Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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22 SEPT. 25, 2017 BLUE & GOLD ILLUSTRATED BY LOU SOMOGYI W ill the real Notre Dame run- ning game please stand up? After going from a feast in the season-opening 49-16 win over Temple with 422 rushing yards to famine in the 20-19 loss to Georgia the next week with 55 yards on the ground, Notre Dame (2-1) had another all-you-can eat smorgasbord running the ball in its the 49-20 win at Boston College (1-2). Junior running back Josh Adams and junior quarterback Brandon Wimbush became the first tandem in school history to surpass 200 rushing yards in the same game. Adams' 18 carries netted 229 yards, while Wim- bush accumulated 207 yards on 21 carries and tallied four touchdowns. Wimbush's yardage total was a school record by an Irish quarterback, and his four rushing touchdowns were the most since Allen Pinkett in 1984. The Irish netted 515 rushing yards on 10.1 yards per carry and fin- ished with 611 yards of total offense. Notre Dame held only a 14-10 lead at halftime, and Boston College had cut the score to 14-13 and had the ball at the Irish 30 early in the third quar- ter before a fourth-and-one stop by the defense changed the momentum dramatically. "Great second half," Notre Dame head coach Brian Kelly summarized. "We didn't make a lot of plays in the first half, and we came in at halftime and went up to the offensive line and said, 'Look, we need you to take over this game. You're our veteran group' — and they really responded." Here is the quarter-by-quarter summary: FIRST QUARTER: NOTRE DAME, 7-3 Top Moment: On third-and-two from the Irish 27, Adams kept his bal- ance through the middle for a 65-yard romp to set up Wimbush's two-yard scoring run at 6:25 to put the Irish ahead 7-3. Adams' run surpassed the 55 total rushing yards the Irish had versus Georgia the previous week. Top Performer: Both punters had three apiece in the quarter, with Bos- ton College's Mike Knoll twice pin- ning Notre Dame near the 10-yard line and a 52-yard punt by Irish senior Tyler Newsome flipping the field, too. Stats: Three of Notre Dame's four possessions were three-and-out — and the scoring drive was four plays. The 12 Irish plays outside of Adams' 65-yard run netted 18 yards. Items: Boston College tallied first score on a 38-yard field goal with 7:52 left. The Eagles had three false start penalties on offense in three dif- ferent series. SECOND QUARTER: NOTRE DAME, 14-10 Top Moment: Adams' second long run of the half, this time 64 yards, propelled a 92-yard Notre Dame drive that concluded with Wimbush sneaking in from one yard to put the Irish ahead 14-10 at the 1:57 mark. Top Performer: Adams' nine car- ries for 167 yards in the half were only 13 yards short of his career-high 180 yards on the ground for an entire game, at USC last year. Boston Col- lege running back Jon Hillman also had a productive half with 16 carries for 94 yards. Stats: Notre Dame totaled 38 plays for 271 yards in the first half, with the 22 running plays netting 218 and Wimbush going 7-of-16 passing for 53 yards. Boston College's 44 plays were good for 228 yards, 117 rushing and 111 passing. Items: Boston College drove 85 yards in nine plays, capped with a 22- yard touchdown pass from Anthony Brown to a leaping Charlie Callinan in the end zone to take a 10-7 lead with 11:59 remaining until halftime. A 19-yard interception return by Eagles safety Lukas Dennis to Notre Dame's 43 with 18 seconds left was Wimbush set a school record for rush- ing yards by a quarterback with 207, and also became the first Irish player to tally four touchdowns on the ground in a game in 33 years. PHOTO BY BILL PANZICA RUSH JOB Josh Adams and Brandon Wimbush each eclipse 200 yards on the ground in 49-20 rout of Boston College