So we’re gathered here to look back on Notre Dame’s Week 3 loss to Texas A&M.
While it’s definitely not the happiest of times in Irish football fan land, it doesn’t feel overwhelmingly doom and gloom to me. There was a lot of uncertainty going into this season.
And only speaking for myself, I think the wonkiness of how 2025-26 was calendared for the program got overlooked. Yep, we’re in Week 3 but the Irish only have two games under their belt, and both against what’s looking like to be the two toughest/most
energized opponents they’ll face all season. Making a ton of judgements off two data points isn’t the greatest but also college football isn’t governed by laws of logic or statistics.
No need to sugarcoat that being 0-2 going into Week 4 is bad but lets sift through some of the data for some potential silver linings.
The Passing Context
Similar to the Miami (FL) matchup in Week 1, a lot of the Week 3 Texas A&M came down to the passing attack for both teams.
- Completions: The Irish finished +3 against the Aggies in terms of completions. CJ Carr completed 20 of his pass attempts, compared with 17 for A&M’s Marcel Reed. It’s an improvement, Notre Dame was -1 in completions against Miami (FL).
- Attempts: Notre Dame was -5 in attempts against Texas A&M. Reed made 37 pass attempts while Carr finished the game with 32 attempts. And I don’t think this is necessarily a negative stat because a lot of A&M’s deep balls were thrown based on a hope and a prayer. Notre Dame was -1 in this category during Week 1.
- Accuracy: CJ Carr was significantly more accurate than Marcel Reed. The Irish finished the game +16.5 in terms of passing accuracy, with Carr completing 62.5% of his passes compared with 45.9% for Reed. It was a big comparative improvement from Week 1 when Notre Dame was +1.2% in passing accuracy.
- Yards: Ultimately, Notre Dame was -67 in passing yards. CJ Carr only tallied up 293 yards through the air, compared with 360 yards for A&M. It’s the worst comparative stat area, the Irish finished +16 in passing yards against Miami (FL). A lot of that has to do with the Irish still taking some time to call pass plays that stretch the field but I’m far from a quarterback guru. Whatever they’re trying to do annoys me a lot when it doesn’t work but it’s not a complete wash. Yet.
- Touchdowns: Notre Dame finished -1 in touchdown passes during Week 3. They tallied up one, compared with two for Texas A&M.
The Rushing Context
A very positive takeaway from this loss was that the Irish rushing game started getting back into gear.
- Attempts: Notre Dame finished the Texas A&M game +7 in rush attempts. They logged 39 attempts compared with 32 for the Aggies. The team was +10 in rush attempts during the Miami (FL) loss.
- Yards: The Irish were +8 in rushing yards during Week 3. They edged out A&M 136 to 128 on the ground. It’s a comparative step down, ND was +26 in overall rushing yards during Week 1.
- Efficiency: It wasn’t a particularly efficient rushing game for either team. Notre Dame averaged 3.5 yards per carry, compared with Texas A&M’s 4.0 yards per carry. In Week 1 the Irish averaged 3.3 yards per carry and Miami (FL) finished with 3.1 yards per carry.
- Touchdowns: Notre Dame matched both of their 2025-26 opponents so far in terms of rushing touchdowns. This week, that translated to 3-3 and it was 1-1 during Week 1.
The Overall Offensive Context
- Plays Called: This game really came down to several pivotal moments and plays. Notre Dame’s offense was able to get off 2 more plays in total, for an overall 71-69 split. But you could argue that it all came down to one botched special teams’ play, (the missed 4th quarter extra-point hold) and A&M’s final offensive TD pass to seal the victory.
- Yards: Notre Dame was -59 in total offensive yards. They tallied up 429 yards of total offense, compared with 480 yards for A&M. And much of the Aggies’ edge came from a passing yards advantage.
- Efficiency: The Irish were -1.1 in terms of offensive efficiency. ND finished Week 3 with an average of 6 yards per offensive play, compared with 7.1 yards for A&M.
The Penalty/Turnover Context
- Penalties: In the big scheme, Notre Dame had another good game in the penalty area. They finished Week 3 with five penalties, compared with 13 for Texas A&M. And the Aggies definitely paid a steeper cost for those flags. A&M was pushed back 86 yards and the stat was 31 yards for Notre Dame. But the timing and situations in which Notre Dame did catch penalties were pretty damaging. In particular the late defensive holding call in the red zone.
- Turnovers: The Irish turned things back in the right direction in terms of turnovers. Both teams had one turnover a-piece, with both being attributed to interceptions. It’s an improvement over the 2-0 turnover margin going against the Irish during Week 1 but there were a lot of CJ Carr passes that seemed destined to be picked off from the moment they left his hands. Great that it doesn’t show up on the final stat sheetr but stressful nonetheless.
The Rushers
We got to see the Irish’ s rushing stable return to the form we got accustomed to last season (minus the Riley Leonard factor). Jeremiyah Love had a solid game and finished with 23 attempts for 94 yards and one touchdown. Although his utilization wasn’t as high, Jadarian Price was the teams’ top producing back against the Aggies. Price finished Week 3 with 12 attempts for only 68 yards. But that translated to 5.7 yards per carry and two of the Irish’s three rushing touchdowns.
CJ Carr tried to get some things going on the ground but it never really turned into anything substantive.
The Receivers
One of the big takeaways to me continues to be the variety of receiving weapons on this year’s Irish squad.
We’re getting back to that Tight End University tag. Eli Raridon finished with four receptions, 85 receiving yards and an average of 8.3 yards per reception.
And Malachi Fields is turning out to be a real star at the wide receiver position. It’s very nice to have a Michael Floyd type threat back out there on the field. The transfer WR from Virginia finished Week 3 with five receptions for 77 yards.
Running back Jeremiyah Love again played an impactful receiving role. He tallied up four receptions for 53 yards and Notre Dame’s only passing touchdown against the Aggies.
And although they didn’t put up standout numbers, wide receivers Jaden Greathouse, Jordan Faison, Will Pauling and KK Smith all continue to be major factors when the game calls for it.
The Defenders
It’s looking like it’s going to be a really, really long season for Notre Dame’s secondary. Safeties and cornerbacks were called to do a lot of work and that translated to an outsized share of the tackling stats. Safeties Adon Shuler and Tae Johnson finished the game with seven and six solo tackles, respectively. And Johnson led the team with six combined tackles. The pressure up front looked better live but if opponents are going to continue targeting the secondary at this rate, things might not get better in the short-term.
And the defense again lacked in the area of impact plays.
Notre Dame’s defense finished the Texas A&M game with only two tackles for loss and a whopping zero sacks. Jaylen Sneed recorded one. Kyngstonn Viliamu-Asa and Junior Tuihalamaka logged 0.5 tackles for loss a-piece.
Leonard Moore was the team’s standout in the secondary and logged one interception along with two pass deflections. Tae Johnson and Gabriel Rubio each accounted for one pass deflection in the A&M loss.
Final Thoughts
There’s a whole lotta new out there.
It seems like the offense is coming together in a way that I’m actually pretty excited about.
The defense, particularly the secondary, is where things are looking very sketchy. Can it be fixed, potentially. If not I don’t think it’s the end of the world for the season but will keep games a lot more competitive through the stretches than we’d like them to be.
