Notre Dame Football: 5 takeaways from the Irish victory over Duke
By Matt Clark
Ian Book struggles
The 2019 season was a tale of two seasons for Notre Dame quarterback Ian Book. After taking the reigns of the Irish offense midway through the 2018 season, most believed he would take a significant step forward in his first full season as the starting quarterback.
The results were not there for Book in a number of games in the first half of the season. He often looked uncomfortable in the pocket, even when the pocket was clean and he had time to check for an open receiver. He seemed to have happy feet and would tuck the ball and run when there wasn’t pressure. There were also a number of times where he should have tucked the ball and ran and instead made ill-advised throws.
During those games, the Notre Dame offense struggled to gain traction and would routinely go three-and-out on critical drives. While Book would put up solid stats in games against lesser opponents, he would have too many moments where he made head-scratching decisions.
As the 2019 season progressed, Book became stronger, with the offense seemingly clicking in the 38-7 demolishing of Duke in early November of 2019. From the Duke game on, Book was the quarterback that everyone had expected him to be from the start of the season.
Due to the strong finish in the second half of 2019, many believed that Book had taken that step forward and would be a prolific passer in the 2020 season. They expected him to have similar results in the opening game against Duke to those he had against them last year.
Unfortunately, that was not the case. Book again seemed out of sorts regularly against the Blue Devils. The Irish offense would go three-and-out on its first three drives and was in danger of doing so on four consecutive drives before punter Jay Bramblett bailed them out with a 14-yard rush on 4th-and-8 on Notre Dame’s own 21-yard line.
Some of the offensive struggles in the passing game could be attributed to the fact that Book was playing without the services of his top three wide receivers. Kevin Austin is still recovering from surgery on his injured foot, Braden Lenzy was scratched right before the game due to hamstring tightness, and recent transfer Ben Skowronek left the game early on with a hamstring injury of his own.
While losing a trio of top wide receivers isn’t ideal for any quarterback, that doesn’t explain away the inaccuracy of Book, whose calling card was his pinpoint accuracy early on in his career. The fifth-year senior uncharacteristically overthrew his receivers on a number of occasions, underthrew a wide-open Lawrence Keys III on a poorly thrown ball on what would have likely been an easy touchdown, and threw an ill-advised pass into tight coverage in the end zone, resulting in an interception that negated a 75-yard reception from Kyren Williams the play before.
Book seemed to be the same uncomfortable quarterback in a clean pocket that he was early on last season. He seemed to dance around the pocket nervously without any pressure from defenders, only to throw off-balanced passes that were uncatchable by receivers.
That said, Book was able to generate movement with short passes to his tight ends and running backs. He also had an excellent pass in the end zone for a 17-yard touchdown catch by Avery Davis. There were some positive plays from the Irish quarterback that would suggest it may have been merely him knocking off rust from the offseason that he wasn’t able to due to the COVID shortened preseason.
However, it’s worth watching to see if he can quickly regain the impressive form he had later on in the 2019 season. Going 19 for 31 with 263 yards, one passing touchdown, one interception, and a quarterback rating of only 51.5 isn’t what any Notre Dame football fan wants to see from the quarterback starting in his third season with the team.
Given that we have seen Book excel in the past, it is difficult to put too much stock in one somewhat sub-par performance, especially when it is in the first game of a season that had a shortened preseason due to the pandemic. I fully expect Book to turn things around against the University of South Florida next week. The situation is definitely worth monitoring though.