The home winning streak continues through another off-season. The Irish secured their 18th straight victory in South Bend and will have to wait until September 12, 2020 when Arkansas (under a new head coach, prayers up to that staff) strolls into town to open the home slate for next year. On this Senior Day during a crisp November afternoon, Notre Dame controlled visiting Boston College, mixing some inconsistency on offense, with another strong defensive performance in an easy win over another ACC opponent.
Let’s review Notre Dame’s 11th game of 2019.
Stats Package
| STAT | IRISH | EAGLES |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 40 | 7 |
| Plays | 85 | 64 |
| Total Yards | 501 | 191 |
| Yards Per Play | 5.89 | 2.98 |
| Conversions | 11/20 | 8/19 |
| Completions | 27 | 9 |
| Yards/Pass Attempt | 6.07 | 3.0 |
| Rushes | 44 | 43 |
| Rushing Success | 39.5% | 51.2% |
| 10+ Yds Rushing | 8 | 2 |
| Defense Stuff Rate | 35.9% | 22.3% |
Offense
QB:Â B
RB:Â C-
TE:Â B
OL:Â C
WR:Â C+
This was one of those weird games where you see 501 total yards and 40 points and if you didn’t watch all that closely you’d think it was a quality offensive performance for the Irish. Given the weakness of the Boston College defense, this effort left a lot to be desired but wasn’t overly concerning at this point in the season knowing what we do about the personnel.
I thought Book played pretty well, overcoming a handful of bad drops, moving the offense with his arm (17 first downs through the air!), and scrambling around doing athletic things leading the team in rushing again. Maybe it was the uniforms but Book really looked like Tom Clements out there.
They pointed out on the broadcast that Boston College was trying their best to take away the longer passing game and it showed. Book finished with only 5.79 yards per attempt and really didn’t put together a large portfolio of difficult throws. In the end, the effort was good enough.
The run game, well, it continues to be very mediocre to bad in spots. The 252 rushing yards is actually third most on the season but the 39.5% rushing success sounds enough alarm bells for an offense that simply cannot rely on the backs really for even one drive. Additionally, the long Lenzy touchdown run and a couple garbage time Jurkovec carries accounted for 40% of the rushing total.
Rushing Success
Jones – 6 of 15 (40%)
Book – 7 of 11 (63.6%)
Jurkovec – 2 of 5 (40%)
Henry – 0 of 1 (0%)
Flemister – 0 of 5 (0%)
Lenzy – 1 of 1 (100%)
Assaf – 1 of 2 (50%)
Smith – 0 of 3 (0%)
Interestingly, no touches for Jafar Armstrong on the day while Tony Jones carried the load as the primary ball-carrier finishing with below average numbers. It’s pretty disheartening to see Flemister and Smith combine for a goose egg in success on 8 carries. Not good, you guys.
I know we’re used to the frustration of freshmen not playing early but if you’re Chris Tyree aren’t you thinking you could be the top running on the team by October of next year?
Defense
DL: A
LB: A
DB: A
I’m going straight A’s across the board because holding anyone under 3 yards per play is excellent. This was the 21st best offense according to SP+ so we’ll see how much of a boost the Irish defense will get after holding the Eagles to just one drive of significance.
After Saturday, the Irish defense is now down to 4.61 yards per play on the defense. Somehow, this unit has pushed that number lower than last year’s defense. Can they keep it there through bowl season?
However, let’s admit Boston College’s passing game was so, so bad and imploded their potent running game as the Irish could flow down-hill all game long. Case in point, one of the few times quarterback Dennis Grosel had time in the pocket he connected on a 39-yard pass that was initially ruled a touchdown and brought back to the 1-yard line.
The rest of the game featured 24 passing yards on 20 attempts for the Eagles. This has been 4 straight games facing some really horrid passing teams and that plays right into Notre Dame’s hands.
Stuffs vs. Boston College
(season stuffs in parentheses)
Ogundeji – 4.5 (9.5)
Bilal – 3.5 (22.5)
White – 2.5 (29)
Gilman – 2 (11)
Kareem – 1.5 (18)
Jones, Jamir – 1.5 (10)
JOK – 1 (14)
MTA – 1 (13.5)
Elliott – 1 (3)
Crawford – 1 (2)
Spears – 1 (1.5)
Ademilola, Justin – 1 (1)
Wardlow – 1 (1)
Moala – 0.5 (4)
How about the ability to flash by Ade Ogundeji? He finishes tied for the season high among all Irish defenders with 4.5 stuffs which also is the best mark for all defensive linemen on the team. No other lineman has even put up 3 stuffs in a game yet this season.
BC was really hoping their two bruising running backs were going to keep their offense moving, and actually their success rate overall wasn’t too bad. It’s just they lacked explosiveness (only 2 runs over 10 yards and one came on a quarterback scramble) and they could only muster 82 yards on 24 carries (3.4 per rush) between A.J. Dillon and David Bailey.
Plus, you know, that whole only having one first down through the air thing.
Final Thoughts
Notre Dame weirdly went super aggressive on some punt blocks today which I was not expecting. That was very un-Kelly like against a weaker opponent.
I liked the alternate broadcast on NBC Sports Network, it was something different at least. I don’t see it working over the long-term if it’s something they’d roll out once or twice a year, though. Fixable issues include using the radio announcing for all live action and cutting out a lot more (or all) of the split screen views during action. At times, I was flipping back and forth between this and the normal NBC broadcast and the alternate feed felt like watching a football game in nap mode. It was really quiet, the action was shrunk down on the screen, and you really had to concentrate a lot harder to put together basic understanding of each play.
At one point, Darius Walker brought up the 2005 USC game like 100% of people watching didn’t know every detail about the game, which I think shows this type of set up can’t work again. I think it’s a tough show to do because after a while there isn’t that much to talk about when you’re purposely focusing so much time outside of the actual action on the field.
Braden Lenzy is this team’s 4th leading rusher on just 6 carries and it’s not out of reach that he’ll finish third on the team in yardage on the ground.
I laughed so hard when Jacob Lacey broke through the line early in the second half completely untouched.
Go get ’em Lacy.Â
This game is way different if Jonathan Doerer doesn’t hit all 4 field goals which he did before Notre Dame’s second touchdown of the game. Goodness, how wrong were most of us about his ability to hold down this job? He’s hit 12 of 14 field goals (85%) this year!
Boston College had one drive for 84 yards and a touchdown. The rest of the game featured 48 plays for 98 yards while never crossing midfield.
The all-important Uni-Watch breakdown on the 1988 fauxbacks: I liked them for the most part. As suspected, the fake mesh on the numbers was pointless but we knew that going into the game. What really made these work was the font change on the numbers with the white socks and black cleats. The pants looked fine even with the more increased mismatched helmet (Daelin Hayes mentioned on the alternate broadcast they discussed wearing the duller gold practice helmets) to help with the throwback feel. For me, it was really below the knee where you got a tremendous throwback vibe. Shame on any of the players who wore blue socks or tights and didn’t put it together.
I hated the so called Fan Feed, unfortunately I had recorded the game, as I always do to skip the commercials, so I was stuck with it for the whole game. My tv is 75 inches and this format made the screen look small because they had the actual game squeezed down to make room for extraneous bullshit, like texts, people on a couch, people in the stands, and the radio announcers of all things.
They missed a number of plays due to overly windy couch talk. In the first half or so, they really relegated the time we were on defense to a background feature of their inane couch chatter. I finally muted the sound it was so irritating, but nothing I could do about the clutter they put up. Hated this format.
I liked the game outcome, but it seems clear the weakness on this team is the oline. I don’t blame the rb’s when there are no holes, and the play calls trying to stretch the field don’t work with a weak line and relatively slow rb’s.
Finke has had a nice renaissance lately, and Book hung as tough as he could with a mostly porous line. Book being the leading rusher once again isn’t a great indicator for our run game, but his athleticism has saved the day a number of times this year.
Loved the very gold pants—makes our guys look sleek and fast somehow.
Watched the Oregon loss to ASU, which helps us a tiny bit. ASU tried hard to blow it, but eked it out.
Now time to break the bad streak in Palo Alto.
Herm punted from the 33 yard line last night. Nothing else to add
10 years ago A.J. Dillon runs for 200 yards and 3 touchdowns in an incredible narrative game leading his school to victory over the school that didn’t recruit him. God bless Brian kelly for making those games a thing of the past. I feel like we have seen that story played out a 100 times, and now it’s a 40-7 drubbing that was never in doubt.
Today was the first day I put a lot of the running game failure on the offensive line. I thought they were not good in pass pro or run blocking. But those rbs are just not good; Tony Jones looked great for a month but he looks hurt, Flemister has a weird running still and poor vision. The running gam is just hard to watch
Don’t forget the injuries to two of our starters on the O-line. We don’t have a top tier college RB.
I don’t think I’m over those nightmare games from 10 years ago. I’m getting better though.
Good point on the injuries, and on yours just below on BC’s early post-bye week changes on D.
Especially I am all in on your mention of past trauma — but mine goes to the catastrophe of 1993 — things have never been the same since (if our LB just can hold on to the damn interception… whoops, sorry bad vibes resurfacing)… and the 7 fumbles in Ty’s first year… whoops, sorry again But I’m getting better too
Completely agree on the injuries. And I didn’t Intend that criticism as to come off as an indictment of the o line and Quinn, but I thought yesterday was the first time they were equally to blame. But don’t get me wrong the running backs do that like no favors. At all
I think ND’s early offensive struggles can be blamed on BC doing some different things on D, taking advantage of their bye-week and Book getting spooked for a while after he nearly threw an early interception. Once ND and Book got things figured out, they moved the ball well.
I was told that Book has turned the corner and was now going to destroy bad defenses.
I’ll admit to being a Doerer doubter but he’s been great. Certainly one of the most improved players in the last year.
Speaking of special teams, kickoff coverage is one of my favorite parts of the game these days. Whether it’s Bauer or Gilman or JOK those guys are flying down the field and trying to kill whoever’s running it back. That’s pretty fun.
Not for the kick returner.
Bo Bauer appears to be an animal. Recall he had a great spring and expected to see him play a lot more. Is there an inside story on him? Are the other linebackers just that much better?
I’m not really sure, seems like he didn’t quite make it to the top of the LB mix when they were experimenting in camp shuffling all sorts of bodies around, so I guess if anything he got beat for a job a while ago. Bilal as a 5th year senior finally put things together, White seems to be the best MLB on the team by a wide margin and Owusu was always the rover they had in mind kind of puts Bauer back a bit, and I guess they liked Lamb’s size and range more in the dime package for coverage.
Not sure what changes next year since they really like Moala a lot and supposedly are considering moving him or Owusu to the buck to replace BIlal. Kinda looks like Bauer is just a special teams ace/depth for a while unless an injury opens the door.
Hard to complain about the LB play, but I wonder how good one of these guys might become if we actually, y’know, allowed them to play the same freakin position two years in a row.
We have so much to be thankful for this week: Multi-year home win streak. It sounds like Kmet and Book will be back next season. Clay Helton might still be the USC coach going forward.
Truly blessed.
Completely agree with your assessment on the uniforms. I’d love to see black cleats/white socks as the standard.
As I was taking in the demolition of Boston College, the one consistent thought that kept popping up was Notre Dame’s inevitable berth to the Camping World Bowl next month. Obviously, each and every win should be enjoyed, but this stretch run of Viginia Tech, Duke, Navy, Boston College and Stanford feels a bit empty given that our post-season destination isn’t anything the program truly aspires to. Don’t get me wrong — a 10-2 regular season is nothing to complain about, but I can’t help but feel a bit ambivalent given that the odds of ending up in the Orange Bowl or Cotton Bowl seem well out of the realm of possibility at this point.
Looking ahead to 2020, I have a hard time believing Notre Dame will be a legitimate College Football Playoff contender. It looks to be more of the same — a 10-2 type season with embarrassing losses to Wisconsin at Lambeau Field and Clemson in South Bend. Call me a pessimist if you must.
Why the pessimism when it comes to Wisconsin? What they do well, run the ball, is what we defend really well. Not having seen them play this year, is their D really good enough to make you worry?
I don’t know about Wisconsin, assuming Jonathan Taylor goes pro. A loss to Clemson seems near-inevitable unless Trevor Lawrence gets hurt, but otherwise the schedule looks strong but also forgiving to a top-10 team.
You’re a pessimist.