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.
IAN BOOK TO THE HOUSE 🔥
[NBC Sports | @SUBWAY] pic.twitter.com/p5umRQikD9
— Notre Dame on NBC (@NDonNBC) December 5, 2020
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:
Just a friendly reminder that @NDFootball will forever be the only team in ACC history to be undefeated in regular season conference play.
— First Down Moses (@1stDownMoses) December 5, 2020
Have a good week, everyone.
I am really, really going to miss Ian scampering to turn broken plays into first downs. It’s just such an invaluable skill. Opposing fanbases must rip their hair out watching that happen over and over.
Clemson’s success the past several years makes a lot more sense now. Credit to them for beating Bama, but man, the ACC is bad. There are just so many teams that are complete trainwrecks.
As someone whose Senior Day was a dreadful loss to an awful Syracuse team, this was pretty great to watch. ND has come a hell of a long way in the last decade.
Huge progress this year for McKinley. That TD on the left side was pure beast mode.
Great year for the whole team really. It honestly feels like a privilege to have watched this 10-0 unfold.
ND football has been a shining bright light in a year most of us would rather forget.
I’m getting verklempt!
A good win. I also loathe ND struggling for large portions of games against awful teams. I guess I shouldn’t listen to all the podcasts and read all the articles each week.This week was all about how awful Syracuse has been. The stats do support that, but they just looked to have fight last week against NCST, too much for today to not be a test. The big talk about putting up 50 points against teams like Syracuse who won’t even get to 7 always make me uneasy. I guess I am still not use to ND winning like this. Gad it turned out today. Happy for Javon!! He’s earned those TD’s devloping this year.
Also, funny enough my feeling has always been that ND benefits in past years when playing conference based teams who may have lost a game or two already so they aren’t still in the playoff/championship hunt but can still win their conference. They seem to almost not really care about a non-conference game against ND, and their effort is poor. I feel like USC does it alot (2015, 2017, 2019) against Notre Dame and Northwestern 2018 seemed like that too. Michigan too.
Northwestern was extremely try-hard in 2018. I was at the game and right behind their sideline. Pat Fitzgerald wanted that one bad.
Maybe I’m just swayed by the sourgrapes “nothing changes for us and actually we don’t care anyway” attitude that comes from conference coaches after a loss to ND.
I think it’s just that we’re a lot better at strangling these types of teams than we were 5-10 years ago.
Pat Narduzzi can go shit in a hat.
No meaningful crowd (crazy how much on TV the difference was from when the students were there at least there was some atmosphere), no band. No stakes at all.
Literally this game meant nothing, even a loss it was known they were getting into the ACCCG. And gotta give Syracuse credit too, they’re young but didn’t fly down to just roll over and get stomped. Also, being “young” now 11 games in, they’re not that young any more.
So I’m not surprised it was a flat start. Syracuse had more juice early. Good on em. That ended real quick in the 2nd quarter though, which is all that matters. Probably a bit jarring if you were expecting 52-0 or something and Syracuse wouldn’t bother to try, but they did.
Senior Day is often like this. In 2006 we struggled with Army for a quarter before housing them.
This game absolutely meant something. If ND had lost, they absolutely would have to beat Clemson in the ACCCG, but a win allows them have some breathing room.
The offsides on North Carolina’s defense that kept a drive alive seemed to mark a big momentum swing, and the same thing happened today with the roughing call. I hope our luck holds.
Clemson was in fact in a tight game with Syracuse well into the 3rd quarter, leading 27-21 with 5ish minutes left in the third.
This was a fun game even with some of the consternation and lackluster play. Happy to see McKinley have a big day, would’ve had 4 TDs if the sun wasn’t in his eyes on the first drive.
Totally agree on Javon. Did he get the game ball? He would have deserved it if he did.
Ian did
Can’t complain, though that’s two for him this year 🙂
Andy,
Many thanks for this. Your effort to put this together is much appreciated – also everyone’s posts. Here are my own thoughts on all the various elements you all collectively and variously cited, that went into making this a tougher than predicted win:
– Befitting my moniker and my decades long focus on our crowd noise, this game is perhaps the proof of how important our students are in this area. Even under COVID conditions we succeeded in having a reinforcing ambiance in every home game, until last night. The “dead” atmosphere offered zero juice to our players.
– We shouldn’t underestimate the O-line changes. Yes, Kraemer’s insertion is evidence. We really have to hope this can sort out over the next two weeks. I am somewhat heartened by BK stating that the “bad snap” fumble on the under-center snap was not Lugg’s fault (especially since Zeke’s return from a high ankle sprain is not guaranteed…). Fascinating to see how the aspects of subtle teaming together truly do make a difference in O-line play.
– Senior Day has always been problematic for us. Even though there was no crowd, not to forget the parents were there. I do feel that for our teams, the emphasis on traits, and family importance in general across the board, makes Senior Day especially distracting for us. At least, such is my hunch. Maybe I’m wrong.
– We should give a ton of credit to the Syracuse coach. Despite an abysmal record, their team has never mailed it in this year. Yes, we almost always get an opponent’s best shot, but this performance was exceptionally tough for them to put together.