Rakes Report #137: It doesn't have to be pure, it doesn't have to be perfect, just sort of has to be worth it (The Boston College Review)
~optional musical accompaniment~
1) The Notre Dame Class of 2020’s first home game was a comfortable 39-10 win over Nevada, taking care of business following the Sunday night debacle in Austin. From there, things took a turn: They lost five of the next seven in Notre Dame Stadium, stretching from defeat against a Sparty squad that would end up 3-9 to falling to a Georgia team that nearly won the national championship. The Bulldogs loss capped off a wretched 5-11 overall stretch that seemed like it would submarine the program and end Brian Kelly’s tenure.
Since the strip sack on September 9, 2017, this senior class has powered an 18-game home winning streak. They’ve dispatched a Pac-12 champion by 35, won a battle of top ten teams, bested Michigan in a primetime season opener and beat consecutive ACC Coastal division champions within The House Rock Built. Many of these seniors had roles during 4-8, thrown into the fire as freshmen as things crumbled around them and while those losses were unfortunate they were not fatal and the rookies didn’t flinch or shirk the responsibility of rebooting Notre Dame football. Because of their hard work the ship is sailing as smoothly as it has in over two decades and senior day isn’t spent worrying about upsets or losing to coachless Syracuse but is instead a celebration, annihilating Boston College by 33 points and a 501-to-191 total yardage margin.
2) The Eagles came into this game with a gross defense but their offense was respectable, ranking 21st in the SP+ and 28th in the FEI. They scored all of seven points, averaged three yards per snap (they had been averaging over six) and saw all-time leading rusher A.J. Dillon held to four yards per carry and 56 yards on the ground. (Dillon’s rushing output over the previous four games: 223 against NC State, 76 against Clemson, 242 against Syracuse and 165 against Florida State.) Another way of looking at it: Boston College went 6 for 7 in second-quarter third down conversions, fueling their only scoring drive of the game. Outside of that period, they came through on just two of eleven conversion attempts. That lone touchdown drive also saw them roll up 53 yards passing which means outside of that they had ten passing yards all game. Ten!
Extremely happy that Asmar Bilal got the game ball in his final appearance at Notre Dame Stadium after leading the team in tackles and throwing in a pass break-up for fun. I know I’m repeating myself but Bilal was written off by a great many coming into this season and he’s stepped up for a really wonderful senior year. Khalid Kareem’s last game at the Stadium saw him get another sack and another forced fumble along with six tackles. If that was Alohi Gilman’s last home game, he got his first career sack in it and while I pray that is not Ade Ogundeji’s finale if it was he made it count, dominating with two sacks, another tackle for loss and a forced fumble. JOK and Drew White (who each have multiple years of eligibility remaining following this season) were excellent in the middle again and I don’t even know what to say about Kyle Hamilton, who now has more interceptions than receptions allowed in coverage on the season. A dominant November for Clark Lea and his wards despite injuries continuing to accrue along the defensive line, showing the depth and talent of that portion of the roster.
3) In the early going, the offense took a bit of a step back from the war machine of the last two weeks and allowed the guests to hang around for a bit. The Eagles were getting pressure on Ian Book, Chip Long didn’t seem to be calling The Good Plays and Chase Claypool dropped a touchdown that would have made it a 10-0 game. After Boston College scored their only points, the Irish rolled back down the field — loved the call to go for it on 4th and 3 from the 24, considering how Chris Finke was rolling in the slot, Cole Kmet’s size and Claypool being Claypool — took the lead and then were never really threatened the rest of the way. Book was under duress in the first half (please remember the right side of the line consists of reserves) but I don’t think he ever really panicked even if he was forced to run in some not ideal situations. Overall, the offense had 40 points on the board with 11:31 remaining in the game, so not bad. I don’t think it will be, but if that was Book’s last home game in the blue and gold, he finished it with three touchdown passes, the team lead in rushing yards and yet another win.
After a quiet couple of weeks this was a giant Kmet game, as he tied the school’s single season record for tight end touchdowns (six) during his seven catches for 78 yards. Claypool and Finke also had seven catches and a score each while Braden Lenzy flashed the jets again on a 61-yard jet sweep that was borderline incomprehensible to see because of the stupid skycam. Lenzy is now averaging 24.9 yards per reception and 23.3 yards per rush which hopefully continues through the next two games and then three more seasons after that. Despite the waves of pressure the Eagles were throwing they got just one sack and Tony Jones managed to eke out a decent day on the ground, including a lovely 18-yard dash up the middle on 3rd and five that set up the final points of the first half.
4) With the full benefit of hindsight it seems so silly we ever worried about Jonathan Doerer, who helped out the offense in the first half to limit completely empty possessions. He is now 12 for 14 on field goals this season with a perfect run of extra points and generally great work on kickoffs. Jay Bramblett hasn’t had a whole lot to do these last few weeks but he pinned Boston College inside the 20 on half of his four punts. In his final home game, Finke tacked 47 punt return yards onto his day, including a 21-yarder. We went from “I hope special teams don’t cost Notre Dame a game” coming into this season to “Notre Dame is now set at specialist for the foreseeable future” coming out of it. Good work all around.
5) I hope everyone checked out the NBC Sports Network alternate fan feed during the game. I thought both Darius Walker (very underrated career, please look up his numbers in the BCS games against two elite defenses) and Future Captain Daelin Hayes were really insightful. Obviously, we are biased in this space but Friend of the Report Jess Smetana added a fun, funny and honest fan-plus perspective despite the pressures of the game being close in the early going. (I cannot imagine someone watching me react on live television to Notre Dame football so a tip of the hat for keeping it together.) The radio call was tremendous and it was fun seeing the spotter in action although were definitely a few too many boxes going for a lot of the time. If they do this again in the future I would set a hard rule of “One bonus box at a time during game action” and you can rotate that among the radio booth, crowd shots, the panel, sideline shots, etc. and then bust the tweet sidebar out during the panel sessions or dead balls.
I do wonder if this is something that would work for the really big, stressful games but it should absolutely be busted out for some of the weaker opponents and senior day celebrations. At the very least, NBC should put the radio call tied to the live feed on the app if not NBCSN for every home game, with the potential bonus feature of no call at all and simply the noise of the crowd. Also, stop doing the stupid sky cam for live action! It’s a fun tool for replays but it simply does not work for following live despite the NBC production truck’s apparent insistence that fans are clamoring for the inability to understand what is going on.
(To preview the fan cast and talk about the season as a whole, Jess was on the pod last week. It’s a little loopy because we recorded late in the evening but also a fun State of the Irish rundown so I recommend if you haven’t listened.)
(While we are working in parenthetical asides, congrats to Jacob Laskey for starting his Irish career with a football victory, the dumbest basketball win imaginable and beating Michigan on the road.)
6) Winning Is Hard/Schadenfreude Round Up: There are so many ways to go with this but we must start down south, where Miami suffered the most bizarre loss of the season: Against Florida International in a game they never led despite being 21-point favorites that took place at Marlins Park and on CBS Sports Network. It was acknowledged by head coach Manny Diaz and many Hurricane fans as perhaps the worst loss in the history of the program. Here’s a fun fact from Chris Fallica of “College Gameday”:
With the loss to FIU, Miami becomes the only team in the last 40 years to lose three times as a 14-point favorite in a single season. Canes lost to VT as 14-pt fave, GT as 18.5-pt fave and tonight to FIU as 21-pt fave. Canes also won 17-12 as a 30.5-pt fave vs Central Michigan.
That takes a particular level of skill, because you have to be good enough to keep getting favored by so many but bad enough to lose straight-up three times. Miami is now 6-5, which is the same record as Texas after they no-showed in Waco, scoring a last-second touchdown to make the final margin 24-10. Tom Herman! And hey that’s also the same record as Washington after they lost on the road at previously listless Colorado. Chris Petersen! For the record, 6-5 is also the record held by Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee and Florida State.
Winning on the road at night can be difficult and that’s why No. 6 Oregon is no longer in playoff contention after dropping a game at Arizona State as a two-touchdown favorite in the biggest poll upset of the weekend. Oklahoma needed some home cooking from the Big 12 officials to survive TCU 28-24 despite leading 21-0 to start the game. Penn State didn't have much of a chance against Ohio State but they set the tone early by punting from the Ohio State 42 and 36 in two of their first three drives. Georgia needed a couple no-calls from the SEC officials to survive Texas A&M at home, but they did hold the Aggies to negative-one yards rushing for those who still wonder why Notre Dame had trouble getting things going on the ground in September.
Many of Notre Dame’s vanquished foes did well on Saturday. Virginia Tech blanked Pitt for their sixth win in seven games to set up a battle of 8-3 teams against Virginia, who defeated Liberty. The winner will be division champ and face Clemson, giving the Irish consecutive Transitive Coastal Titles. USC rolled up 52 points on UCLA to finish the season 8-4, potentially saving Clay Helton’s job and almost certainly locking themselves in as a Top 25 team in the final committee rankings. Louisville handled Syracuse and will now play Kentucky for a chance at 8-4 while Navy rebounded to beat SMU and get to 8-2. (This was An Extremely Annoying Navy Game that featured a game-winning offsides flag.) There’s no marquee win among this group but I think Irish fans have somewhat undersold this body of work, especially when you add in the no-doubt blowouts against nearly half the schedule.
7) One more to go. The Cardinal’s game against the Golden Bears on Saturday was a sort of damned if you, damned if you don’t as far as motivational purposes: If Stanford won, they’d be playing the Irish for a chance to make a bowl game and if they lost Notre Dame would be the de facto bowl. They fell on a late touchdown and now really the only joy they can redeem from 2019 is winning on senior day and denying the Irish their tenth victory.
Notre Dame is playing really well right now, following up the game-winning drive against Virginia Tech with consecutive victories of 31, 32 and 33. Would it be too much to ask for a 34-point win over the Cardinal, building on last year’s 21-point exorcism? It would, I think, particularly if K.J. Costello and Paulson Adebo were to play so I’ll just request a victory of any margin in Palo Alto for the first time since 2007, even if it requires the Irish sacrificing another clear touchdown reception to the replay booth gods.
Following both Michigan and Virginia Tech questions were raised, including in this very space, about the potential for this team to collapse into a November death spiral that would undo much of the work of the previous years and put the program into another existential crisis. Those questions were answered with a defiant “nah, we’re good” and three straight bludgeonings so let’s keep the train going. Get ten wins. Get a fifth straight victory. Get a perfect November for the second straight year. Get a win streak against Stanford. Get a chance at another top ten finish.
I cannot believe the season, save for a bonus bowl contest, is basically over. It always flies by but this fall in particular seemed to escape us so I hope you took the time to appreciate it as we went along. This Notre Dame team wasn’t perfect but it was dang good and kept putting the work in to reach this rather dominant final form. But before we fire up The Pogues and start issuing toasts, there is still a bit of business to attend to.
Go Irish, Beat Cardinal. Let’s close this out the right way.
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