There are any number of things you could say about today’s 45-21 Notre Dame victory over Syracuse that officially moves ND within 1 win of the College Football Playoff, but let me start with this:

It’s pretty nice that the Irish can play, frankly, a poor game and still win by 24, isn’t it?

That being said, let’s go over some key information from this one:

What a difference a QB makes

It would be hard to find a lot of positives in ND’s performance today, writ large. The running game was relatively quiet until Chris Tyree exploded for a 94-yard touchdown run in the late stages of the game. The offensive line was (unsurprisingly, given they were starting a 3rd alignment in 3 games) less impressive than usual. The receiving corps had more than its share of drops and seemed to struggle getting open at times.

Because of all that and more, ND trailed 7-3 late in the 2nd quarter. Then, Ian Book happened.

That run – preceded by a key roughing-the-passer call against Syracuse that nullified a 3rd-down stop – sparked ND to 3 touchdowns in 3 minutes, with a hat-tip to the Irish defense for forcing a fumble in there too.

Book threw the final 2 TDs in that spurt, which put ND ahead 24-7 at halftime and effectively ended any real stress for the day.

Having an awesome QB is really important. In a first half in which Notre Dame was straight-up terrible for 25 minutes, Book exploded for 21 late points and took the heat off them. It wasn’t his most impressive day. But that stretch turned what was looking like an annoyingly tough game into a relative walkover in almost no time flat.

He ended up with 24/37, 285 yards, 5 TD (2 of them rushing), and a silly pick. He’s good.

That being said about the running game…

Remember when I said the running game wasn’t that good until Tyree’s big run? It was true. And yet, ND had two 100-yard rushers – Tyree’s long burst gave him 109, and Kyren Williams had 110. Book had 53 more.

Interestingly, and on topic, Tommy Kraemer, who Brian Kelly had said would play only in an emergency, entered the game in the 2nd quarter. I didn’t keep track to see how much more he played after that, but I suspect Kelly was just as annoyed as you all probably were watching what was unfolding in the 2nd quarter.

(Also on the topic of running games, Syracuse had two 100-yard rushers too, aided by long TD runs for each. That’s got to be some sort of record for combined 100-yard rushers in one college football game.)

Sleepwalking

Games like this remind me why I can’t stand playing against terrible teams, for the most part. Especially terrible Power 5 conference teams. ND didn’t go up two TDs almost immediately, and that fired the Orange up and annoyed us fans. And then it was a dogfight – until Book’s aforementioned explosion to put ND in command.

It was the perfect storm for a sleepwalk game – it was a functionally meaningless game, as ND is in the playoff with a Dec. 19 win regardless. (Have I mentioned being in a conference is silly? If there was no title game, winning this game would be a must.) It was a terrible opponent. It was coming off ND’s most impressive road performance of the season, a performance that resulted in the Irish receiving a ton of love nationally. Syracuse plus-34 was pretty much a mortal lock.

And yet, DC Clark Lea again adjusted and mostly shut down Syracuse after an early score and ND pushed most of the right buttons on offense in the 2nd half to pull away. They still got the job done at the end of the day.

By the way, as our Brendan R noted in the secret Slack, Clemson beat Syracuse 47-21 at home in a game that was also frustratingly close deep into the 2nd quarter. We needn’t feel too bad about this one.

Records

It’s been discussed so much over the last couple of weeks that it’s easy to forget how insane it is, but take a second and think about how Ian flipping Book, an afterthought QB recruited here by an OC who did little else notably positive in his time, a guy a not-insignificant portion of the fan base was displeased by his becoming the starter, a guy with one other Power 5 offer, is now the winningest QB in this school’s history. I know, more games now and all of that, but it’s a true testament to what gutting it out and working and fighting can do. Congratulations to Ian. A truly remarkable achievement.

Another record set today, and thanks to First Down Moses for this:

Have a good week, everyone.