Rakes Report #131: Tony! Toni! Tone! Tonee? (The Southern Cal Review)
1) Occasionally during football games it becomes apparent that if a team fails to score they are probably going to lose, which is how I felt after the Trojans made it 23-20 and the Irish got the ball back with 10:27 remaining. Things were tense: Graham Harrell and Kedon Slovis had cracked Clark Lea’s defense and it seemed like Notre Dame wouldn’t be able to keep the Trojans out of the end zone on the next possession even if the victory depended on it. The Irish offense had been hot and cold all night and they absolutely had to lock it in for a touchdown or things were set to break bad. They owed the defense for saving them earlier in the season and it was time for the debt to be repaid.
What followed was as memorable as a fourth quarter drive as you will see in this series. 14 plays. 75 yards. Draining nearly seven minutes off the clock and overcoming a fifteen-yard illegal block that could have crippled the whole operation. We will discuss Ian Book at length below but when he needed to make plays on that drive — scrambling for 17 on a 3rd and 10 and then powering in on a designed run to provide the winning margin — he did. It’s why he is 14-2 as a starter and why Notre Dame is 5-1 at the midway point of the season. Three straight against the Trojans, six of the last eight, seven of the last ten. After the 2000s saw Pete Carroll’s Reign of Troy that obliterated the Irish game in and game out, the 2010’s went to Notre Dame, starting with Robert Hughes bowling balling through a rain-soaked Coliseum and ending with Book diving into the end zone.
2) Your eyes were not deceiving you with the raw ability and skill on the USC roster. Using the 247 Talent Composite — which accounts for the recruiting rankings for everyone on a team, removing guys no longer on the roster— the Trojans are 4th in the country, behind only Alabama, Ohio State and Georgia. The problem for our visitors is that they had been very sloppy, coming into the game ranked 123rd in turnover margin and 114th in penalty yardage, and had suffered some key injuries. On Saturday, they didn’t turn the ball over once and were flagged just twice. In addition to staying disciplined, they also got three starters back who missed the Washington game (Slovis, safety Talanoa Hufanga, corner Olaijah Griffin). A talented team with its regular lineup was motivated in a rivalry game, played about as clean a contest as they could hope…and still lost. Who knows what version of the Trojans will show up the rest of the season but the one the Irish downed played good football.
3) I have gone far too long without mentioning Tony Jones, Jr., who was exceptional. Jones had 120 yards in the first half to help build the 17-3 lead and tacked on 56 after the break, finishing with 176 yards on 25 carries. That’s his third straight game over 100 yards and it’s really been four straight impressive performances when you consider the beating he absorbed as the only healthy ball carrier and pass blocker the staff trusted in Athens. (Also shoutout Jahmir Smith, who came in with some fresh legs and hit the Trojans for 23 yards on 3 carries in the middle of the final scoring drive.) Did you know Jones is 9th in the country in yards per carry with 7.0 yards per? I did not!
Also: Braden Lenzy is so fast! That was a great call by Chip Long that featured a key downfield block from Chris Finke. Jafar Armstrong never really got into the flow of the game, but considering how well Jones was running and the tiny detail that Notre Dame won it made sense to let him continue to mend from his body ripping apart. The offensive line has done excellent work — they were key in establishing the tone of the game on the 97-yard drive that gave Notre Dame the lead they would never relinquish — since some fits and starts early, almost as if Jeff Quinn might know what he’s doing.
4) Let’s keep praising people! Next up is Jonathan Doerer, who connected on field goals of 43, 45 and 52 in a game the Irish won by three points. In six games the situation has gone from “Gosh I hope the Irish aren’t a disaster in the kicking game” to receiving late night texts about Doerer’s chances of playing in the NFL. Jay Bramblett wasn’t called upon to do much, but he averaged 40 yards per on his three punts, which is just fine.* I understand people like complaining about Brian Polian but this has been a mostly clean start to the season, unless you think Polian or Del Alexander are teaching kickoff returners to inexplicably drop the ball just as they break into the clear. Also on the special teams front they recovered the onside kick — with a minor assist from Brian Kelly — which was somewhat important.
* I probably don’t have to tell you but I was totally fine with going for it on 4th and 5 in the third quarter, although not as big on the sequence of plays leading to it. USC had just kicked a field goal to make it 20-6 and the Irish responded by going 66 yards in 10 plays to the USC 38. If you get that, you go in and score and you're looking at a three touchdown lead late in the third. Just didn't work out but always favor aggressiveness, particularly when you were on a roll and had scored on four straight drives like the Irish had going into that possession.
5) In this space we Respect Clark Lea and freak out about the fact Vanderbilt got blown out at home by UNLV so his alma mater might come calling soon but the guy who usually dominates the second half maybe should have pivoted out of the three-man front a little bit sooner when Slovis got cooking. The initial strategy made all kinds of sense and was very effective for two and a half quarters (the Trojans averaged four yards per play in the first half): Without Shaun Crawford, the Irish were going to do absolutely everything they could to take away big plays from the uber-talented wide receivers despite playing a bunch of linebackers and safeties. They were mostly successful save for a dandy of a deep ball to A Street Brown, as his compatriots Tyler Vaughns and Michael Pittman were held under 100 yards combined with neither gaining a reception over 18 yards. (This did open up the Irish to the running game and underneath routes, but life is tradeoffs.) Lea was expecting the Trojans to do something dumb as they have done consistently under Clay Helton but as mentioned above, credit for USC for putting a clean game together, pushing a runner at the goal line for a final touchdown in the south end zone of Notre Dame Stadium and almost overcoming the Irish. “Almost” being the key word here.
The defensive line tried to make Slovis uncomfortable when they had the chance (sacks from Jamir Jones and Khalid Kareem, a split sack between Kurt Hinish and MTA when Hinish knocked the ball loose), and they got an assist from JOK, who earned his first career sack by throwing a wrench into the initial Trojan drive. Kyle Hamilton held up well in heavy reps while Asmar Bilal led the team with 11 tackles, including two for loss. Do I enjoy the fact that the 2019 offseason conversation of “Aw man, we have to play Asmar Bilal” is going to give way to some of the same people spending the 2020 offseason questioning “How are we going to replace Asmar Bilal?!” Yes. Immensely.
6) A very weird game for Book. His yards per attempt average was comically low (5.2!*) but he didn’t turn the ball over, found Cole Kmet for a score (now 17 total touchdowns to 2 picks on the season) and had the key runs late. He also had a couple nice balls to Chase Claypool (the 25-yarder up the right sideline early, the deep ball that was broken up/interfered with) and a few occasions where he moved around in the pocket without panicking before making a play. Between the success rate of Book going downfield (pretty good), the size of some of his targets (large) and the offensive line’s pass protection (one sack allowed Saturday night, so continuing to be solid) I don’t understand why they aren’t trying more shots. I will cease this line of inquiry if they continue to put up 300 yards rushing every game the rest of the way but it would be fun to see some bombs in Ann Arbor if the opportunities arise.
* To give you an idea how low 5.2 is, the worst qualified quarterbacks in the country have a yards per attempt of 6.3 on the season.
Red zone continued to click, thankfully. Tulane turned it over on downs at the 16 early in a rout of UConn so the number of teams to score on every trip inside the 20 is down to three (Notre Dame, LSU and Iowa). The Irish are fourth in red zone touchdown percentage, tied with Texas and behind the random crew of App State, Navy and Illinois. Prayers up the perfect conversion streak lasts at least one more game.
7) A resplendent day on campus Saturday, truly something out of the admissions brochure. Not sure if it was just where I was sitting, the cold weather or the increasing tension late in the game but it didn’t seem as loud as some of the previous night games. (Or perhaps it just wasn’t as loud as Athens?) Some curious programming notes in the second half, as in a tense game with a rival there was a video with Irish legends explaining what the school meant to them, a ceremony honoring the family of a fallen soldier and a promo for the Billy Joel concert next summer. Those are two very good things to do and also a promo for the Billy Joel concert next summer but I’m not sure those are the buttons to push late in the game. Loved: a) Stealing the cell phone flashlight idea from Georgia for the 1812 Overture b) Lighting the library up green c) The band’s increasing use of The Killers. Is “Mr. Brightside” going to get played at every game?! Please. Demerits for no “All of the Lights,” unless that was played prior to my arrival in the stadium.
8) It was not a lot of fun to be treated to the clown show Pac-12 referees but at least they gave us the immortal misstep of referring to USC as UCLA after the halftime…altercation? Skirmish? Brawl is far too strong but it needs to be recognized as a thing that happened and was fun. (Dexter Williams agrees.) Much like Pittman’s trash talk earlier this week — which Quenton Nelson enjoyed — it doesn’t hurt to put a little extra spice into the rivalry recipe. The inept officiating was less enjoyable when they missed an obvious facemask and a maybe late hit on Book but you must take the bad with the other types of bad. I feel like as far as unfortunate times go as a Trojan losing in South Bend as the student section chants “UCLA” at you is high on the list.
9) Winning Is Hard/Schadenfreude Round Up: Well, not the best weekend for the top of Notre Dame’s schedule. Georgia was a 24-point home favorite against South Carolina, rolled up advantages of 170 yards and 14 first downs and still lost in overtime. I cannot stress how dumb the end of this game was — thank you to the Hagan family for letting me soak it in at their rental — but I will try to describe it. Facing a 4th and 3 at the Georgia 40 with 40 seconds left, Will Muschamp opted for a field goal attempt. Now you might be saying “Wait, wouldn’t that mean a miss would give the ball to Georgia basically at midfield?” and you would be correct. The kick had no prayer but Georgia couldn’t make anything of their opportunity, sending the game to overtime. Jake Fromm threw a pick on the second play (the Dawgs' fourth turnover of the game) but don’t worry because South Carolina missed a 33-yarder that would have ended things. In the second overtime, South Carolina managed a field goal and Georgia responded by going zero-yard run, incompletion, incompletion, missed 42-yard field goal for the loss. A real tough one for Kirby Smart as he now has to run the table of at Auburn, Cocktail Party, home games with A&M and Mizzou, and then the SEC title game against Bama or LSU to get back to the playoff in what was supposed to the coronation year. Possible, but difficult.
Virginia lost at Miami, putting on an absolute clinic of red zone ineffectiveness and opening things up for Coastal Division Chaos. Joe Moorhead might not be a future ND coach after all, as Mississippi State becomes Rocky Top’s first Power 5 victim of the season. Washington State is down to 3-3 after losing at Herm, who is 5-1! Texas forced a bunch of Oklahoma turnovers but it didn’t matter as the Sooners still won in Red River, so Tom Herman will not be a playoff participant. Florida fell at LSU and while thee Gators impressed in the road effort this is just a reminder that when two really good teams play by current NCAA regulations one of them has to lose. Wake Forest rode an undefeated start to No. 19 in the country but lost 62-59 to…4-2 Louisville? What’s that? Geez, I thought winning by 18 at the Cardinals was the worst possible result in a game with them but I guess not.
It turns out Mark Dantonio’s offseason strategy of just giving everyone on his offensive staff new jobs was not a super good one because Sparty got rocked 38-0 by Wisconsin. P.J. Fleck and his Golden Gophers are 6-0 after demolishing Scott Frost’s Cornhuskers and it looks like they could be 8-0 by the time Penn State comes to town. All those Maryland feel good vibes from the first two weeks are gone because they got rocked at Purdue in a much-needed win for the Boilers. Baylor needed double overtime against Texas Tech but remains undefeated. Previously undefeated Memphis lost on the road to Temple. In the worst loss of the weekend and perhaps the season, Toledo was a 27-point favorite over Bowling Green and lost 20-7. How do you only score seven against BVG?!
10) Since the ball dropped to close out December 31, 2017, the Irish have played 20 football games. They have won 18 of them, including victories over USC (twice), Michigan, Stanford, LSU and Florida State among many others. In all, they’ve now won 15 straight games at home and 27 of the last 32 overall. As someone whose Notre Dame fandom began with six straight losses to USC, most in the blowout variety, it is still wild to me to win three in a row against them. A retort could be “Well, you’re just beating mediocre post-Carroll coaches” but in a world where Rich Rodriguez and Brady Hoke were above .500 against Notre Dame nothing is certain even if the opposition is openly flailing.
We now get to indulge our carnivorous habits over the bye week as the team prepares for the new most important game of the season. Armstrong should be most of the way back in another 12 days while Crawford is supposed to be ready as well, so the off weekend comes at a nice as opposed to oh I don't know playing in Happy Valley. This front seven has been so good that both the floor and ceiling for the defense remain quite high going forward, particularly if Crawford can return to pre-injury form. The offense has been solid enough and maybe this is just the optimist in me but I think it has some more upside to wring out as all the pieces fit together and Book potentially starts taking some more shots deep (PLEASE).
If you’re not enjoying this, I am honestly not sure what to tell you. It’s been a great run of football with super cool guys doing many cool things and somehow this season is already halfway over. Take this time to reflect, visit with family and get your affairs in order because this time next week our focus will shift from joy to hate. The Irish are close to two special seasons in a row but they must must must must must win the next one to earn that honorific. Have a restful bye and see you on the other side.
11) We cannot end without welcoming Calvin Barcus and Henry Tresnowski to the Report family with 1-0 lifetime records. Special congrats to Henry for having bragging rights over his uncle for at least the first 13 months of his life.
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