Notre Dame football struggled through three quarters against Boston College, but turned up the juice in the fourth quarter and avoided an upset in Chestnut Hill by winning 25-10.
It wasn’t close to the best effort that we’ll see from the Irish this fall, but they still managed to come away with a victory without playing their best. Notre Dame did more than a few good things against the Eagles, but there were some bad aspects of its play as well.
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It will get better, especially now that they’ll be able to get into a groove without anymore weeks off during the regular season. Find out below my top five immediate takeaways from Notre Dame’s win over Boston College.
CJ Carr started off slow, but picked it up as the game went on
You could see the rust that Carr had to shake off during the off-week, as his first drive saw back-to-back incompletions to start the day off. He’d connect on his third attempt, but it wasn’t enough for a first down. Carr would get it going a little bit in the second drive, only to see his pass to Will Pauling go incomplete to end the drive. He’d heat up quickly, as he’d throw long touchdowns on two of the next three drives. Carr is continuing to grow into an elite option, and it’s hard to nitpick him game right now.
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Notre Dame’s defense continues to improve
Boston College doesn’t have a great offense, and we all knew that going into the game, but the Irish defense still had to show up, and that’s exactly what they did. They kept the Irish in the game, giving the offense a chance to catch up and take control of the contest. The line got pressure on the quarterback, whoever was back there, often, and had five sacks. Tae Johnson, two, and Adon Shuler, had a picks as well, and this group is playing at a championship level.
Offensive coordinator Mike Denbrock’s playcalling still confuses me
It’s been something that I’ve wondered all season long, why hasn’t Denbrock leaned on his running back tandem of Jeremiyah Love and Jadarian Price. This offense is best when those two are churning out yards, and then going over the top with Carr to beat a cheating safety. The play calling was better in the second half, but coming out after not playing last week, you want to get comfortable. Throwing two out of three times in the first drive resulting in a three-and-out isn’t ideal. I have confidence that Denbrock has a plan, but at some points, he needs to rely on his elite running back duo, as Love answered the call in the second-half in a huge way.
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Noah Burnette and Notre Dame’s place kicking is a problem
Oh boy, this was a very bad showing from all of the Irish place kickers. Each of the got an opportunity in this game, and none of them made a kick until the fourth quarter. Noah Burnette just isn’t healthy, and continues to miss extra points, and he eventually got replaced by Marcello Diomede, who missed his try as well. Erik Schmidt got the field goal attempt and also missed from 35-yards out. It’s not just this game where the Irish have had issues, this is a reoccurring problem and it doesn’t look like the answer is on the roster.
An ugly win, is still a win
This was not the normal dispicplied Notre Dame team that we normally see, as Jaylen Sneed and Kyngstonn Viliamu-Asa got called for silly penalties to extend drives. I’m going to give Joshua Burnham a pass, as the face mask called on him didn’t look like he grabbed anything. A delay of game call in the fourth quarter with Boston College driving was called as well, negating a possible false start. The miscues didn’t hurt Notre Dame this afternoon, but against a better team, it most certainly would have. I guess it’s good to get a clunker out of the way against a team like Boston College, but it’s not the performance you wanted to see with the first College Football Playoff rankings coming out early next week.
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This article originally appeared on Fighting Irish Wire: Five thoughts on Notre Dame’s unimpressive win over Boston College
