Notre Dame Football: Top Offensive Matchups vs. Boston College
The Notre Dame offense has hit its stride in the last few weeks, and they will look to continue that again against a bad Boston College defense.
In the past two games, Ian Book has nine touchdowns by himself, while the Notre Dame offense as a whole has 11. That equals 38.5 points per game. While the Duke defense isn’t particularly good, the Navy defense going into the game last weekend was one of the better defenses statistically in the country.
Now, Notre Dame finishes with two poor defenses to close the regular season slate, and that starts with Boston College today on senior day. Here are the top offensive matchup to watch in that game.
Notre Dame Passing Attack vs. Dreadful BC Pass Defense
Ian Book has seemingly found himself again over the last couple weeks, and Boston College should allow that trend to continue. The Eagles come into today’s game with the 121st ranked pass efficiency defense while also allowing 302 yards through the air on average. Ian Book and the Irish passing attack should have a field day.
A confident Book is what the coaching staff has been waiting for all season, and he looks a like a top notch college quarterback when he is playing like he did the past few games. The narrative that he can’t throw the ball downfield and complete passes for big chunk plays isn’t accurate. This season, when he has actually unleashed these sorts of passes, they have been completed at a solid rate. His issue was more vision and pocket presence than his actual physical capabilities.
Irish Running Game vs. Eagles Rush Defense
This is a trend of most weeks, mostly because of the inconsistencies of the Notre Dame rushing attack. While the QB play has been better, the running game continues to be a question mark and overall red flag — when Ian Book isn’t running it himself. Jafar Armstrong hasn’t looked like the player we all thought he was since coming back from his injury, and the injury probably has something to do with that. Tony Jones Jr. had a stretch of really nice games, but hasn’t been that good since. The rest of the running backs have been good in spurts, but in general haven’t had much of an opportunity to stand out.
The BC pass defense is the part to attack, but the defense as a whole isn’t good — including the rush defense. They allow nearly 200 yards a game on the ground for an average of 4.6 yard per carry. Essentially, Notre Dame should have their way with the Boston College defense on the ground.
Notre Dame Offensive Line/TEs vs. Max Richardson
The one game wrecker for the Boston College defense is redshirt junior linebacker Max Richardson. He simply does everything for the Eagles team, and is the one guy Chip Long needs to scheme against. He isn’t a pass rush outside linebacker, but he does lead the team in sacks with 3.5 while also leading the team in tackles by almost 30. 14 of those tackles have been for a loss — 10 more than anyone else.
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The way to beat him is to get him lined up on tight ends or slot wide receivers and make him to have to cover. His strength is playing closer to the line of scrimmage and sideline to sideline, and not in coverage. Chip Long will need to be creative in how they force him to do various things. I’ll take my chances with Kmet or Finke lined up against him, but if he is free to reign around the line of scrimmage on blitzes or run plays, he will be a problem for the Notre Dame offensive line and tight ends in protection.