Neither stadia nor uniforms cause teams to win or lose football games, but the Irish faithful spent much of Saturday night seeking scapegoats for their team’s lackluster performance against unranked Boston College. In perhaps the ugliest performance of the season, Notre Dame (#4 CFP) was lucky to survive a gritty effort from their little cousins in Chestnut Hill. What meaning the game will ultimately have remains to be seen, as next Saturday’s tilt at eleventh-ranked Stanford assumes all of the important for Notre Dame’s college football playoff hopes.
In the seventh iteration of the “Shamrock Series,” Notre Dame brought its Catholic carnival to Boston, where it took over the town and transformed Fenway Park from baseball field to gridiron. Boston College dutifully played the role of “away” team, despite being located a merely four miles from Yawkey Way, and even trotted out its own “special” uniforms to commemorate Doug Flutie’s Hail Mary pass game from 1984. They clashed with the flash and artistry behind Notre Dame’s gaudy “green monster-“themed kit.
The dichotomy was apparent, too, on the field. Boston College were workaday in their approach, tackling soundly and ripping at the ball to frustrating effect on every Irish possession. You could practically hear their lunch pails clink and clatter as players ran on and off the field. You could pick almost any such stereotype to describe them and whichever one you chose, Boston College’s defense mostly lived up to it. They blanketed Will Fuller effectively, save on a few important possessions late in the game, they tackled solidly, and they stripped.
The Irish, for their part, and DeShone Kizer, in particular, flashed and floundered and never looked ready to put the game away, despite repeated opportunities to do so. On the game’s opening possession, for example, Notre Dame’s offense cruised down the field, mostly on the strength of two completions to Amir Carlisle and a 31 yard carry by C.J. Prosise. A Boston College pass interference call later, the Irish had the ball on the BC 7 and four downs to grab some early points. Instead, Kizer threw an awful pass to a wide-open Eagle defender. Alizé Jones could do little more than fall on his backside.
There were four turnovers by the Irish in the first half and five total, none of which were uglier than Kizer’s second, which came as his pocket collapsed and he threw the ball away down the middle of the field. His bobbled hold in the third quarter denied Notre Dame a sorely-needed “clean” possession after Kizer connected with Chris Brown and the Irish went up 16-3. Instead, all Justin Yoon could do was slide his stride to a stop and let Kizer try and figure something out with his feet and arm. He could not.
When the Irish extended their lead on a thirty-five yard field goal by Justin Yoon with 10:35 to play in the fourth quarter, you could have been forgiven for thinking that the game was now, finally, safe in hand. Boston College’s offense had been, until that point, anemic. Which of course made it the perfect time for Notre Dame’s defense to come completely unhinged, or to “miss an assignment,” in coach-speak. This allowed freshman quarterback Jeff Smith to come in for fellow freshman quarterback John Fadule and take a zone read eighty yards for a touch down with 10:17 left.
Boston College would pull to within three on a touchdown pass, their offense suddenly roaring to life. The game, of course, came down to an on-side kick, which Matthias Farley fell upon. Like that, the game was over.
Despite the tone of this report, it bears noting that Notre Dame flew to Boston and scored nineteen points on the country’s best defense and won the game despite five turnovers. It bears noting, too, that Notre Dame is 10-1 for the first time since 2012. In Will Fuller, who had a mostly quiet night, broken by a nifty thirty-two yard run and carry, and C.J. Prosise, who left the game early with an ankle injury and did not return, Notre Dame has thousand yard performers for the first time since 2011.
Further silver linings are found in the play of Jones, Carlisle, and Chris Brown. Chris Brown’s touchdown grab was the perfect demonstration of the disparity between the two teams: the BC defender was well-positioned and did what a defensive back is supposed to do in that circumstance whereas Brown was just better and out-jumped him, yanking the ball from his hands. It was the one time an Irish player took the ball away from an Eagle, and it mattered.
Notre Dame’s season ends on Saturday with Stanford in Palo Alto. Whether the Irish can survive the injuries to Prosise and Russell and figure out their turnovers and assignment issues are things they can control, largely. What the committee makes of any of it is not.
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- Why Nobody Will Cotton to Notre Dame - December 3, 2018
- Irish Finish Regular Season Perfect 12-0 - November 26, 2018
TERRY
They were almost beaten by a vastly inferior team, and that is not the 1st time that has happened this season.
Top 4 teams do not allow a freshman qb (who has come in to replace another freshman qb) to go 80 yards on a zone read.
This is a good team, but not THAT good.
IrishElvis
The 2012 ND team needed a FG at the final gun to beat Purdue. Last year’s champs (Ohio State) lost to Virginia Tech & needed 2OT to outlast a Penn State team who finished the season 7-6.
Ohio State may not have been *that* good last year. ND may not be *that* good this year. I’d much rather have a garbage game with 5 turnovers and still win.
TERRY
Of course I would rather win no matter how, but a team that consistently plays down to the level of its inferior opponents all season is not a playoff worthy team.
I repeat – this is a good team, but not THAT good.