Instant Reaction | Notre Dame 36 Syracuse 3

It was a strange atmosphere to start the game. Football in a baseball stadium just feels kind of wrong more than an event.

Notre Dame rendered this game a non-event by dominating Syracuse for four quarters.

It said it all that Dino Babers decided to settle for a field goal to make this game look less embarrassing for those who didn’t watch it. Anyone who did knows exactly what happened, though.

Eric Dungey getting hurt early was a big loss for the Orange, but that wasn’t the difference in the game. The Irish are simply a much better football team and they proved it on both sides of the ball.

- It’s hard to say that one play was a turning point in the game when a team outplays another by that much, but if there was one, it was that 3rd and 16 conversion from Ian Book to Tony Jones on that angle route.

What a beautiful call by Chip Long that was set up with blockers in front of him. What a great moment for Jones too who proved he still has plenty of value to add to this offense.

It was fitting that they scored on the same drive with an angle route to Dexter Williams too.

- Syracuse loaded the box and was sending extra rushers all game long. That made it difficult to run the ball and the front for Cuse certainly didn’t make it easy either. In saying that, it’s two games in a row that Notre Dame ran the ball down a team’s throat to punctuate a win.

Minus sack yardage they averaged 5.1 yards per carry and I thought the line did a nice job in protection versus the blitz for most of the day.

- All the blitzing didn’t make Ian Book’s job easy and coming off an injury, one might think there would be some hesitation to his game. 

There wasn’t any that I could see. He might have been a bit more off with ball placement on some throws than he has been, but he was still very, very good. 

- Three false starts and three straight games with a false start for Robert Hainsey is definitely a bit concerning. I remember Ronnie Stanley had an issue with them that he eventually got over. Hopefully that is the case with Hainsey.

- Chase Claypool has been a beast after the catch. He carried that defender into the end zone on his touchdown. That adjustment he made on the early underthrown deep ball was terrific as well.

- Cutting down the mistakes in the red zone is clearly something Brian Kelly will emphasize for the offense after this game, but when things aren’t well with that, sometimes you need scheme to bail you out.

That’s exactly what that fake toss counter did on that Jafar Armstrong touchdown. Anytime a lineman pulls and there is no one for him to block, it means the play-caller couldn’t have set that one up any better.

- This might have been the best game for Clark Lea’s defense all season and that’s saying something. He dared to Syracuse to run inside and they did have a little bit of success in the first half with it. They had a numbers advantage and had to take it.

Eventually Notre Dame started winning the individual battles to shut that down. When they went heavier with their personnel in the second half, it played into the strengths of Notre Dame’s front seven with Asmar Bilal being inserted back into the game.

They ran 19 times for a 5 yard average in the first half. In the second half the Orange had 1.3 yards per pop on the same amount of carries.

- Even before Dungey left the game, Lea had decided to bring extra rushers to rattle him and kept it up when Tommy Devito came in. It worked out really well forcing the ball out early and inaccurate the majority of the time.

When they didn’t get the ball out quick enough, the Irish ended up taking advantage with some Green Dogs and blitzes from depth. Drue Tranquill and Te’von Coney combined for 2.5 sacks.

The pressure was constant. Out of the six 3rd downs Syracuse converted, four of them came on runs. They were 2 of 13 when they had to throw the ball and one of those came on that final drive in garbage time.

- What a great job of Jalen Elliott reading Dungey’s eyes on that first pick and the second pick by Alohi Gilman was just as impressive. The way he flipped his hips to and ran his butt off to get to that deep ball to make the play was pretty much perfect.

That third interception didn’t even seem real. What a play and what a job by the safeties in this game and overall on the season. Terry Joseph’s name doesn’t get mentioned enough for how he has helped these two make the jump to being high level players.

- Three straight 3 and outs to start the second half set the tone. The way the defense has finished has been more impressive than anything else.

Chip Long is Notre Dame’s nominee for the Frank Broyles Award as the nation’s top assistant coach. Lea probably deserves to be nominated as well. So do a few other Irish assistants.

It was another great job by the staff in this one in a game where Notre Dame needed to win like they did to quiet the critics. They played a top-12 team and did that to them. It certainly made a statement.