Notre Dame Football: Ian Book was Offensive Player of the Game vs Duke

Notre Dame football was led to a win by an outstanding performance from quarterback Ian Book on Saturday night.

Let’s start off with this — Ian Book did not play a perfect game. No one would be fooled into thinking Joe Burrow had transferred to Notre Dame instead of LSU. Book made mistakes, but that’s alright. He was perfectly imperfect. He was exactly what the Irish offense — the weak side of Notre Dame football all season — needed.

Book has earned his fair share of criticism, including from myself. He’s heard it, and is working to tune it all out. Then, he went out and led the Notre Dame offense to 38 points on the road.

He did so by running with his head down, fearlessly. As the quarterback, Book carried the ball for 139 yards on 12 carries. Both of those led the Irish for the night.

Even if you didn’t know those stats, just look at Book’s grass stained jersey, and you know that he ran with guts all night. You might have thought it was because the offensive line had faltered, but that wasn’t the case. Chip Long called designed runs for Book early and often. It let him get going, and put the team on his back from the start of the game.

But, Ian Book is a quarterback. How’d he do throwing the ball?

He lit Duke up. He threw downfield. He took chances. It’s exactly what he’s needed to do for Notre Dame all season. He took chances, which more often than not paid off. Instead of check-downs leading to punts, Book trusted his arm and got first downs.

Sure, he missed a couple throws and threw two interceptions, but nobody is perfect. I’d take those errors for the vintage 2018 Ian Book attack we saw last night every time.

Book ended 18 of 32 with 4 touchdowns and 181 yards. He made the Irish offense fun to watch again. It was a sigh of relief for me as a fan, and it must have felt so good for Book as a player.

Here’s to Book keeping it up, and finishing the season strong.