Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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30 OCT. 12, 2019 BLUE & GOLD ILLUSTRATED H ere are several observations from Notre Dame's 52-0 beat- down of Bowling Green. OFFENSE: LOTS OF GOOD STUFF TO TALK ABOUT • Overall when 52 points are scored it is a good day for the of- fense, but there are certainly oppor- tunities to get better going into the USC game next week. Some of the mistakes that were made will not end up as touchdowns against a solid Power Five team like Southern Cal. I was a little surprised the offense came out in the first series and de- cided to only throw. It felt forced and led to a three-and-out that no one was expecting. • We talked all week about the of- fensive line and how they would per- form against an overmatched defen- sive unit for Bowling Green, and they did excel as a unit in the run and pass. It is difficult to play a perfect game, but they dominated the Falcons up front just like they should have and established the line of scrimmage down the field as opposed to get- ting pushed back into the face of the quarterback. They were extremely assignment sound as well. • Ian Book started the game 9 of 9 with three touchdown passes, looked poised in the pocket and was going through his reads very well. On his first touchdown pass to sophomore tight end Tommy Tremble, he went through his progressions from left to right and finally found Tremble, who appeared to be the third option. There has been talk about run-pass options (RPO) and whether Notre Dame should be running them or not with Book because he has struggled at times with the read. However, the second touchdown pass to junior tight end Cole Kmet was the result of a great RPO read. The linebackers bit hard on the initial run action, which left Kmet wide open down the seam where the safety was slow getting over to cover the tight end. • Senior running back Tony Jones Jr. was able to get his third 100-yard game of the season, and achieved it with strong reads. His patience level and block setup has improved each game. At the beginning of the season, we discussed how a back like Jones is one who needs to get his hands on the ball multiple times, and when he does, he gets better and better. Jones had 40 yards in the first half and then exploded for 62 in the third (and final for him) quarter on just two carries. There is a flow to the running at- tack Notre Dame has demonstrated the last two contests and it will con- tinue to pay off when junior Jafar Armstrong returns. Armstrong will bring the big-play burst that is still a missing element in this offense. • The Irish tight ends had a great game and scored the first two touchdowns of the contest. Tremble hauled in a 17-yard scoring pass from Book, followed by Kmet reeling in a 21-yarder. The tight ends, including junior Brock Wright, combined to haul in seven receptions for 109 yards and two touchdowns. I was also im- pressed with the two-tight-end set that Notre Dame continues to employ. The Fighting Irish used Tremble as an attached, hand in the dirt tight versus the Falcons and he responded very favorably. DEFENSE: HAMILTON CONTINUES TO IMPRESS • Freshman safety Kyle Hamilton's progress remains remarkable. He al- ways seems to be in the right place in the pass game, and I do not think the Falcons even attempted to throw in his direction today. That is some pretty high praise, whether it was in- tentional or not, for a true freshman. With every game, I get more im- pressed with Hamilton's ability to fill the alley in the run game. He is superior in play diagnosing. There was a great view on his run stuff from behind the offense where he follows the man he is supposed to cover in the pass game, but imme- diately sees that it is an outside run play and flies downhill to make the punishing hit short of the first down. • I was once again impressed with the interior defensive front, led by ju- niors Kurt Hinish and Myron Tago- vailoa-Amosa. They applied consis- tent pressure on the pocket and caused some problems for the BGSU offense. Sophomore Jayson Ademilola received a considerable amount of snaps while Tagovailoa-Amosa was out briefly with an injury. He held up well and used his pad level ef- fectively to stand up the offensive guards and control their movement. There were a few missed run fits with this group, but overall they ex- celled a third straight week. • Senior defensive ends Julian Ok- wara and Khalid Kareem had a few moments of glory in this game for sure, including forcing Bowling Green quarterback Grant Loy to scramble out of the pocket and throw the ball away on third down. It was such a deep scramble that he was not able to get the ball back to the line of scrimmage, so it was ruled intentional grounding and Okwara picked up the sack. The issues for the defensive ends in this game is they got washed down a few times in the run game and allowed plays to happen outside. Overall, though, it was not a bad day for the dynamic end duo. ✦ Breaking Down The Blowout Of Bowling Green THOUGHTS FROM THE PRESS BOX VINCE DEDARIO Vince DeDario has been a writer for Blue & Gold Illustrated since August 2019. He can be reached at vdedario@blueandgold.com It was an excellent performance by the trio of Fighting Irish tight ends, led by sophomore Tommy Tremble's four receptions for 38 yards and one score. PHOTO BY ANDRIS VISOCKIS