Key Takeaways From Notre Dame's Victory Over Bowling Green

A look at the key takeaways from Notre Dame's victory over Bowling Green

Matt Cashore, USA TODAY Sports

Notre Dame improved to 4-1 after earning a 52-0 victory over Bowling Green. A look at what we learned about the Fighting Irish from the win.

1. Playing To A Standard - One of the complaints about Notre Dame the last decade has been that it has a bad tendency of playing down to the level of the competition. I think there is some validity to that complaint, but there was more to it than just focus. There were talent level issues at times and coaching issues at times.

What we are seeing this season is when Notre Dame plays an inferior opponent it has dominated as expected. That doesn’t mean the Irish do it for 60 minutes (see the first half vs. Louisville and Virginia), but at the end of the day the Irish are handling business. Notre Dame covered a 45.5-point spread against Bowling Green, a 34.5-point spread against New Mexico, a 10.5-point spread against Virginia and was just a point away from covering the 18.5-point spread against Louisville.

Notre Dame quickly dispatched Bowling Green, taking a 35-0 lead into the halftime break. It was a far cry from the 14-6 lead it had over Ball State a year ago. In fact, Notre Dame has outscored Bowling Green and New Mexico by a combined score of 73-7.

2. Ian Book Is Capable Of Playing At A High Level - There are certainly parts of Ian Book’s game that continue to need work, and that remains true despite his top-level performance yesterday. But what we saw in yesterday’s victory is that Book is more than capable of doing the things needed for him to play at a high level.

We saw him show poise in the pocket, we saw him properly work through his progressions on multiple snaps and we saw him attack the defense down the field both eagerly and effectively. 

If that performance can be a launching point for Book then we could see this offense truly explode in the final seven games.

3. The Run Defense Is Improved, But Not Where It Needs To Be - Notre Dame gave up a combined 461 rushing yards in its first two games of the 2019 season, but the defense has rebounded in impressive fashion. 

It held Georgia over a hundred yards below its season average, and Notre Dame’s last two opponents have combined for just 122 rushing yards.

Bowling Green was limited to just 118 yards and 2.8 yards per rush, which is further evidence of the vast improvement by the rush defense. The numbers are good and the play was much better, but yesterday showed there are still issues that must be addressed.

The tackling yesterday was subpar, there were contain issues with the quarterback, and in the second and third quarter there were too many snaps where the cutback lane opened up wider than it should have. 

Those areas must continue to be addressed and improved upon with teams like USC, Michigan, Boston College, Navy and Stanford remaining on the schedule.

4. Notre Dame Is Loaded At Tight End - This is stating the obvious, but it was on full display during yesterday’s victory, although it didn’t start well. On the game’s second play, junior tight end Cole Kmet whiffed on a perimeter RPO block that resulted in a 2-yard loss and helped lead to a quick three-and-out. 

That would be the end of any poor play by the tight ends.

On Notre Dame’s next series, offensive coordinator Chip Long went to his two tight end package, and their blocking helped march the offense down the field. Sophomore tight end Tommy Tremble finished the drive with a 17-yard touchdown reception. 

On Notre Dame’s next possession it was Kmet that got into the end zone, this time for a 21-yard score. Kmet’s 3rd-and-4 conversion on the next series set up Chase Claypool’s touchdown, which came a play later.

Junior Brock Wright got into the mix in the second quarter, hauling in a 40-yard reception on a wheel route to set up the final touchdown of the first half.

The Irish tight ends combined for seven catches, 109 receiving yards and two touchdowns.

5. Bounce Back From The Special Teams - Notre Dame’s special teams had a strong start to the season, but the majority of the units struggled in last week’s victory over Virginia. Was that a sign of things to come or a blip on the radar? 

If yesterday’s game is any indication, it would seem that the Virginia output was an anomaly.

Chris Finke had back-to-back good returns that got the Irish at or beyond midfield, which set up consecutive touchdowns for the offense. 

The Irish place kickers were perfect and freshman punter Jay Bramblett was good in the win. 

Bowling Green averaged just 2.0 yards on its two punt returns and just 12.5 yards on its two kick returns, which means the Irish coverage units were dominant.

It was a strong bounce back for Brian Polian’s unit.

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