Notre Dame Football: Chris Finke was the Unsung Hero vs. Duke
By Carlee North
Chris Finke did all the little things right for Notre Dame Football on Saturday.
Saturday night in Durham was the best game of the year overall for Notre Dame Football. They played great defense and the offense put together a solid game from start to finish.
Duke isn’t a bad football team, especially on the defensive side of the ball, where they came into Saturday night inside the top 25 for defense efficiency. Ian Book easily had his best performance of the season, where he used his legs a lot more frequently and was solid in the pocket, stepped up and just let it rip.
When Book is able to use his legs inside the game plan, he’s a really good quarterback and I’m surprised we haven’t seen it more this season so far. I sure hope that continues over the next four games Notre Dame will play.
In the passing game, there was someone who also showed his best of the season. The unsung hero against Duke was Chris Finke.
Finke looked healthy for the first time all season on Saturday night. He had 5 catches for 49 yards and added 2 touchdown grabs, both of those being big time 3rd down plays. Finke also nearly added an 85 yard catch and run, but it was called back because of a questionable holding call.
By the end of the night, Finke racked up 100 all-purpose yards after adding to his solid night returning punts, where he had a big return inside the red zone that was eventually capped off with a 2-yard touchdown pass to George Takacs.
Throughout the beginning of the season, Finke was dealing with several nagging injuries that didn’t really let him burst onto the scene like many thought he would. This was the first time all season that Notre Dame saw the old Chris Finke and it’s the reason he was the unsung hero Saturday night.
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Going forward, Notre Dame and the offense will need Finke to produce like he did against Duke and continue being the go-to guy in short yardage and momentum changing situations. Navy comes to town next, and I definitely expect Finke’s play to carry over to Saturday afternoon.