Irish Send Out Seniors In Style
The yardage, the total offense and the trips deep into Boston College territory Saturday afternoon kept piling up for No. 16 Notre Dame.
The Fighting Irish, coupled with sustained defensive excellence, eventually cruised past the Eagles, 40-7, behind three touchdown passes from quarterback Ian Book in a win that pushed their home winning streak to 18 games.
The game was played in front of an announced Notre Dame Stadium crowd of 71,827, smallest since the venue’s expansion from 59,025 following the 1996 season. Notre Dame is 14-2 against the ACC since the onset of the 2017 season and improved to 16-9 all-time against the Eagles.
“I’m really proud of the way our kids responded,” Brian Kelly told the ND radio broadcast after the game. “I thought we kind of took over in the second half.”
Trailing 7-6 seven minutes into the second quarter, the Fighting Irish (9-2) peeled off 34 unanswered points to pull away from BC (5-6), the fifth and final Atlantic Coast Conference opponent of this season.
That was more than enough for a Notre Dame defense that didn’t yield a first-quarter point for the sixth time in 11 games this season. The Eagles were limited to 127 yards and possessed the ball less than 12 minutes in the first half, but trailed only 16-7 after the Irish settled for a trio of Jonathan Doerer field goals. Book connected with Chase Claypool for the 10th touchdown of Claypool’s senior campaign for the Irish’s only first-half touchdown.
In the second half, Notre Dame’s offense shook off its own sluggish start and capitalized against an aggressive BC defense that seemed bent on pressuring Book.
Book obliged with scoring tosses to Cole Kmet and Chris Finke while Braden Lenzy eviscerated the Eagles’ defense on a 61-yard end-around for six.
In the Irish’s final two home games against Navy and Boston College, Book threw for a combined eight touchdowns, 519 yards, no interceptions and completed 40 of 60 passes. Kmet topped 400 receiving yards on the season in the game --- the first Notre Dame tight end to notch the feat since Troy Niklas in 2013.
Meanwhile, the Notre Dame defense just kept bottling up the Eagles and star tailback AJ Dillon, who entered the game with 407 yards and three touchdowns in his previous eight quarters. Dillon mustered just 56 more yards onto that total deep into the fourth quarter.
Freshman sensation Kyle Hamilton notched his fourth interception of his debut campaign, and the Irish also scored after senior Khalid Kareem forced a fumble that linebacker Drew White recovered.
Backup Phil Jurkovec logged the majority of fourth-quarter snaps in directing the Irish offense, which has scored 30 or more points in eight of 11 games this season and outscored the opposition in November 151-54 in wins against Virginia Tech, Duke, Navy and Boston College.
Notre Dame’s starting defense has allowed just three touchdowns this month --- one apiece to the Hokies, Midshipmen and Eagles. Tech had a defensive touchdown in that game, and largely Irish reserves were in the game late last week when Navy concluded its season.
Up next is a trip to rival Stanford, and then Notre Dame will await its postseason destination pending outcomes of conference championship games across the country on the first weekend of December.