Chunk Plays Set The Stage
The real estate came in massive chunks, as if Notre Dame was setting up a new offensive community 15, 20, 30 yards at a time Saturday afternoon.
The Fighting Irish, unleashing early an offensive unit largely bottled up in splitting a pair of games against nationally-ranked Georgia and Virginia, got untracked in a big way inside Notre Dame Stadium against Bowling Green in a 52-0 laugher.
Tony Jones Jr. galloping for 36 yards.
Ian Book completing not one, not two but nine passes for 15 or more yards as part of his scintillating 16-for-20, 261-yard and five touchdown performance.
Backup quarterback Phil Jurkovec getting in on the real estate game with a pair of 70-yard touchdown drives.
In sum, four different ballcarriers and seven separate receivers gashed the Falcons defense for gains of 13 or more yards on a single play.
Not necessary against an overmatched Falcons squad; intrinsic to the identity Notre Dame is seeking in its offense.
“Very important,” Book said of the chunk-play emphasis in the Irish offense. “My job is to get the ball out there on the perimeter. We've got some really skilled guys out there. It's my job to get the ball to them, and I was definitely happy with the way the (offensive) line protected today. They did great job. I had a lot of time.”
With Bowling Green’s already soft defense bludgeoned a bit by Jones Jr.’s 102-yard performance and an effective backfield committee approach, the Irish also found themselves able to call and execute more plays in their downfield-passing game.
“I think we had some traditional calls down the field,” coach Brian Kelly said after the Irish stretched the nation’s third-longest active home winning streak to 14 games. “There were some things that I thought (Ian) saw the field well today. I think there was probably one that he probably would have liked back, the interference or the lack of an interference call there. That ball should not have been thrown in that situation. But other than that, I thought he did a really nice job of seeing the field, putting the ball in a position where we could make some contested catches.”
While Chase Claypool corralled two of Book’s five first-half touchdown passes, Javon McKinley also benefited from the downfield emphasis. The fourth-year wideout with just 10 career appearances prior to this season generated a career-best 104-yard, five-catch outing that included the touchdown that vaulted Notre Dame to a 35-0 halftime edge.
Nine different players caught a pass for the Irish; five different players had multiple catches and five different players had receiving touchdowns.
“I was able to push the ball downfield, and (offensive coordinator Chip) Long talks about it all the time, great players make big plays,” Book said. “And that's what we needed. We had a few of those tonight. We're going to need it for the rest of the season.”
Kelly found little at fault in his team’s 573-yard outing that included a combined 340 passing yards from Book and Jurkovec. He likewise noted the Irish must continue to elevate their play moving forward, particularly as heated rivals USC and Michigan loom in the next three weeks.
“I liked the things (Book) did today,” Kelly said. “Who wouldn’t? But again, the competition is going to step up. USC will be a bigger challenge. Two weeks later, [after an open date], Michigan will be another big challenge.
“But good things to work on that we saw today from Ian that we can show him on film that he got a chance to feel today, which is even bigger, and we'll build off of that.”