Notre Dame football: Offensive grades against Louisville

Notre Dame football struggled more against Louisville than they should have on offense.

It was an embarrassing showing from top to bottom by the Notre Dame football offense. Only scoring 12 points against anyone is frustrating, but against a Louisville team who struggles on defense is miserable.

Beyond this game, there are deeper concerns brought up by this performance. Between struggling to start against Duke, a long-term inability to throw downfield, and now this showing against Louisville, how can Notre Dame expect to compete with the likes of Clemson?

Short answer; they can’t.

All that isn’t the concern here, though. The big concern is what happened against the Cardinals and how do you correct it for the Georgia Tech game? Grading the offensive positions against Louisville to see who needs the most work in the coming weeks.

There’s really no more excuses for Ian Book‘s regression. Back in 2018, he was a necessary spark plug to get an incredibly talented Notre Dame team to the College Football Playoff for the first time.

Then, in 2019, he took a leap forward statistically. His numbers were elite, but something was off about his game. He couldn’t take his game to the next level against top-25 competition, though. It only made sense that 2020 would be the season Book took the next step, to the ranks of the elite. Instead, he’s thrown 714 yards and 3 touchdowns in 4 games.

None of this mediocrity changed against Louisville. He still can’t push the ball downfield. He still has happy feet in the pocket. He still misses throws a 5th year senior should know how to make. The best part of his game was his legs, running for 47 yards and the game-winning touchdown.

Normally, when Book can use his legs effectively he can thrive as a passer. It didn’t help against Louisville, though. Book only threw 106 yards on 11/19 passing. He didn’t throw a touchdown or an interception.

At this point Book should be winning games for Notre Dame, not just managing them. The good news is that Book is smart enough with the ball to avoid turnovers, and he won’t lose any games for Notre Dame. If he was a freshman that would be fine, but it doesn’t cut it anymore.

Once again, Kyren Williams was asked to take on the majority of the work for the Notre Dame offense. He wasn’t as dominant as in past weeks, but he was still a strong option for the Irish. Williams racked up 127 yards on 25 carries. He didn’t find the end zone and his 5.1 yards per rush was his worst output all season.

No other running backs made a splash. Chris Tyree had 32 yards on 7 carries. That was Tyree’s worst showing since the season opener against Duke. C’bo Flemister and Jafar Armstrong didn’t factor into the game at all.

The backs didn’t do much in the receiving game either. Williams snagged a single 5-yard catch, and Tyree had two catches for just 15 yards.

Let’s be honest for a moment. The talent here is not at the level it needs to be to win games through the air. It’s not even at the level it needs to be so Notre Dame can scare teams through the air. The Irish wide receivers were locked down by a bad Louisville secondary, who was out its top cornerback. There was no separation, and Book’s options to throw to were limited at best.

It was good to have Ben Skowronek back. The grad transfer from Northwestern entered the season as Notre Dame’s leading pass catcher for their career but injured his hamstring early in the Duke game. Skowronek led Notre Dame in receiving with 28 yards on 2 catches.

28 yards on two catches leading receivers tells you everything you need to know about the group’s performance.

Kevin Austin made an appearance, which was nice to see, but his youth and inexperience won’t bridge the gap for Notre Dame at receiver. After a good game against Florida State Javon McKinley fell off the map. Meanwhile, Braden Lenzy for all his talent has done absolutely nothing this season. That continued without a catch against Louisville.

Michael Mayer continues to be a bright spot. He’s a dominant blocker and red zone threat. Unfortunately, he’s also critically underused and needs to start getting more touches.

Far and away Notre Dame’s best unit on offense is their offensive line. Week in and week out they give Book all the time he needs to throw and create massive holes for the backs to run through Except, on Saturday this wasn’t the case. They let Book get harassed and sacked 4 times.

Add to their struggles in pass blocking, there were also more issues than normal in the running game. That isn’t to say they weren’t solid in the running game, just not up to their own standard. The holes weren’t as wide to run through, and they didn’t bowl over Louisville’s front 7 as easily as they had teams like Florida State and USF.

More than having a bad game, the Notre Dame offensive line was decidedly average against Louisville. Average is a level of play they should always exceed. It may not have been to standard, but it’s not like anything about the offense was to standard against Louisville.