Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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26 OCT. 29, 2018 BLUE & GOLD ILLUSTRATED IRISH OFFENSE STRUGGLES TO FIND CONSISTENCY After averaging 528.0 total yards, 226.7 rushing yards and 44.0 points per game the past three weeks, the Notre Dame offense struggled to muster any consistency in its 19-14 win over Pittsburgh. The Panthers held the Irish to 344 total yards and 80 rushing yards for the game, and surrendered only 143 yards on 39 plays in the first half. In Notre Dame's first five posses- sions, the Irish had zero drives of more than 50 yards and just two of more than 40. To start the second half, though, head coach Brian Kel- ly's group mustered 51- and 71-yard drives, and then put together an 80- yard march in the fourth quarter to take the lead. "I don't know if we were slug- gish," Kelly said after the game. "It's hard to define [what] you mean by sluggish and what I perceive slug- gish to be. Sluggish is tired, more tired. We were not sharp mentally. We didn't execute efficiently. If that's what sluggish means, then that's what we were. "They weren't at their best, and Pittsburgh played well. They did a great job. We had one possession in the first quarter. They played exactly the way they needed to play to keep this game in the manner that they did, and we still found a way, after giving up a kickoff return for a touch- down, throwing two picks and not scoring touchdowns in the red zone." It was tough sledding for the Irish run game, which wound up gaining just 80 yards on 38 carries (2.1 yards per attempt). Both junior quarterback Ian Book and senior running back Dexter Williams had 31 yards, while junior running back Tony Jones Jr. and senior wide receiver Chris Finke combined for 22 yards on six touches. Despite the lack of production, Kelly noted much of it had to do with what Pittsburgh did defensively in trying to limit the Irish in that area. "They had the seventh player that was so tight for the box," Kelly ex- plained. "You saw what we did in the second half. [Junior wide receiver] Chase Claypool was wide open ev- ery single time we wanted to throw the slant to him. ... Maybe we were a little stubborn. We should have thrown the ball a little bit more. "This should have been maybe been 45 to 50 times throwing the foot- ball. … We want to try to stay true to who we are. Today, they weren't go- ing to allow that to happen." IAN BOOK DELIVERS During his first three games in the starting role, junior quarter- back Ian Book completed 74 of 102 passes (72.5 percent) for 875 yards with eight touchdowns and just one interception. Although he completed 81.3 per- cent (26 of 32) of his throws against Pittsburgh, the Fighting Irish signal- caller had an uneven overall perfor- mance. Book fell victim to three sacks during the first 30 minutes, and he also threw an ill-advised intercep- tion on the run to give the Panthers life early in the contest while already up 7-0. "Some of the times, I was a little antsy, and I have to stay in there a little better," Book said. "It's some- thing I have to work on. They are a good defense, and that's going to happen sometimes. We bounced back in the second half in that a little bit to take the win." Bounce back he did. Book did throw a second inter- ception in the third quarter, but he completed every other throw and finished the last 30 minutes of the game 13-of-14 passing for 158 yards with two touchdowns. He also was responsible for notching three third- down conversions, including the play right before his 35-yard strike to senior wide receiver Miles Boykin that put Notre Dame up 19-14. PITTSBURGH GAME NOTES BY COREY BODDEN Junior quarterback Ian Book completed 13 of 14 throws for 158 yards with two touchdowns and one interception in the second half to lead the Irish comeback. PHOTO BY ANGELA DRISKELL MISCELLANEOUS NOTES • Junior quarterback Ian Book has now completed at least 70 percent of his passes in all four of his four starts, which is believed to be the longest such streak for an Irish quarterback since at least 1950, per Notre Dame. • Book's 81.3-percent passing effort (26 of 32) was the second highest percentage with at least 25 completions since 1996, right behind Everett Golson's 82.1-percent effort against Syracuse on Sept. 27, 2014. • With the 80-yard touchdown drive in the fourth quarter, Notre Dame now has covered at least 70 yards on 20 different scoring drives this season. • Senior wide receiver Miles Boykin now has a touchdown grab in four straight games. Equanimeous St. Brown, in the 2016 season, was the last to do so.