Notre Dame football: 3 takeaways from win vs Florida State

No. 1: It was good to see the Irish air it out

After a frustratingly conservative first two weeks, in which Ian Book only threw 20+ yards downfield once, Notre Dame finally started attacking in its route tree. Over the course of the Florida State game, Notre Dame took six shots downfield.

Now, six is not an incredibly aggressive number. A lot of teams take at least one downfield shot on each and every drive. Still, it’s nice to see the Irish offense get more aggressive in the passing game. Granted, these deep shots came with mixed results, but that’s to be expected. It’s harder to complete a go route than a 5-yard slant. You just need to be able to complete those if you want to be able to score quickly on offense.

The strange thing about the deep shots to this point in the season was that Ian Book had taken deep shots in 2019, making it seem like Notre Dame doesn’t trust its current batch of wide receivers.

On these downfield shots, Notre Dame only completed two of six. Both of those two completions went to Javon McKinley. Those two completions helped McKinley gather over half of Notre Dame’s receiving yards by himself. Other deep shots were directed at Kevin Austin, Braden Lenzy, and Tommy Tremble.

Only one of the deep shots, the incomplete pass to Tremble in the endzone, was in the middle of the field. The rest were sideline shots. The one time McKinley didn’t come up with the ball was when Book was under a ton of pressure, falling to his left, and heaved up a hope for him.

Strangely, Notre Dame seemed to try to pick on Asante Samuel Jr. on their deep shots. The son of former New England Patriots great, Asante Samuel, is Florida State’s best cover corner by a country mile. So, picking on Samuel Jr. isn’t always the smartest move.

Only one of the three shots taken at Samuel Jr. was complete, the second attempt to McKinley. Even stranger is that it’s not like Samuel Jr. follows the best outside wide receiver. He plays a side of the field, so you could have picked out your matchup on the opposite side and likely had more success.

Regardless of success, it’s still important to take these deep shots. They force the defense’s safeties to respect your passing game. By holding them 10 yards or so back, rather than crowding the box, the middle of the field is opened up to run the ball. And, as we’ve seen through three games, Notre Dame wants to run it down your throat.