Notre Dame football: Irish start sloppy, then dominate Orange for tenth win

The Notre Dame football team wrapped up a perfect regular season on Saturday, erasing a sloppy start to pummel the Syracuse Orange.

Notre Dame football went into their game against the Syracuse Orange looking to finish out a perfect regular season, and they did just that, but it was a sloppy mess early on. However, after shaking off a slow start against Syracuse, the Irish dominated the Orange throughout, thanks to an incredible effort from quarterback Ian Book.

Playing his last game inside Notre Dame Stadium, Book threw for three touchdowns, while also running two in, putting an exclamation point on his legendary career at home. In fact, Book has never lost a game at home during his time as the starter, and with the win on Saturday, he moved to first overall in wins in program history with No. 30.

After a field goal to open up the game, Notre Dame saw their offense stall, with two punts and a turnover on downs during their next three series. From there, the offense was unstoppable, erasing an early 7-3 Syracuse lead to score on three straight possessions to close out the first half.

In the second half, things looked a bit dicey early on as well, as the Irish had a fumble and interception to start on their first two possessions. Luckily for them, they were playing the Orange, who matched them turnover for turnover, and could not take advantage of Notre Dame’s mistakes.

That would prove to be costly, as once the offense started rolling again, the Irish put the game away. Freshman Chris Tyree had a 94-yard touchdown run to put the Irish up by 30 in the fourth quarter, and Notre Dame was able to hold on for a 45-21 victory.