Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1165986
30 SEPT. 23, 2019 BLUE & GOLD ILLUSTRATED CLOSER LOOK BRYAN DRISKELL H ere are four obser- vations from Notre Dame's 66-14 blow- out victory versus New Mexico. Ian Book Improved, But Deep Ball Game Must Continue To Develop — If you just look at the stats, Notre Dame's 66-14 victory over New Mexico was a dominant performance fu- eled by monster numbers from senior quarterback Ian Book. He passed for 360 yards on just 15 com- pletions, and five of them went for touchdowns. Book had scoring tosses of 65, 59, 54, 37 and 20 yards in the game. But numbers can be misleading, and while Book showed improvement from the season opener, this game also showed he is not quite where he needs to be. The three biggest completions of the game traveled a grand total of three yards past the line of scrim- mage. Two of those throws were short shovel passes to wide receivers going in motion. In fact, of Book's 11 completions for 251 yards in the first half, only three were completed more than five yards down the field. Book missed senior wideout Chase Claypool twice on deep balls, but eventually connected with Claypool for a 37-yard touchdown on a post route and hit senior wide receiver Javon McKinley on a back-shoulder throw into the end zone on a 20-yard touchdown. Book also found sophomore tight end Tommy Tremble on a corner route in the third quarter, and that is where the improvement came. It just took some time for him to get there. New Mexico Run Defense Set Up Pass Game Success — Notre Dame struggled to get much going on the ground, finishing the game with just 157 yards on 38 carries (4.1 yards per carry). Forty-seven of those yards came on a pair of quarterback runs, and the Irish backs finished with only 49 yards on 20 carries. From a pure production stand- point, this was a subpar performance by the Irish ground game. Part of that is sloppy play by different posi- tions at various times, but part of it involved a New Mexico defense that was very aggressive. The Lobos were bound and determined to not allow the Irish offense to establish its ground attack. That game plan was effective early, but once offensive coordinator Chip Long had a read on it, he came up with counter punches that took ad- vantage of that aggressiveness. With the Irish up 14-0, Long called a play that had both guards pulling to their left. When the Irish ran that play earlier in the game and handed the ball off, the Lobos would run hard to that action, but this time Long had running back Avery Davis running a jet sweep in the opposite direction. The over-aggressiveness of the de- fense opened up a huge hole that Da- vis turned into a 59-yard touchdown. Notre Dame ran the same play early in the third quarter, this time showing the run action to the right, and it was senior wideout Chris Finke who turned a shovel pass into a 54-yard touchdown. Notre Dame Run Defense Con- tinues Early Season Woes — Notre Dame yielded 249 rushing yards in the opener against Louisville, then allowed 212 in its victory over New Mexico. Both numbers are highly un- acceptable for any good defense, and, for a team with aspirations of another College Football Playoff berth, dramatic im- provement is needed. New Mexico lost 28 yards on a fumble during a field goal attempt, and if you take that out the Lobos would have racked up 240 rushing yards and averaged 5.3 yards per at- tempt. Some of that came in the second half against the backup defenders, but New Mexico had 136 yards and 5.7 yards per carry in the first half. The reasons are multiple, and they involve missed assignments in the front seven in some instances, continued contain problems on quar- terback runs in other instances, and part of it is something that will hap- pen from time to time when your defense is being more aggressive schematically, which we are seeing from the Irish. With Georgia and its potent ground game up next, the Irish defense will need to make significant upgrade in a hurry. Linebacker Play Improves, But Is Not There Yet — The Irish line- backers played better against New Mexico, but, as a whole, the unit still needs plenty to polish. Fifth-year senior Asmar Bilal had a pair of impressive tackles behind the line, and at times he showed quicker reaction time and the ability to get into the backfield. Junior Drew White displayed a good feel for what New Mexico was trying to do, but at times he was still not as aggressive as he needed to be, and he made himself too easy to block. Rover Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah took multiple bad angles early in the game, which allowed the Lobos to get outside of the defense. He cleaned it up later in the game, but mistakes like that must be worked out quickly. ✦ Inside Notre Dame's 66-14 Rout Of New Mexico Bryan Driskell has been a football analyst for Blue & Gold Illustrated since April 2015. He can be reached at bdriskell@blueandgold.com. The Lobos had success running the ball against the Irish, becoming the second consecutive opponent to eclipse 200 rushing yards (212). PHOTO BY ANDRIS VISOCKIS