Instant Reaction: Notre Dame 48 - Wake Forest 37

If you’re one of those people who is freaking out about the this game being closer to than you wanted it to be, you probably don’t want to read this. Notre Dame giving up a backdoor cover is not ideal, but Wake Forest covered. Covered. They didn’t win and never really threatened to win the game at any time.

The Irish took care of business while other contenders were dropping out the Playoff race. And they did it while putting up over 700 yards of offense without their Heisman trophy candidate for the majority of the game.

There was far more good to take out of this game than bad, but both are worth discussing.

- Let’s start with the bad and that was the play of the defense late it the game. They definitely wore down and were getting gashed by RPOs. The tempo was getting to them and the option game kept them off balance.

37 points and 587 yards? Yeah, that’s bad no matter how you spin.

You can say they were playing soft coverage at the end of the game or that Mike Elko didn’t want to show more than he had to late. That really doesn’t cover it, though. For the first time all season I saw players be undisciplined with their gaps and tackle poorly on 3rd down.

There are a lot of things they can correct going forward and it is a wakeup call to all of the people who thought Notre Dame had an elite defense. They’re not there yet, obviously. They’ll have to play better against Miami next week.

- In saying all of that, there has to be a ton of credit given to John Wolford. I tried to let people know before the game that Wake’s offense was pretty good and that he was very good. Without him and his ability to hold on the read and make correct decisions, Wake would have been blown out by 30. He’s a very good football player who is night and day better than he was compared to early in his career.

Wake really executed well on offense and he was the main reason for that.

- Julian Love isn’t just creeping into conversation as a top corner in college football. He is kicking in the door.

Another pick where he made a great read on a hitch to go with three more pass breakups put him at 17 passes defensed on the season. I’ll have to look at how other corners stack up, but that has to be close to the other top corners in the country.

This was the third straight game for Te’Von Coney balling out as well. He finished with 12 tackles, a sack, and 3 TFLs. The defense as a whole needed to play at a higher level, but these two guys are contiuing to get better and better.

- I’m not sure what was the reasoning behind the rush two and have the nose as a spy defense. I’ve only seen it one time before, by New England in the NFL, and it was puzzling. And also ineffective.

In what world is Jerry Tillery or Kurt Hinish going to be able to track down a quarterback in space? I don’t get it and I’ll have to watch the game again to look at it more closely.

- Without Josh Adams, Brandon Wimbush had to carry a greater load on offense. He came through in a big way. Another 100 yard rushing performance for him and even though he finished as a 50% passer, I thought he threw the ball much better than that indicated. His receivers could have helped him out with some catches down the field, even though he left a few deep balls short.

I don’t mind that, though. I’d rather he throw it short and give his guys a shot than sail it too deep. It was definitely scary when he went down at the end of the first half, but the fact that he came back and still showed a lack of fear running the ball was a good thing. (Even if I was yelling for him to slide a couple of times)

- Great call by Chip Long on 1st and goal with Ian Book inserted into the game when Wimbush left to get X-rays. I don’t know if anyone was thinking play-action on that play and Wake certainly wasn’t. They sold out for the run and Nic Weishar and Brock Wright were wide open. Not as great when he went screen on back to back plays on that opening drive. It set up 3 and long when they were in a good position to score before that. 

- Notre Dame had some surprising success on screens later on, but when you consider how poorly they have executed them this entire season, it definitely did not make as much sense to me to have that in the opening script.

- Seeing Ian Book come in and perform so efficiently was something that should give Notre Dame fans confidence that if Wimbush did suffer an injury that pulled him out of a game, he could come in and give the Irish a shot to win.

- Have yourself a day, Chase Claypool. He finished with 180 and would have had over 200 if not for that one deep ball he dropped in the 3rd quarter. Let’s call it even with that other jump ball he won prior to that. He doubled his season total for yards in one day and now the leads the team in receiving.

Along with KJ Stepherson, who had another nice day after the catch and on jet sweeps, the recruiting class they signed in 2016 has produced several players that have made a difference early in their careers. So many sophomores have been critical to the success of this Notre Dame team.

- It was not good to see Dexter Williams come up lame on what would have likely been a touchdown run. It didn’t make sense that he was jogging on that play, so it was clear something was wrong. A promising season for him has been ruined by injuries.

- Luckily, Notre Dame is deep at running back and they have some pretty good athletes at quarterback. To not have Adams and still rush for 380 is incredible. I know some will argue that this should hurt Adams’ chances of winning the Heisman. Not only because of how this hurts his numbers, but because the offensive line is so good that several backs could succeed running behind it. There is no doubt that the offensive line is great and did another great job today, but I would argue that Adams would have broke a couple of the runs that were 12 yard gains by the other Irish backs. None of these other guys are breaking off 70 yard runs on the regular like Adams has been.

I don’t think this eliminates Adams from winning the award, but this does make it tougher for him. If he puts up over 200 against Miami next week, then this game will be a blip on the radar for Heisman voters.