josh Adams had 10 yards on only three touches. The top receiver was Fuller with 5 catches for 124 yards and two scores; Chris Brown caught three for 41; and Prosise three for 20. Justin Yoon was 2-for-3 in field goals making 32 and 45-yarders but missing a 34-yarder. A bright spot was the punting of Tyler Newsome, who had 4 punts for 223 yards, an average of 55.8 per punt with his longest 62 yards. Defensively Jaylon Smith led the team with 11 tackles; Elijah Shumate had 10; and KeiVarae Russel 9 .... Prior to last week, Virginia's offense was as poor as one can get for a major program but the Irish defense made the Cavaliers look like a Top 10 offensive machine .... Prosise certainly did a good job filling in for Folston, but many wonder if he has the physical ability to last a full season as the top runner .... One of the first players to seek out Zaire after the game was linebacker Joe Schmidt, one of five captains this year, Schmidt knows what Zaire is going to go through as he was injured mid-season last year. After his loss the defense took a nose dive. Schmidt said he told Zaire, among other things, "We need him to be an emotional leader and we need him to coach up DeShone.".... The win improved Kelly's road record to 12-9 and snapped a 5-game losing streak in true road games. Kelly is 11-2 at neutal-site games .... ND moved up in the AP poll this week, despite the close win and the loss of Zaire .... Zaire, of course, is no longer a Heisman Trophy candidate but receiver Fuller got on that list this week, rated a 33-1 shot to win it .... Georgia Tech is one of seven FBS teams this season to have converted 100 percent of its red zone trips into TDs (12-for-12). The Jackets also are among the top teams with the fewest three and outs in the country .... Injuries are certainly a problem for the Irish this year. Smythe and Zaire join Folston, freshman nickel back Shaun Crawford (ACL), and senior nose guard Jarron Jones (MCL), all out for the season. Two of the five injuries occurred in practice - Crawford and Jones ..... In my preseason picks I had the Irish winning a close one today. But that has changed. With the loss of Zaire and the play of the defense, I see Georgia Tech handing the Irish their first loss. Despite being the visiting team, the Jackets are 2 1/2 point favorites.