Notre Dame got off to a fast start on Saturday night, lost its way briefly in near halftime, then eventually clamped down on an inferior Duke team in front of their home crowd. With no Danny Dimes under center, the Blue Devil passing game struggled all night and continued to give the Irish great field position and plenty of scoring chances. It’s a road win against an ACC opponent before rival Navy comes to town.
Let’s recap Notre Dame’s 7th win of the season.
Stats Package
| STAT | IRISH | DUKE |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 38 | 7 |
| Plays | 73 | 61 |
| Total Yards | 453 | 197 |
| Yards Per Play | 6.20 | 3.22 |
| Conversions | 9/18 | 4/19 |
| Completions | 18 | 16 |
| Yards/Pass Attempt | 5.65 | 3.29 |
| Rushes | 41 | 30 |
| Rushing Success | 56.4% | 34.4% |
| 10+ Yds Rushing | 8 | 2 |
| Defense Stuff Rate | 32.7% | 13.6% |
Offense
QB: B+
RB: C-
TE: B
OL: A-
WR: B
This was more like the version of 2018 Ian Book that we were used to seeing last year. He did throw a pair of interceptions but the first was while being hit and the second was a 4th down throw to towards the end zone that popped off a player’s helmet and into the arms of a Duke defender at the 1-yard line. For someone who didn’t throw for 200 yards he was aggressive targeting receivers down field and had pretty decent success. It also helps to throw 4 touchdown passes, too.
Book ripped off a couple long runs and led the offense in rushing, nearly by 3x as much as the next player on the team. A nice 320-yard total yard day for Book should have him feeling a lot better with Navy’s defense coming up. According to ESPN Stats & Info, he is the first player in Notre Dame history to throw for 4 touchdowns and run for 100 yards in a game.
I thought this was right up there as the best game of the year for the offensive line. They gave Book a ton of time and largely held Duke’s stout defensive line in check. The run game was a bit hit and miss, though. Still, the Irish really worked the edges a lot in this game while the line did a good job protecting against the first wave of defenders to give the backs some space in the open field.
I really liked that a lot of bodies were rotated into the backfield.
Rushing Success
Jones – 2 of 7 (28.5%)
Armstrong – 2 of 3 (66%)
Book – 5 of 11 (45.4%)
Keys – 2 of 2 (100%)
Jurkovec – 3 of 3 (100%)
Flemister – 4 of 5 (80%)
Smith – 4 of 8 (50%)
Overall, not a great day for the backs in a game where Notre Dame fell just short of 300 yards on the ground. Nominally, the top two guys in Armstrong and Jones were held to 27 yards on 10 carries. They chipped in a little bit in the passing game to combine for 47 yards on 14 touches, for a 3.3 yard average. On another day this would be very worrisome.
Luckily, some explosiveness really helped. Jahmir Smith scampered for a 40-yard gain then picked up 18 yards on 7 other carries, although several were tough successful shorter runs. Flemister and Jurkovec also chipped in some successful garbage time carries late in the game that colored the box score, as well.
Chris Finke was robbed of a 78-yard reception and near touchdown on a poor holding call but returned to his 2018 form with a bunch of big catches (5 for 49 yards) with 2 scores, in addition to 51 punt return yards.
Of course, Chase Claypool was targeted a ton again and finished with 97 yards and a touchdown. He was shaken up during the game after falling hard on his shoulder but appears okay. With Braden Lenzy staying back home due to injury (no update yet) there really wasn’t a whole lot going on for the other receivers.
Defense
DL: B+
LB: B+
DB: B+
For the second straight week, Notre Dame faced a really challenged offense that struggled completing even the simplest pass plays.
Duke quarterback Quentin Harris mustered only 102 yards on 28 attempts with only 5 first downs through the air. I’m not sure which throw it would’ve been during the game but our advanced stats guru Michael Bryan messaged at 9:59 PM ET that the Blue Devils finally got their first successful passing down play. That’s truly dreadful.
They weren’t much better on the ground, either. Just 4 rushing first downs for Duke!
Most game previews mentioned that Duke’s defense really need to bother the Irish because their offense wouldn’t be able to keep up otherwise. For most of the night, the Blue Devils were incredibly non-threatening on offense while punting on their first 6 drives and only getting into Irish territory 4 times, and only once in the red zone.
Stuffs vs. Duke
(season stuffs in parentheses)
White – 3.5 (22.5)
Ademilola, Jay – 3 (10.5)
Bracy – 2 (3.5)
JOK – 1.5 (11.5)
MTA – 1.5 (10.5)
Hamilton – 1 (3)
Bilal – 1 (17)
Jones – 1 (8.5)
Gilman – 1 (9)
Oghoufo – 1 (1.5)
Elliott – 1 (2)
Kareem – 0.5 (16)
Okwara – 0.5 (8.5)
Pride – 0.5 (1)
As we look toward the Navy game I was excited to see the defensive backs coming through against Duke with some physicality. You can’t complain with 5.5 stuffs from the corners and safeties, nice job!
Final Thoughts
Duke recently renovated their stadium and I don’t know if this is new or not but they gave themselves a small tunnel to walk through on to the field. Congratulations, you played yourself. Also, nice job setting the Irish up across town for their locker room. I guess there were probably basketball facilities in the way to build something closer.
The announced attendance was 40,004 which is a sellout. It’s the smallest crowd for a Notre Dame game since the visit to Wake Forest last year. ACC football!
Julian Okwara exited the game with an ankle injury that might be serious enough for him to miss the rest of the season. If so, that would be such a disappointment. Through 9 games, Okwara has 9 solo tackles, 7 tackles for loss, 5 sacks, and 8.5 stuffs. It’s hardly been an assault on the Irish record books.
I have no idea why Duke continued to return kickoffs in this game.
Lacey, Hamilton, Bramblett, Ajavon, and Foskey were the only true freshmen to see the field on Saturday. That’s still just the first 3 listed who have used their year of eligibility.
I’m not sure how much schedule strength plays a part but I bet most would be surprised to learn that the current 2019 team is averaging +1.35 YPP versus +1.28 YPP for last year’s team. Duke’s 3.22 yards per play on offense was the lowest mark against Notre Dame since last year’s Syracuse game. Of the 8 games to feature fewer than 4 YPP for an Irish opponent since 2017, we’ve seen 3 of those over the last 5 games.
This was also the first non-hurricane game where Notre Dame’s opponent was held under 200 yards since the 2015 opener against Texas.
Jafar Armstrong has 59 rushing yards on 28 carries this year. That’s currently 7th on the team in rushing yards behind both quarterbacks and Braden Lenzy.
Great write up. I was there and it looked like a sellout to me but the crowd was overwhelmingly ND lol. Most fun I’ve ever had at a ND game
It seemed like a few times Jahmir Smith passed the line of scrimmage with the ball covered, shoulders lowered, ready for impact only to find himself in a huge hole and was so thrown off that he just fell down on the one play on the near side that was blocked for a td.
Watching Smith run, made me think he was threatened to not see the field for a long time if he fumbled.
The run blocking is better than the RBs are making it look.
Our RBs are Group-Of-5 level. Denson was here for (at least) one year too long. Let’s hope they don’t make the same mistake with Lyght this offseason.
We scored 38 in a game where we averaged under 6 yards per pass. Don’t see that every day.
Only got to watch part of the game, but Book seemed a bit more decisive in the pocket. That’s good to see, and hopefully a positive sign moving forward.
I still have a hard time believing Kyren Williams couldn’t have made a significantly positive impact on this year’s team. If it’s just because a freshman can’t pick up the nuances of the passing game, that’s probably not a good sign for Tyree getting an opportunity next year. If it’s just that he’s not good enough to beat out these current RBs, then he’s probably not going to see much playing time over his career.
As always, solid write-up. Though B+ for the defense seems like a harsh grade!
I assume Foskey is going to burn a redshirt with Okwara out, which is fine – most non-project DEs don’t spend 5 years. The experience is probably worth it anyways, given that he’ll likely be second-string next year.
Just curious Eric–what would it take for you to give Book an A?
Considering our running backs, what would it be like to have Najee Harris (Bama), Edwards-Helaire (LSU), Dobbins (OSU), Etienne (Clemson), or Swift (Georgia) playing at ND? These guys make their own holes much of the time and can take it to the house as well.
Watched the Bama LSU game–geez, the talent on that field!! Not sure anybody we have would have started for either team. Tua on a surgically barely repaired ankle threw for over 400 yards, Burrow about the same, both team’s RB were spectacular, and the receivers a nightmare. Bama shot themselves in the foot in the first 10 minutes, which cost them the game. I wouldn’t be upset if they both make the playoff–I think they, OSU and Clemson would make for a great playoff. Its probably good that we don’t make it this year, it would be a bloodbath.
I don’t like or dislike Kelly, but given what elite talent looks like these days, and the shower of it the elite teams have, I think he’s done really well with what we get. That one notch lower tier in which we find ourselves is like triple A vs major leagues in baseball.
Just FWIW, Harris played Duke this year and got 52 yards on 12 carries (4.3 y/c). Not pretending that RB talent is good enough at Notre Dame, it’s obviously not, just showing that even great backs don’t necessarily always have big games every week. Especially on a team with the starting RG and RT (who is the best OL on team) out hurt, not like an elite RB can snap fingers and just be great.
I loved the gameplan and the way Book played. His best game of the year, he’s going to have to keep carrying the team with his arms and legs.
And speaking of hurt, Okwara confirmed broken fibula, out for year. Such a bummer, but at least this isn’t a team making a November playoff run.
So Harris had a mediocre game vs Duke, which RB on our team would you prefer over him? He looked damn good vs an outstanding LSU team.
My main point though is we used to get primo offensive skill players in droves, but haven’t in decades now.
Harris is obviously way better than any RB on Notre Dame. My point was that your statement of “These guys make their own holes much of the time and can take it to the house as well” isn’t necessarily 100% true. Harris didn’t do much against Duke when he did play them and definitely would not have been on a position to be in success even if he went to Notre Dame and had to run behind a backup RG and RT. The situation isn’t conducive for success right now in the running game no matter the talent level of the RB was more my point. Notre Dame isn’t 1 great RB away from a great running game right now due to other circumstances.
Which is OK because you can use Book in misdirection/zone read plays to keep them honest and then move the ball through the air a bit and still score a lot of points and win. But it’s not going to be with a traditional 1-running back stud game like it was decades ago. You don’t really see guys getting 25-30+ carries in a single game like that any more, unless you’re Wisconsin.
I agree with your point though that it’s obvious it would be better to have the top offensive skill players than not have them and recruiting there needs to improve, but that feels kinda like it should go without saying.
NDs RBs are not getting the yards available on many plays. 1 great RB away from a great running game? Most likely not but, one great RB away from a much more dangerous running game? Without a doubt.
Our coaches seem determined to fallback to Jones/Armstrong even when the hot hand would dictate otherwise. Smith looked the best of the 4 and Flemister probably second in that game, yet they seemed to be on a strict pitch count.
Smith had 40 yards on his first carry, then got 7 more carries for 18 yards. On the 40 yard carry, he probably scores a touchdown if he doesn’t run into his own blocker 2 yards past the line of scrimmage after running through a massive hole. He didn’t really impress me at all.
So true on the 1 running back thing. At the moment there are only 9 backs in the nation averaging 20 or more carries per game…only 2 of those have more than 25.
For this game specifically? I’d say 14 incompletions is a lot to hand out a grade of A when he hasn’t even thrown for 200 yards. A few things that stood out to me were being late on a third down throw to Finke on the first series and another third down pass way over McKinley’s head to start the 2nd quarter.
This isn’t all on Book but the offense was a little “throw it up and hope for the best” type of gameplan which isn’t always pretty but did work at times, including 3 pass interference calls in Notre Dame’s favor.
If you ever give out an A to a QB who throws for 5.7 yards per attempt, he better have 400 rushing yards.
Put the 75 yards back that we’re overturned on the phantom hold and his numbers get better.
I just think you grade him pretty hard. Without him this year we’re toast, IMO.