Notre Dame vs. Virginia: Score, Highlights, Twitter Reaction for Near-Upset

The Notre Dame Fighting Irish's football season was nearly turned upside down Saturday, but they overcame a two-point halftime deficit to top Virginia in a gritty 34-27 victory.

Cavaliers quarterback Matt Johns orchestrated a 13-play, 80-yard drive that was capped by Albert Reid's one-yard touchdown run with one minute and 54 seconds left in the game. That put Virginia up 27-26 and appeared to secure an upset in Charlottesville.

But Johns' counterpart, DeShone Kizer, stole the show. Filling in for an injured Malik Zaire, Kizer took a while to get acclimated to the high-stakes situation, but he saved his best for last in tossing a remarkable 39-yard TD pass to Will Fuller with 12 seconds on the clock.

Elite 11 had the footage of Kizer's magnificent throw:

ESPN Stats & Info highlighted how tremendous Fuller was as he also had a 59-yard trip to paydirt off a Zaire bomb at the 7:04 mark of the third quarter:     

CBS Sports CFB captured a perfect fan reaction to the Kizer-to-Fuller connection:

"We made a play when we needed to late. ... We made one more play at the end," said Notre Dame head coach Brian Kelly to ABC afterward (h/t Bleacher Report's Mike Monaco), adding, "If Malik can't go, DeShone's gonna be the guy we're gonna rally around."

Zaire was in the process of leading a second-half surge for Notre Dame, which trailed 14-12 at the half. Unfortunately, he went down with a severe ankle injury toward the end of the third quarter. Pat Forde of Yahoo Sports weighed in on the situation as Zaire was carted off:

Although C.J. Prosise took a handoff and scored a 24-yard TD the play after Zaire went down to put Notre Dame up 26-14 with 54 seconds left in the third, the quarterback's absence deflated the Irish offense initially.

Zaire's replacement, Kizer, was hardly utilized prior to the final drive. The Irish had no choice but to hope he would turn it on—and he did. Kizer extended plays with his feet and made the timely TD pass to save Notre Dame's year for now.

ESPN's Trent Dilfer had kind things to say regarding how composed Kizer remained under the extraordinary circumstances:

Kizer actually had a TD pass on a trick special teams play from the holder position to make the game 7-0 and give the Irish early momentum, but the Cavaliers had a trick up their own sleeve, per Sportscenter:

Prosise did well taking over feature back duties to make Kizer comfortable in spelling Zaire, gashing Virginia for 155 yards rushing on 17 carries.

After a season-opening 38-3 romp over the Texas Longhorns to move up to No. 9 in the Associated Press poll, Notre Dame saved itself from being bounced from the College Football Playoff picture. If Zaire is unable to return reasonably soon, the Irish will have to count on Kizer to build on his late-game heroics at Scott Stadium.

To Virginia's credit, it bounced back from a loss to another tough opponent in UCLA to start its 2015 campaign and could have easily won this contest. Johns held up well under intense pressure down the stretch and looks to be coming into his own in his second year under center for the Cavaliers.

A tough home matchup against Georgia Tech looms next for Notre Dame. The Irish had enough trouble against an unranked opponent Saturday and will face the unenviable challenge of stopping the Yellow Jackets' prolific rushing attack while dealing with an uncertain situation under center.