Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1053149
28 NOV. 26, 2018 BLUE & GOLD ILLUSTRATED IRISH OFFENSE IS INCONSISTENT, BUT GETS THE JOB DONE It was not a model game for the Notre Dame offense by any stretch, but the Fighting Irish still did enough to get the victory versus a No. 12-ranked Syracuse team. The Irish settled for field goals in three of their seven red-zone trips, with a fourth ending in an Ian Book interception. The junior quarterback threw a ball up for grabs on fourth- and-goal after getting his foot stepped on by junior right guard Tommy Krae- mer and falling backwards. Even with the missed chances to put up more points, Notre Dame still managed to score 36 while accumu- lating 463 total yards of offense. The Irish rushed for 171 yards and two scores on 36 carries, but 87 of those yards came on in the final quarter when counting the one-yard loss on the kneel to close out the contest. "Offensively, we moved the ball," head coach Brian Kelly said. "It was a really good plan offensively as well. I was really pleased with the structure and what we wanted to do and how we went about it, but we were not as clean as we would like. "Penalties, stalling in the red zone, but 36 points late in November against the No. 12-ranked team in the country. That's a good football team. "We were able to do some things offensively that put us in a really good position, and we never really felt like the game was threatened at any time." Book completed 23 of 37 passes (62.2 percent) for 292 yards with two touchdowns and an interception. It marked his lowest completion per- centage since he took over as the starter, and lowest quarterback rat- ing (140.9). There were also multiple false starts on the offensive line and dropped passes by the wide receivers that led to some of the inconsisten- cies as well. But the Irish wideouts made up for their mistakes with sev- eral tough catches by senior Miles Boykin and junior Chase Claypool throughout the contest. Claypool finished with a team- high 98 receiving yards and a score on six catches, while Boykin added seven receptions for 76 yards. ✦ NOTRE DAME VS. SYRACUSE QUARTER-BY-QUARTER COMPARISON Notre Dame 1st Qtr. 2nd Qtr. 3rd Qtr. 4th Qtr. 1st Half 2nd Half Total Time of Possession 10:14 8:55 9:06 4:42 19:09 13:48 32:57 Third-Down Conversions 2-5 2-5 1-4 1-1 4-10 2-5 6-15 Fourth-Down Conversions 0-0 0-1 1-1 0-0 0-1 1-1 1-2 Average Field Position ND-40 ND-32 ND-45 ND-22 ND-35 ND-36 ND-35 Syracuse 1st Qtr. 2nd Qtr. 3rd Qtr. 4th Qtr. 1st Half 2nd Half Final Time of Possession 4:46 6:05 5:54 10:18 10:51 16:12 27:03 Third-Down Conversions 0-2 2-6 0-3 4-7 2-8 4-10 6-18 Fourth-Down Conversions 0-0 0-0 0-0 0-0 0-0 0-0 0-0 Average Field Position SU-24 SU-31 SU-26 SU-29 SU-27 SU-27 SU-27 PLAY CHART (NO. OF PLAYS) Yards ND SU Nega ve 9 11 0-5 33 43 6-9 18 9 10-19 8 9 20-29 2 0 30-39 3 1 40-49 1 0 50 or more 0 0 RED ZONE EFFICIENCY (INSIDE 20-YARD LINE) No Poss. TD FG Score Notre Dame 7 3 3 1 Syracuse 2 0 1 1 BIG PLAYS (25 YARDS OR MORE) Notre Dame • 1-10 SU42 Book pass complete to Claypool for 27 yards to SU15 • 1-10 ND17 Book pass complete to Claypool for 33 yards to 50 • 1-10 50 Book pass complete to Mack for 47 yards to SU3 • 1-10 ND43 Wimbush run for 35 yards to SU28 • 2-20 SU32 Williams run for 32 yards and touchdown Syracuse • 3-11 SU30 DeVito pass complete to Harris for 34 yards to the ND36 Junior quarterback Ian Book threw for 292 yards and two touchdowns after missing the previous game due to a rib injury. PHOTO BY ANGELA DRISKELL