“Let the past die…Kill it, if you have to.”
Today, Notre Dame followed Kylo Ren’s advice and put away the whole “lose to BC a week after beating #1” storyline with a fairly easy 45-31 win over the Eagles. The game had no real business being that close, but whatever.
The Irish moved to 8-0 and have next week off before they visit Chapel Hill on Black Friday as they continue their presumed march to an ACC Championship Game rematch against Clemson.
A few takeaways from a game that we all wish would’ve ended more like the 52-20 final score that it felt like:
Ian Book has activated the cheat code
I have no idea what got into Ian Book, who was already a pretty darn good quarterback. Somewhere between the Louisville game and the Clemson game, he morphed into an elite one. If not for last week, today would’ve been easily his finest performance. He just looked incredible.
The numbers were impressive enough: 20/27, 283 yards, 3 TD, plus 86 yards rushing and another TD. But Book was in complete control, firing dimes everywhere, always making the right decision, and generally driving a stake through the argument that BC quarterback Phil Jurkovec was somehow wronged by the ND coaching staff. (Seriously, all the best to Phil, but even floating the idea that he never got a ‘fair shot’ when he was backing up a guy who is now 28 and effing 3 as a starter is an interesting editorial call.)
The Ian Book ND had before could pretty much beat everyone but the elite. This Ian Book can lead the Irish to a win over anyone in the country. If this guy sticks around the rest of the year, buckle up.
Hold onto the ball!
The one complaint today – hold onto the ball, fellas. Chris Tyree, Kyren Williams and Ben Skowronek (the latter of whom, in all fairness, caught three TDs today) each put the ball on the turf and handed BC extra possessions in a game where the Eagles were hunting those possessions however they could get them. (By the way, the ‘you can’t block the kicking team less than 10 yards downfield on a kickoff’ rule, which has now bailed out the Irish on two surprise onside kicks this season, is my favorite rule in football.)
Those fumbles turned what was probably going to be a blowout into a game that was…still pretty much a blowout, but the 14-point final score could fool uneducated observers into thinking it was in doubt at some point. That’s sort of annoying (as is the fact that ND must lead the country in kneeling out the clock in the other team’s red zone).
In addition to just getting Williams some rest after an ultra-grueling night against Clemson last week, I imagine part of the reason Kelly was glad to pull Williams aside in the second half tonight was for a little bit of ‘hey kid, we love you, but quit putting it on the carpet’. Kyren is a spectacularly good running back, and that’s his one thing to clean up.
Two things that are fun: Defensive depth and a badass offensive line
ND has had these things before, but not at the same time. It’s pretty cool. The ND front line can pretty much grind any other team into dust over the course of the game (ask the black-and-blue Clemson Tigers), and they can do it because of their experience as well as a phalanx of really good running backs. The Irish were pretty much doing whatever they wanted throughout the last two and a half quarters on offense.
Also cool: Cycling in stud after stud on the defensive end. Jack Kiser, who we’ve barely heard from since his star turn against South Florida, picked off Jurkovec. Howard Cross, a name I had legitimately forgotten, sacked him. ND hasn’t had the luxury of rotating in reserves and watching them make plays on defense a lot recently, and it’s the sort of thing that can be the difference between a CFP participant and a CFP contender.
(It’s annoying that BC kept scoring late, including the final TD against the back end of the ND bench. But these are the things that top-5 teams worry about. Grand scheme of things? I guess it’s alright.)
Three more until Charlotte
This season has sort of felt like it’s lasted a while – maybe it’s all the different ‘Week Ones’ around the country – but it also is a little wild that we’re down to three more regular-season games. North Carolina, Syracuse and Wake Forest. Get the job done in those three – not necessarily super easy, as Carolina and Wake are both on the road and can both clearly score, as evidenced by their 59-53 shootout today – and Notre Dame can take playoff dreams into the ACC championship game, almost certainly against Clemson again.
Enjoy the bye week. ND is 8-0. It’s awesome.
Jesus H. Christ, BC is annoying. I get it, underdog strategy and all, but if they insist on being obnoxious try-hards, they might want to learn how to put an onside kick in play.
Also, surely there must be a statute of limitations on 1993 references. I graduated 11 years ago and I can barely even remember the year 1993.
For all we (or at least I) worried about Jurkovec wanting to prove something to ND, I wonder if Book wanted to prove something to the people who argued that ND would have a higher ceiling with Jurkovec?
Kelly’s teams have always been better when they focus on minimizing turnovers. That is very much Ian Book. It is very much not Jurkovec.
It’s just wild since Book is 2 years older and so much more experienced. His floor his higher than Jurkovec’s ceiling, in terms of operating the Notre Dame offense. (Or any offense for that matter). Book is on a way different level.
I think that’s just tough to see or admit for some perspectives in the sense that the backup QB with the big arm is appealing since you haven’t seen his flaws and shortcomings.
RIP the fantasy world lived in by many a message boarder that Jurkovec was a better QB than Book. Not realizing that’s the whole reason Phil left was to be able to find a place where he actually was the best QB on a team.
I think we’re also dangerously close to burying the QB regression year-to-year under Kelly too. Book has flipped a switch. He’s playing with moxie and swagger. I don’t think that’s going away, only growing.
Nice game. It does feel like this ND team is just meaner than previous years. The personal fouls are whatever, but just the general attitude is like they’re done taking shit and now they’re the ones to assert themselves. I love it.
The second best QB recruited by Notre Dame on the field tonight was Avery Davis.
Ouch 🙂
You can see why Kelly would not consider playing Phil. He was lucky to not have three interceptions and his successes seemed flukey. He’s got an arm and he’s tough and sneaky elusive, but he just floats it up there alot. The BC receivers did some work for him. Kelly 2.0 is over wildcard QBs.
Also, I’m just relieved this was a win. It annoys me that two of BC’s top five wins are against ND. I’m glad to never hear about today’s game again. Also, I’m a BU grad. Nothing in Chestnut Hill ever impressed me. Never go there.
And, oh man do things in Ann Arbor and State College look ugly. So glad to be past that
It should have been 4 INts, Kiser’s and 2 for Hamilton and one for McCloud. Jurkovec has had a whole lot of luck in the INT dept this year. It could/should be about 15 not 5.
I felt like the refs REFUSED to let any game rhythm take place, the amount of whistles, flags, chatting, just general time wasting was super frustrating to endure. Am I being that-guy, or did anyone else feel similarly?
Also, with the level of personal fouls on NDs part, and with the seasons track record to the opposite, i have a hypothesis that BC was doing a lot of in-play antagonizing a la the skunk bears untying JK Dobbins shoes last year. Like, they definitely played like they had nothing to lose, and I think there was a concerted effort to take that to the mental game as well.
Regardless, amazing to score 45 and shred them, this team feels like an homage to the meat grinders of yesteryear, the ’88-’93 road graters.
I literally don’t even remember the last taunting penalty ND incurred prior to today, and it seemed, to be charitable, odd that we suddenly picked up 3 in one game.
And since ESPN basically stopped caring about the action on the field in the 3rd quarter, we never got a replay of either of the last 2.
This has been an annoying facet of abc/espn coverage all year. They do a terrible job with replays.
Book has really been amazing this year. Very happy for him.
I agree AR. I wonder if things being said on the field had the refs attention and they were trying to control things ???
The taunting flags were odd, but I have no problem with us telling BC to go shit in a hat.
Is it all Book, or are our wideouts starting to get separation now?
I feel like it’s almost more that Book/Rees are more confident the WR can make plays and so they are giving them more chances.
I also think Book’s pocket composure is really lifted with the blitz pickups Willams has been doing so well. He seems to stand in there with a lot more confidence now.
it’s fun when he scrambles too. It puts enormous pressure on the defense trying to guess whether he passes or runs. His rushing TD yesterday the db’s were very late reacting to him and the receivers really picked up the only guys who had a shot at him.
Well technically a phalanx of running backs would be a compact unit shoulder to shoulder and between 5 and 10 ranks deep which would be extremely powerful head on but basically unable to maneuver.
I’ll stop now before I get banned.
Username checks out
No fullbacks. Not powerful enough. Fire Kelly!
I demand the manly and traditional offense of Jurkovec hucking up jump balls and barely even trying to run the football.