For the second week in a row, the Notre Dame defense held its opponent without a touchdown as the Irish defeated Virginia, 28-3, last Saturday night.

Virginia, which entered the game with the No. 1 rated offense in the nation was limited to a second half field goal. The victory moves the Irish to 9-1 on the season with today’s final home game against Georgia Tech and next week road trip to Stanford left on the regular season schedule.

With the victory, the Irish moved up one spot to No. 8 in the College Football Playoff poll.

No doubt the absence of Virginia’s starting quarterback Brennan Armstrong - who was held out due to a rib injury - helped the Irish “D.” His replacement, freshman Jay Woolfolk struggled in the game. He was sacked seven times and the Cavaliers were held to just 278 yards in total offense, well below their average.

While Armstrong’s absence obviously hurt Virginia, Notre Dame was able to overcome illness and injuries to several significant members of its defense. All-American safety Kyle Hamilton was sidelined for the third week in a row with a knee injury. ND also had 13 players who were in and out of practice the week prior to the game because of the regular flu, not COVID. That included game time scratches middle linebacker Drew White, ND’s third-leading tackler, and defensive end Myron Tagovailoa-Amosa, the team leader in QB hurries.

Offensively, quarterback Jack Coan had another steady game completing 15 of 20 attempts for 132 yards and three touchdowns. Tyler Buchner completed three of four for 42 yards.

Tight end Michael Mayer got back in the mix big time with seven catches for 84 yards and a score. He is on target to break the single-season school record for catches by a tight end, moving up to third place with a total of 52. He trails only former All-Americans Tyler Eifert, 63 in 2013, and Ken MacAffe, 54 in 1977.

The Irish running game had its second-best rushing day for the season - 249 yards and a 6.6 yards-per-carry average. It did come against a Virginia team ranked 122nd in both rushing and total defense. Kyren Williams, who continues to impress with his runs, had 70 yards on 14 carries and a score. He is now just 72 yards away from 2,000 rushing yards in his career.

The Irish face a 3-7 Georgia Tech team today in the home finale. The Yellow Jackets have wins over Kernesaw State, 45-17; UNC, 45-22; and Duke, 31-27. The losses have been to Northern Illinois, 22-21; Clemson, 14-8; Pittsburgh, 52-21; Virginia, 26-17; Miami, 33-30; and Boston College, 41-30.

The interesting scores are the Clemson, UNC, Virginia and Miami games. That says to me the Jackets are much better than their 3-7 record indicates.

Georgia Tech is the nation’s No. 65-ranked team in total offense - out of 130, but the Yellow Jackets may be without starting quarterback Jeff Sims because of a health status. Backup Jordan Yates may very well get his fourth start of the season if Sims can’t go.

ND leads the overall series, 29-6-1. The teams played last year with the Irish winning, 31-13.

The game will be televised nationally by NBC-TV with a 2:40 p.m. kickoff.

IRISH NOTES ... Other stats from the Virginia game. Kevin Austin caught three passes for 38 yards, Braden Lenzy had 23 yards on three catches, and Williams had 15 yards on two catches. Backing up Williams as running back was Logan Diggs with 64 yards on nine carries and Chris Tyree with 32 yards on six carries. Defensively, Bo Bauer had nine tackles to lead the team followed by Cam Hart, Justin Ademilola and Xavier Watts with five each. Sacks were recorded by Bauer, Ademilola, Rylie Mills, Clarence Lewis and Howard Cross III ... ND became just the fourth visiting team to win at Scott Stadium in the last 25 tries ... Right now, if ND wins the last two games and finishes at 11-1, they will more then likely be headed to the Peach Bowl on Dec. 30 in Atlanta against the champion of the ACC (right now that looks like Wake Forest). Upsets and some chaos over the final two weeks of the regular season and in the conference championship games would change that, however. The Irish are still alive for a College Football Playoff berth or if they don’t make the playoffs and Cincinnati does, a spot in the Fiesta Bowl is also a possibility ... Diggs is getting more carries per game, and deservedly so. The freshman is lined up to replace Williams when he graduates or leaves early for the NFL .... ND was down three starters defensively at Virginia, and still shut out the Cavs in the first half ... This is the eighth time the Irish have won at least nine games in a season under head coach Brian Kelly. They have won nine or more games in each of the last five seasons ... Thirteen different players have recorded a sack this season for the Irish. As a team, they rank 14th nationally with 3.20 sacks per game ... Notre Dame has won 14-consecutive games in November dating back to the 2017 season ... The Irish have totaled 19 takeaways this season, which has them tied for 14th nationally .... Kyren Williams has been named one of five finalist for the Paul Hornung Award. If he wins it he would be the first Notre Dame player to collect the award. The award, which bears the namesake of Notre Dame’s 1956 Heisman Trophy winner, was first bestowed in 2010 ... Today is Senior Day for the Irish with all senior players and their parents honored in pregame activities ... ND is favored by 15-plus points today. In my preseason picks I have the Irish winning today and that should be the case. ND should be up for the game since it is senior day and with a win next week who knows what lies ahead since some of the teams presently ahead of ND in the CFP rankings play each other in the weeks ahead.