At one point during Saturday’s 44-0 obliteration of Boston College, the NBC broadcast crew mentioned that Marcus Freeman grew almost angry when discussing ND’s tendency to play down to its worst opponents.

It seemed pretty clear with this performance, combined with the first half of Navy before everything went to hell, that the Irish are moving towards eradicating that narrative.

The final 2.5 quarters were effectively an extended scrimmage as Boston College made a collective business decision and the Irish were able to basically do whatever they wanted, weather permitting.

Notre Dame is now 8-3 on the season and continues to have at least a chance to extend its 10-win season streak to six with next week’s big showdown at USC looming.

Also, snow is fun.

Benjamin Morrison is that dude

The Irish’s freshman CB became the first ND player in a dozen years to pick off three passes in a game, flying all over the field. He now has five, ranking second in the country and the most any ND player has had in a season since Manti Te’o grabbed seven in 2012. And he got them in three different ways – the first one by jumping a route, the second one by catching a jump ball and the third…I don’t even know how he saw this one, but just great instincts.

It wasn’t just Morrison starring in the ND secondary, as Xavier Watts had a monster takedown of BC quarterback Emmett Morehead on a third down. But Morrison continues to flash the traits of a player who will be foundational to what the Irish do on defense over the next two seasons.

The running backs ate

Backs Logan Diggs and Audric Estime continued to chew up ground. Diggs got things going with a 51-yard rush on the first play from scrimmage and rang up triple digits in the first half before passing the baton to Audric Estime, who went for 71 mostly second-half yards. Chris Tyree got in on the fun as well, rushing for a touchdown on a play where BC signaled they had no interest in playing football anymore today.

In all, Notre Dame gained over seven yards per carry and flat-out dominated up front, as they have most of the last five games. Credit again to the offensive line, whose performance next week will likely be among the biggest keys to the chances of a win over USC.

Record holders

Fitting and fun to send out a couple of ND’s best with milestone and record performances. Isaiah Foskey became the Irish’s all-time career sack leader with an easy corralling of Morehead to end the first half, and Michael Mayer got fed a couple of shovel passes early in the fourth quarter to go over 2,000 career receiving yards.

Both could technically come back next season, but we all know the score. Both ended their Notre Dame Stadium careers on high notes.

A Freeman quote for no reason in particular

A step forward for Notre Dame

In the grand scheme of things, today’s win doesn’t really mean much. But for a first-year head coach, every game is something of a referendum. For the Irish to come out for a game in which they were heavily favored and was set to play in bad weather, and immediately shove BC’s face into the dirt enough that it became clear only one team wanted to be on the field, was a good thing. It’s the first time this year that ND has been the clear better team coming in and played like it essentially from the first snap. It’s something ND took much longer than a year to do with any consistency under the previous staff and it’s nice to see here.

Next up – Beat SC.