Irish Take Care Of Business Against Bowling Green
Pass skeleton might have provided Ian Book more resistance.
Certainly an intrasquad scrimmage would have been a more stringent test.
Instead, Book dissected Bowling Green’s porous defense inside Notre Dame Stadium on Saturday afternoon, throwing a quintet of touchdown passes in the ninth-ranked Irish’s 52-0 whitewashing that served as tune-up for next week’s rivalry tilt against Southern Cal.
"It was awesome,” stated captain Julian Okwara. “I think defense as a whole played very well. “When the clock hit zero in the fourth quarter. Obviously anything can happen, they can get a fumble and pick it up and run. You don't stop playing till the clock hits zero, so that's when we for sure knew."
The junior Book, who got rolling after running back Tony Jones Jr. loosened up the Falcons (1-4), had first-half scoring tosses that covered 17, 21, 34, 8 and 25 yards --- the last of which lifted the Fighting Irish (4-1) to a 35-0 halftime edge and Book to a 311.3 passer rating.
By game’s end, the Fighting Irish had accumulated more than 550 yards of offense, played turnover-free football and gotten both a blocked kick and an interception from their defense, which notched its first shutout in five years.
Notre Dame had eight different players generate chunk plays of 17 or more yards in the first half, 10 players by game’s end, and including a season-best 24-yard run from backup tailback Jahmir Smith as well as a 36-yarder from Jones Jr. Likewise, Book completed passes to eight different receivers, generated scoring tosses to tight ends Tommy Tremble and Cole Kmet, and only doubled-up with Chase Claypool, whose scoring receptions covered 34 and 8 yards of largely uncovered real estate.
"Chase is a great team player; he worked hard all week," Book said. "You get banged up in football, that’s what it’s all about. He’s got a lot of young receivers looking up to him. It’s great leadership and it’s what we need."
Javon McKinley closed out Notre Dame’s first-half scoring with a 25-yard reception on third-and-long, when Falcons’ defenders completely lost track of him and McKinley tap-danced in the right-front corner of the end zone for the score.
The Irish’s offensive blitzkrieg saw them tally their 35 first-half points on five marches that required just 23 snaps, covered 307 yards and elapsed merely eight minutes, 48 seconds of game clock.
Defensively, the Irish swallowed up Bowling Green, which had just 56 net yards at the end of the first quarter --- because the Falcons’ possession that closed out the opening frame had covered 58 yards – and had 136 at the half. They had three plays amass 57 yards; their other 40 snaps covered 79 net yards.
Even as Notre Dame liberally substituted across the final 30 minutes, it was more overpowering dominance from the Irish.
Book led them to their 18th score in 18 red zone trips, when Jonathon Doerer booted a 27-yard field goal, and Julian Okwara added to his ever-growing defensive repertoire with a blocked field goal. Jones Jr. had back-to-back runs that covered first 36 and then 26 yards as Notre Dame amassed 13 plays of 15-plus yards before the onset of the fourth quarter.
Once Notre Dame turned over the offense to Phil Jurkovec, the gashing plays and a quick score pushed the lead to 45-0.
"Really pleased with the way our guys prepared this week and felt really good coming into the game because of that,” said Kelly. “They handled themselves like a team that had a vision of what they wanted to accomplish today and they went out and did it."
Jurkovec hit Davis for 32 yards, and Davis might have scored had he not stumbled inside the Bowling Green 10. No matter. Moments later, Jurkovec found Davis uncovered for a 7-yard touchdown.
C’Bo Flemister pushed the Irish to a 52-0 edge with less than seven minutes in the game to keep the Irish perfect on the season in the red zone and give Jurkovec a pair of 70-yard scoring marches.
The Fighting Irish wrap up their three-game homestand when they host Southern Cal next Saturday, with NBC having tabbed the game for a prime-time, 7:30 p.m. kickoff.