The Irish took a business trip to Virginia this weekend, with one thing in their mind. Protecting their 0.

The #6 Irish went into one of the most hostile atmospheres in the country Saturday night, when they visited #24 Virginia Tech in primetime.

So many questions were swirling all week..

Is this 5-0 Irish team for real?

How will Ian Book handle the noise?

Will Brian Kelly win on the road against a ranked opponent?

How will Dexter Williams play in his second game back?

I think it’s safe to say the Irish came up Aces… Actually clovers, on all of them.

Irish Insider Ryan Lachner and I both agreed that taking the Hokie crowd out of the game early would be key. Their enter sandman entrance is one of the intimidating in the country.

So what does the ND team do? March right down the field and score a touchdown. Less than six minutes into the game Dexter Williams punched it in with a one yard TD run to give the Irish a 7-0 lead.

The tough Irish Defense then stood tall and forced a VT 3 and out to give the ball back to Book and the offense. The Irish cashed in again when All-Time ND scorer Justin Yoon hit a 31 yard field goal to push the lead to 10-0.

And on that PAT, our very own @jkicker19 became the all-time leading scorer in Notre Dame history. #GoIrish☘️ #NDvsVT pic.twitter.com/Cyi73mvQDT — Notre Dame Football (@NDFootball) October 7, 2018

Right before the end of the first the Hokies answered with a 39 yard field goal of their own to close the Irish lead to 7. The Irish offense hit the skids in the second quarter and the Hokies capitalized with two more field goals and cut the lead to one, 10-9.

With 1:08 left before halftime the Irish Defense came up big again, like they have all season. Julian Love returns a fumble recovery 42 yards for a touchdown to stretch the lead to 17-9.

We’ve talked about attacking adversity since January. Julian Love came out tonight with a mindset of total domination, which earns him the game ball. #GraduatingChampions pic.twitter.com/2GTJpRTGHi — Brian Kelly (@CoachBrianKelly) October 7, 2018

But…

The Hokies answered with their first touchdown of the game. With 12 seconds left in the half Ryan Willis threw a 3 yard touchdown pass to Damon Hazelton to send his team to the locker room only down one, 17-16.

“I would have liked to have seen the Irish put the nail in the coffin in the 2nd quarter.” -Irish Insider Ryan Lachner.

After the Irish stopped the Hokies on the first drive of the second half, the ND offense had their backs to the wall, with the ball on their 3 yard line.

Enter… Juice.

Running back Dexter Williams had his most explosive play of of the season yet. (Even though there have been many in two games.) With a 97 yard touchdown run. He showed vision, he showed speed, he showed swag and gave the Irish a 24-16 lead.

https://twitter.com/barstoolirish/status/1048763165985714176?s=21

The ND defense kept doing their thing and gave the ball back to the offense and enter…

The Book and Boykin Show.

The duo connected on two consecutive touchdowns. The first a 40 yarder and the second a 5 yarder. The back to back touchdowns pushed the Irish lead to 38-16 with 9:08 left in the game, basically that nail in the coffin.

The insane run continues for @MBoykin814. A beautiful play fake from @ian_book23 leads to six more points from the big 6' 4" receiver. ND 38 – VT 16 [9:08 4Q]#GoIrish☘️ #NDvsVT pic.twitter.com/frU7VpLL5n — Notre Dame Football (@NDFootball) October 7, 2018

Tech answered with another touchdown when Ryan Willis threw his second TD of the game.

But the Irish would answer again…

JUICE… With his third rushing touchdown of the game. This one a 31 yarder to ice it. The TD would be the final score of the game, and give the Irish a 45-23 road win!

6-0. ☘️

Ian Book didn’t have his best game of the season. He missed a couple of wide open receivers for long touchdowns, and did throw his first interception. But, I feel like he still passed this tough test with flying colors.

Book was 25-35 for 271 yards, 2 touchdowns and 1 interception. His leading receiver again was Miles Boykin. Boykin caught 8 passes for 117 yards and 2 touchdowns. Alize Mack added 6, Chase Claypool has 4 and Chris Fink caught 3.

The Irish ground game was all Dexter Williams. The juice ran 17 times for 178 yards and 3 touchdowns. He averaged 10.5 yards a carry. He was tough and explosive all game, especially on his 97 yard TD run.

The Irish are now 6-0 and will be moving up from #6 with #5 LSU falling to Florida. Experts were worried about the Irish handling the atmosphere but it showed not to phase them in the least bit. This team is too mentally tough and talented.

🛣 games, no problem. No. 6 @NDFootball took care of No. 24 Virginia Tech and we've got all the best moments from the win.#GoIrish pic.twitter.com/z2ejLHyoA7 — The Fighting Irish (@FightingIrish) October 7, 2018

Brian Kelly’s team heads back home for a matchup with Pitt this Saturday. The Irish will be a big favorite, but they need to continue to play with the same smarts and confidence to take down the Panthers and keep the Playoff dream alive.

GO IRISH!

-Kevin “That Irish Guy”

Feature Image – BIG_TK78

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