Been way too long since we had one of these…

I guess it would’ve been too easy if Notre Dame came off their lengthy layoff and blew the doors off Florida State from the get-go. But the Irish got themselves together eventually and put the screws to the Seminoles to pick up a 42-26 win that was easier than the score showed but also more frustrating, if that makes sense.

Let’s address a few of the biggest observations from tonight’s win:

Offensive line absolutely mauled

Florida State’s best player is their defensive lineman, Marvin Wilson, but he (along with the rest of his unit) was invisible tonight thanks to a ridiculous job by the ND offensive line. They paved the way for 353 rushing yards and gave Ian Book plenty of time to throw all night long. This was all with Eichenberg (who is graded as ND’s best offensive lineman by Pro Football Focus) playing half the game with one eye after getting poked hard in his left one in the first half.

Two Irish backs went over 100 yards – Kyren Williams went for 185 (and was over 100 in the 1st quarter), and Chris Tyree added 103. The Irish averaged 8.4 yards per carry overall.

Ian Book’s best game

I would say ‘consider the opponent’ on this one, but South Florida is way worse even than Florida State, and we didn’t get to see this Ian Book then. Book was mostly decisive, made good reads, made good decisions, and even tossed it deep on a couple of 1-on-1 matchups. We saw almost no Kevin Austin, who was targeted one time as far as I can tell, but Javon McKinley provided a decent approximation of the limitless hype that was surrounding Austin’s season debut. He caught five passes for over 100 yards and looked like a guy that can be counted on when Book feeds him the ball. And we saw a few glimpses of the real Braden Lenzy for the first time this season as well; though he only had 34 total yards, he was targeted deep, nearly broke a big run and caught a touchdown pass.

But the relief was Book, who basically did nothing but dump crossing patterns the first two games, actually winging the ball around a little bit. 16/25, 201 yards and 2 TD without a turnover will play most weeks. ND needs a dangerous passing game to be more than just a 9-2 team that’s harmless in big games, and it was a good thing to finally se one.

FSU should thank ND that this was ever competitive

Not much is more frustrating than letting a clearly inferior squad hang around with stupid turnovers, especially one like Florida State, which was probably dying to roll over if things had started badly enough. Instead, the Irish fumbled the ball away on the second play of the game and then biffed a punt to hand the Seminoles a second short field. Throw in a long-bomb TD pass, and ND trailed 17-14 despite moving the ball at will.

That was enough of a spark for the Noles to be annoyingly spunky most of the rest of the way behind Jordan Travis, who clearly should’ve been starting all along. He is not a great thrower, but he’s good enough to be dangerous when combined with his running ability (96 yards). And Tamorrion Terry is legitimately terrifying.

It would’ve been merely cosmetic, but a bit frustrating that the Irish didn’t punch in that final TD. 49-26 would’ve looked better than 42-26.

Shrug off the defense?

I don’t really know what to do with the defensive performance tonight, which left a fair bit to be desired. In the end, ND only allowed 16 points that were really its fault, as 10 were the results of those aforementioned silly turnovers. But FSU looked somewhat alarmingly competent at times on offense. Hopefully we can just shrug it off as a side effect of the layoff and particularly the lack of contact in practice the past couple of weeks. And it’s not like the day was bereft of defensive highlights, as Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah continued to be a heat-seeking missile, Kyle Hamilton got in on a few plays himself, and Shaun Crawford made a couple of impressive plays in the secondary, including the pick that basically sealed the game. And while the D-line was shredded a few times on Travis runs, they also got in the backfield enough to wreak some havoc on a fairly consistent basis.

Worth noting that the only two members of the depth chart that missed the game due to COVID quarantines were both defensive front seven players – Myron Tagavailoa-Amosa and Jack Kiser. Perhaps that had an effect too.

We’ll see what next week holds; Louisville was a game that appeared scary before the season, but the Cardinals are 0-3 in the ACC and have twice nearly given up 50-burgers. It looks like that’s another game that ND should be able to win pretty easily as long as it shows up. Hey, at least we’re talking football games again.