Notre Dame: Ian Book was Offensive Player of the Game vs. Bowling Green
Notre Dame quarterback Ian Book had a monster day against the Bowling Green Falcons in the 52-0 win on Saturday afternoon.
Deep sigh everyone. The Earth has begun to rotate on its axis again. Ian Book played at an elite level for Notre Dame. I don’t care that it was Bowling Green — a bottom five team in all of college football — Book needed to take care of business and did.
Stuffed in between Virginia and USC was this Bowling Green game. For the offense, it was a get right game. It was an opportunity to fix issues that we’ve seen all season. An opportunity to fix the blocking issues and make Book more comfortable running through his reads.
For the most part, Book’s reads were much better. They weren’t perfect, but he didn’t have happy feet when his first read was covered. That’s a huge step in the right direction. Book will need to continue improving his composure going into the game with USC next Saturday.
As for this past Saturday, Book was an excellent 16 of 20, throwing for 261 yards and 5 touchdowns. All of those touchdown passes were in the first half. That’s a Notre Dame record for touchdown passes in a half. It also ties Ian Book’s personal mark for touchdown passes in a game.
Book spread the ball around, finding four different receivers for those five touchdown passes. In total, nine different receivers caught passes for Notre Dame. This shows that Book wasn’t locked onto one target — he spread the ball around.
This puts extra pressure on a defense, when they’re not able to lock into one receiver to cover. When the defense needs to put resources into covering every receiver, it leaves gaps for the running game. That’s when the offense hits its ideal balance and becomes its deadliest.
This Notre Dame team will only go as far as Ian Book will be able to take them. If Book continues to improve, the Irish will have no issue making it to a New Year’s Six bowl game. They may even still have an outside shot at making the College Football Playoff.
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However, if Book falters, the Irish will be staring down the barrel of a mid-level bowl game. Notre Dame needs Ian Book to play at this level every week, no matter who the opponent is going to be.