Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1047749
28 NOV. 12, 2018 BLUE & GOLD ILLUSTRATED Facing third-and-four at the 23- yard line, Notre Dame ran a read zone, and Book fooled the North- western defense on his way to a 23- yard touchdown to restore a two- score advantage for the Fighting Irish. The 10-play drive covered 89 yards in 4:14. "It was huge," Book said of the final scoring drive. "It gave our de- fense a break. They've been playing well for us all year, so we were able to do that as an offense. Everyone did their part, and we had all 11 guys do- ing the right thing." Book completed 22-of-34 passes (64.7 percent) for a career-high 343 passing yards with two touchdowns and no interceptions, and he also tied for the team lead with 56 yards on the ground with the one score. NOTRE DAME DEFENSE CONTINUES STRONG PLAY For just the fourth time in nine games, the Irish allowed more than 20 points to an opposing offense. Nevertheless, Notre Dame held Northwestern to 249 total yards on 69 plays (3.6 yards per play), includ- ing 108 rushing yards on 40 carries (2.7 yards per carry). It was the third best performance for the Irish in yards per carry, with Michigan (1.8) and Stanford (2.3) being the top two. The Wildcats' 141 yards through the air were the fourth least against the Irish defense and third when dis- counting Navy's 52 yards, ahead of only Pittsburgh (126) and Wake For- est (139). It was also the third time in 2018 the Irish held an opponent to less than 300 yards, joining Stanford (229) and Pittsburgh (242). "That's the way we've won this year," head coach Brian Kelly said. "We haven't given up the big plays. We've been really effective and effi- cient. We played some different cov- erages that they hadn't seen before. "We played some three deep with some match coverage, which I think was effective for us in certain situa- tions." ✦ NORTHWESTERN VS. NOTRE DAME QUARTER-BY-QUARTER COMPARISON Northwestern 1st Qtr. 2nd Qtr. 3rd Qtr. 4th Qtr. 1st Half 2nd Half Total Time of Possession 4:24 11:57 8:38 5:31 16:21 14:09 30:30 Third-Down Conversions 1-3 2-5 1-4 1-3 3-8 2-7 5-15 Fourth-Down Conversions 0-0 1-2 0-0 1-2 1-2 1-2 2-4 Average Field Position NU-39 NU-37 NU-28 NU-37 NU-38 NU-33 NU-35 Notre Dame 1st Qtr. 2nd Qtr. 3rd Qtr. 4th Qtr. 1st Half 2nd Half Final Time of Possession 10:36 3:03 6:22 9:29 13:39 15:51 29:30 Third-Down Conversions 1-4 0-2 2-3 2-5 1-6 4-8 5-14 Fourth-Down Conversions 2-2 0-0 1-1 0-0 2-2 1-1 3-3 Average Field Position ND-29 ND-17 ND-22 ND-34 ND-24 ND-28 ND-26 PLAY CHART (NO. OF PLAYS) Play Chart (No. Of Plays) Yards NU ND Nega ve 6 9 0-5 46 36 6-9 8 10 10-19 7 12 20-29 2 5 30-39 0 1 40-49 0 1 50 or more 0 0 RED ZONE EFFICIENCY (INSIDE 20-YARD LINE) No Poss. TD FG Score Northwestern 2 2 0 0 Notre Dame 3 2 0 1 BIG PLAYS (25 YARDS OR MORE) Northwestern • 3-1 ND27 Thorson 27-yard pass to Lees for a touchdown Notre Dame • 2-10 ND2 Book 31-yard pass to Claypool to ND33 • 1-10 NU47 Book 47-yard pass to Young for a touchdown • 1-10 ND45 Book 26-yard pass to Finke to NU29 Notre Dame's rush defense put forth another strong effort, limiting Northwestern to just 108 yards on 40 carries (2.7 yards per attempt). PHOTO BY BILL PANZICA