Notre Dame football: ACC Championship Offensive Grades
The Notre Dame football team could not get anything going on offense Saturday. Here are the grades for that side of the ball in the ACC title game.
There is no sugarcoating things for the Notre Dame football team when it comes to Saturday’s ACC Championship Game against the Clemson Tigers. For Notre Dame, the game was horrible, frustrating, and ultimately could be costly to their College Football Playoff hopes. The offense wasn’t the only issue that Notre Dame had, but it’s hard not to put a lot of it on Tommy Rees‘ offense.
Saturday was a disaster for the offense, and the offensive grades reflect that. For the Irish, you just have to hope that this loss doesn’t cost Notre Dame a spot in the College Football Playoff.
Notre Dame football ACC title game grades: Quarterback
Ian Book didn’t play well at all, but how much of that can you put on him? The running game never got going, and once the Irish got down big that didn’t matter, because the Clemson defensive line started teeing off on him. It didn’t help that the offensive line was overwhelmed, out of sync, and confused. Add in receivers who couldn’t shake off any defenders and Book had to do it all.
He just didn’t do much, let alone all.
The frustrating thing about it was that Book and the offense started solid. They got into a quick, rhythmic passing game that got the ball out of Book’s hands and to receivers. When it worked, things were fine.
It just didn’t work long and seemed to end when Book threw a ball slightly behind Avery Davis to end a drive on fourth down.
From that point on it was a disaster. Book ran for his life, had nowhere to throw the ball, and didn’t seem confident going downfield. Luckily, Book didn’t have any turnovers to exacerbate the problems. He just didn’t do anything to overcome those issues.
Book also had no ability to run the ball, which felt a bit like watching a knuckleball pitcher with a broken nail. They just can’t comfortably play their game. In the end, Book had 219 yards through the air and finished with -35 yards on the ground.
Grade= C