There were moments and exchanges in the first half against Boston College that had Irish fans worried we’d have to buckle our seat belts for a tight game and possible upset. However, a flurry of plays and an excellent offensive performance that put the ball in the end zone allowed Notre Dame to pull away and keep their perfect record intact.
There was no let down, Ian Book made another statement, and Phil Jurkovec has to remain the quarterback at Boston College after failing to defeat his former program.
Let’s review the 45-31 win over the Eagles.
Stats Package
| STAT | IRISH | BC |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 45 | 31 |
| Plays | 74 | 65 |
| Total Yards | 561 | 357 |
| Yards Per Play | 7.6 | 5.5 |
| Conversions | 6/10 | 4/12 |
| Completions | 20 | 18 |
| Yards/Pass Attempt | 10.4 | 6.8 |
| Rushes | 47 | 25 |
| Rushing Success | 65.2% | 54.1% |
| 10+ Yds Rushing | 9 | 4 |
| Defense Stuff Rate | 15.3% | 17.5% |
Notre Dame started out well driving right down the field but couldn’t get the ball in the end zone as the game went a little sideways for the Irish for several more drives. However, the defense clamped down and the Notre Dame offense eventually put the ball in the end zone on a few drives to create breathing room in the second half.
Boston College was pesky but didn’t really challenge much over the final 2 quarters. In most ways, the score flatters the Eagles who were close to losing by a much wider margin.
Offense
QB:Â A+
RB:Â B+
TE:Â A
OL:Â A+
WR: B+
These are the same grades as last week, with the exception of the offensive line going from an A to A+ overall. The running backs had a really good game (they combined for 228 total yards) but the 2 lost fumbles pushed their grade down a little bit. It was heartening to see the offense run smoothly without a big day from Kyren Williams (74 total yards) who had one of the fumbles and didn’t see any action in the 2nd half in an effort to rest the workhorse.
The game ball went to C’Bo Flemister who dominated when he was on the field. He also appears to be okay following an injury scare that took him out of the game in the 4th quarter. Very quietly, Chris Tyree had a very good game and should gain some confidence after leading the offense with 10 successful rushes.
How about Ian Book?
He missed on the 3rd down throw to Mayer (I thought it was catchable if Mayer turned his head quicker) that was coming back from OPI anyway and over-shot a fade to Skowronek later in the game. Were there any other mistakes from Book in the entire game?
This has to be incredibly satisfying for Book to perform this way while facing his former much more hyped teammate. He was nearly flawless, finally picked up some touchdown passes, and was the biggest running threat in the game during the first half. Over the past 2 weeks Book is 42 of 66 (63.6%) for 593 yards, 4 touchdowns, 0 interceptions, and 24 carries for 152 yards and another touchdown.
I can’t stress enough about how quarterback play isn’t linear, good or bad, so I think it’s foolish to expect Book to look like this the rest of the year. However, he’s definitely in a great mental space right now, and maybe more importantly, has the passing game developing and the receivers finally looking threatening all over the field.
Rushing Success
Williams – 4 of 9 (44.4%)
Book – 7 of 9 (77.7%)
Tyree – 10 of 17 (58.8%)
Flemister – 8 of 10 (80%)
Davis – 1 of 1 (100%)
There weren’t any really long runs to witness in Chestnut Hill (Avery Davis’ jet sweep for 29 yards was the longest rush of the game) on Saturday but the offensive line absolutely dominated in one of their best performances on the season. Without much help from the team’s best offensive weapon, the OL helped pave the way for 278 yards on the ground with no sacks and just 1 tackle for loss allowed.
Notre Dame’s offense was almost never off schedule (zero punts) and that’s a huge credit to the offensive line giving Book time and carving out space for the running backs.
I thought this game had a ton of weird elements to it. Included was Ben Skowronek hauling in 2 fade touchdowns with vice grip hands (and scoring a 3rd touchdown as well) only to fumble the ball on a reception for not having vice grip hands. Insert the shrug emoji.
Defense
DL: C+
LB:Â B+
DB:Â B+
Again, this was a bit of a weird game. On the one hand, the defense largely kept Boston College in check and 2 of the Irish fumbles gifted the ball to the Eagles in Irish territory, one even in the red zone. They should’ve picked up an extra interception that came back on a weak facemask call (plus 2 bad drops from Hamilton and McCloud) and could’ve stretched the lead to as big as 45-16 approaching the 4th quarter. There were definitely some 50/50 plays that didn’t go Notre Dame’s way, plus besides an amazing pass break-up from JOK he finished with no tackles. Again, just a weird game throughout.
THIS was ruled a facemask!?!?
On the other hand, Boston College had 22 first downs and only punted twice. They really didn’t have too much difficulty moving the ball and I have to think the advanced stats aren’t going to like this one in aggregate.
The Eagles moved the ball into Notre Dame’s red zone 7 times. The staff seemed pretty liberal throwing some backups in the game–especially in the second half–but this was not a great effort from the defense. After the game, Kelly mentioned that the defense was tired and didn’t play their best. I agree.
In the beginning, it seemed like Notre Dame would be all over Jurkovec but the pass rush appeared to lose steam quickly and at times lost contain on the Eagles quarterback who ran for 42 yards on 6 carries. Safety Shaun Crawford had a nice flying sack early in the game but that would be the only sack for the Irish in the game.
Stuffs vs. BC
Hinish – 2
White – 1.5
Crawford – 1.5
Ogudeji – 1
Hayes – 1
Kiser – 1
Cross – 1
Mills – 0.5
Bauer – 0.5
The stuff rate and success rate allowed on the ground was pretty bad. It didn’t really matter because the offense played so well but those are the numbers we study after the win.
All things considered, this was about what I expected from Phil Jurkovec. You see parts to his game that people just love like his 15.1 yards per completion and flashing both athleticism and the ability to escape and improvise. You can take about a half dozen plays from this game and picture he’s going to be a very good quarterback.
But, the consistency is just not there. His allies would argue that his supporting cast isn’t great but A) He has very good receiving weapons B) The run game was more than helpful against Notre Dame and C) Jurkovec was provided pretty decent protection in the passing game. I personally think they are putting a little too much on his plate, however, his accuracy is still a major issue and his long, looping delivery still makes it seem like he mechanically just may never develop into a hyper-efficient quarterback.
After the game, we learned that Jurkovec separated his shoulder against Clemson. Still, this was largely the quarterback we saw at Notre Dame. You’ll get some chunk plays but lack of accuracy is going to make your offense struggle to be efficient.
Final Thoughts
I am still shocked that Boston College ran a simple running back dive on 4th & 1 after a timeout from the Notre Dame 9-yard line. This was on their first drive of the second half while trailing 31-16. I get wanting to go for it but how you don’t at least put the ball in Jurkovec’s hands with the option to run or pass seems crazy to me.
BC has to feel like if they don’t have that bad snap and lose a fumble back into their own territory that this could’ve been a much different game. They were driving down by 8 points at the time and the Irish quickly scored a touchdown right before halftime to take a 15-point lead that would ultimately put Boston College on their back foot trying to catch up for the rest of the game.
This play:
…at the time of this writing credited this tackle to Tariq Bracy instead of Howard Cross in Notre Dame’s stat book. We’ve corrected it to the big defensive tackle instead of the tiny corner. Hamilton’s robbed interception was the very next play.
Notre Dame only faced 8 conversion attempts on 3rd down which feels like some sort of record in recent times, at least against a Power 5 team.
Kurt Hinish is becoming one of the top players from the 2016 or 2017 recruiting classes that the staff really, really needs to convince to come back and play again in 2021.
Lawrence Keys finally made his return to the lineup with a pair of catches for 26 yards but really should’ve come down with a beautifully thrown sideline corner route from Book later in the contest.
I find it amusing that with all the missed calls in every single football game that Notre Dame has been able to follow the rule book completely on a pair of onside kicks from opponents that the Irish didn’t recover. Another fun timeline is if Isaiah Pryor actually catches the bouncing ball and runs in for a touchdown.
The schedule isn’t completely set yet for dates but Notre Dame will next face Boston College in 2022 either in late September, early October, or on Senior Day in November 2 years from now. That’s a long time until we fire up the Phil Jurkovec storyline again.
I know Notre Dame’s rush defense is elite but Boston College threw the ball on 1st down on 20 of 31 attempts. That just seems like way too much to put on Jurkovec as I mentioned above. For the record, Jurkovec was 7 of 18 on those attempts for 116 yards with a sack, interception, and rush for -1 yard. Five of those completions went for at least 15 yards (including the team-high 40 yarder to Jaelen Gill) but 13 plays for 0 yards, negative yards, or a turnover on 1st down when you didn’t hand it off seems pretty bad. Then again, BC wasn’t showing any signs of stopping Notre Dame’s offense so they were in a bind.
Notre Dame has now possessed the ball in their opponents red zone on their final offensive drive and not scored in 5 games this year: BC, Georgia Tech, Pitt, Louisville, and Florida State. Just killing those RZ and scoring stats!
Given the above, this 2020 team is quietly averaging 37.6 points per game which tops their school record set last year. Are we absolutely sure we won’t be looking back at this Ian Book Years as the unquestioned great offensive era of modern times even if people don’t think Book himself is as talented as the likes of Clausen/Quinn/Kizer?
Last year also set the Kelly-era record for yards per play differential at +1.63. The offense got a nice boost against Boston College but the defense back-tracked a little bit. Right now heading into the bye week, the 2020 team is sitting at +1.51 YPP differential. If Book keeps playing like this the offense is going to be the driver to push the mark past the 2019 team record.
I know we sometimes get frustrated with Book bailing on plays and scrambling too early, but man, is that an effective way to pick up cheap first downs. I can’t imagine how frustrating it must be for opposing defenses to think they’ve got ND stopped on 3rd and 10, and then Book zooms up the middle for a gain of 12.
Also, I have nothing against Jurkovec personally, but I do not want to hear about him ever again.
And now we can ignore Boston college’s existence until we unfortunately have to play them again. I am very happy Big Ben balled out and am glad they get a BYE after 2 long weeks
Ian played essentially flawless football today. Favorite plays:
1) Second TD to Skowronek. Ian’s movement was masterful.
2) Deep cross route to Davis on 3rd and 10 early in the 2nd Q. Hung in the pocket a longgg time and waited for Avery to clear the LB’s.
3) Sideline pass to Skowronek that he fumbled on. Just dropped it in the bucket.
4) Ian’s TD run. So decisive, subtle pass fake held off the LB and allowed him to walk in. Just completely in control.
Book has played awesome the last two weeks. I’m just really happy for him and like you said I’m sure it felt great to play like that against Phil.
I think it worked out best for both parties (I cannot imagine having Phil as the backup after the Louisville game and how loud it would have gotten) but Ian was always the better player and I personally have no appetite for watching Phil play qb for 2 years. It would have been so frustrating, he’s so inconsistent. It reminds me a lot of the wimbush days. Also if I never hear another thing about Phil being wronged and all these grudges it’ll be too soon. It’s like Jordan but from a guy with a sub 50% completion percentage.
Also thought I’d share this great tweet from ryen Russillo in the first quarter
https://twitter.com/ryenarussillo/status/1327723615832346625?s=21
Classic Russillo.
Book currently sitting at #14 in QBR, which is not anywhere near where I would have guessed he would end up before the Clemson game began. Hopefully he’s this locked in for a couple more months. In any case, a very impressive turnaround, kind of like last year I suppose.
Good point on Hinish being one of the more important (plausible) Kelly offseason recruiting jobs for 2021. I think he’s probably third after (1) [unnamed grad transfer QB]; (2) Aaron Banks; (3) Hinish; (4) Hainsey. I’m guessing folks like Ogundeji or Crawford or (of course) Book are unrealistic.
Yea i wonder who will stick around and who will leave. It’s such an odd situation where literally everyone could come back if they wanted (not sure what the limits will be on scholarships yet).
Also, an underrated aspect of playing an elite team in the ACC championship game and then potentially in the playoffs this year: it’ll essentially be in the flow of the season rather than like 4-5 weeks later. Even the playoffs would only be with like an additional week off in between. So with Book on fire, it’s far more likely that he will keep that up to play the elite teams again rather than having a huge break in between.
I’ve always wondered how teams would fare differently if the bowl games, now playoffs, were more like the NFL playoffs happening right after the season rather than a month or more later.
I believe the two scholarship number rules they’ve worked out so far is (1) this year doesn’t count against eligibility for anyone and (2) next year, anybody for whom this year would have been their final year of eligibility will not count against the scholarship limits. Meaning: next year there will probably be some teams over 85 scholarships. The interesting thing will be whether they allow that to play out for years beyond that or not; if not, there might be some top schools with surprise scholarship crunches in 2022 (and, thus, a very healthy grad transfer market).
Sounds like a time for a scholarship post with the bye week coming.
That sounds good! Here’s another idea — biggest positive surprises and biggest letdowns (so far). For the former, Avery Davis, McKinley, and last 2 weeks Book for sure; for the latter, Houston Griffith, Pryor, Buck, and others.
Regarding whether Book is as talented as Clausen, Quinn, and Kizer, I’d say he lags them only in the arm strength category. He is by far the fastest and shiftiest, a better decision maker, and tougher mentally. You don’t get to be our winningest QB in history (assuming 3 more wins, which should happen barring a stupendous upset) with likely two undefeated regular seasons, unless you have tons of talent and winning spirit and leadership. Going into the ACC title game he should be at 31-3 as a starting QB.
So Clausen threw pretty passes, but was virtually immobile, which killed him. He also left too early, as did Kizer, who had a modestly nice run. Of these three I’d take Quinn easily. But he couldn’t win the way Book wills the team to.
Book doesn’t look like the elite archetypes do at QB, but his record dwarfs some on the surface more physically talented guys. And look who he beat out in Wimbush and PJ—two archetype top recruited QB’s.
I’d say one of Kelly’s best and boldest decisions was to bench Wimbush in favor of Book, and ignore the fan base calling for the proverbial phenom on the bench in PJ.
That’s fair and I largely agree.
On that same topic/idea, the article mentioned “the unquestioned great offensive era of modern times” which I found to be an intriguing and good way to put it.
So expanding beyond Book (especially in the vein he isn’t as purely talented as Quinn/Clausen), I think it will boil to the big guys. We know ND always has great o-line play, but more for the “era” we’ve seen Nelson, McGlinchey in 2017 plus this 2020 line as this possible (probable?) Joe Moore group where the sum of the parts and total all-around mega amount of experience makes this line really impressive. I think we’ll look back on maybe 2 Joe Moore’s in 4 years as really setting the standard and setting the tone of this era.
Especially for games like this, where ND runs for 274 total yards in a game they basically rested their starting RB for most the second half — and hardly anyone blinked an eye about the performance. It’s not as glitzy as a pass based vertical offense, but it’s effective.
It’s looking more and more like the Citrus Bowl against LSU was a watershed moment for this program. Not only did it save the first season of Kelly 2.0, but it revealed that Book could move the ball against, and beat, top-flight defenses.
On rewatching some of the game I saw another thing I love about this team right now that I think has really been missing since forever. When BC lost the ball by Hays falling on the bad snap before PJ, Hinish walks by as Phil’s getting up and clearly says “something” that makes Phil start at him for a second before being held back a bit by one of his OL.
The mean streak they have is so fun to watch.
Watching Skowronek taunt the DB, after the DB unnecessarily flailed at him after the play was clearly over, was hilarious and enjoyable. Very happy to see the grad transfer from Northwestern get our first taunting penalty of the year.
As we all predicted, the best WR and designated team badass is the grad transfer from Northwestern.
The 2 TD passes Jurkovic threw to Flowers were way behind Flowers and terrible passes. Great catches by Flowers though.
Center, Jarrett Patterson is out for the season with a broken foot. That really stinks as he was playing very well this year. At least we have a bye week to get his backup ready. I wonder if it will be Lugg or Correll?
Correll, I think.
My galaxy brain take is move Hainsey to center (doesn’t he project there anyways in the NFL?) and put Lugg in at RT. The the idea being Hainsey keeps them strong enough to keep running to the left.
Well this really sucks — the line was playing so well this year. At least, on the bright side, there are two weeks to work on communication with the new lineup