As blowouts go, Notre Dame’s 52-0 win over Bowling Green was okay

Right before the start of each of Ian Book’s final two series for the game against the Bowling Green Falcons, I kept saying... that’s enough. It felt like there was little point in the Notre Dame Fighting Irish senior quarterback being out there, and I was looking for a quality number of snaps for Phil Jurkovec. The points and point spread mattered far less to me than building up the depth that we need across the board.

As far as the rest of the team was concerned though, there was a considerable amount of the roster that was used.

The first possession of the game for Notre Dame saw the Irish start slow and punt the ball, but after that, Notre Dame turned up the juice on offense to the tune of 52 points. Book was absolutely on point as he was 16-21 for 261 yards and 5 touchdowns. Brian Kelly said in the post game that they gave Book a chance with one series to tie the 6 touchdown record held by Brady Quinn — but then it was time to move on.

Photo by Quinn Harris/Getty Images

Phil Jurkovec finally threw his first touchdown pass of his young career when he found Avery Davis for 7 yard touchdown pass. Jurkovec ended the game 5-7 for 79 yard and that TD as well as 4 carries for 42 yards. Moving forward, it would be nice to see more from Phil in other opportunities.

For the frontline guys on offense, Chase Claypool had a quick but productive day with 61 yards and 2 touchdowns, and Tony Jones Jr. had another 100 yard game on the ground with 7 carries for 102 yards.

Even with the shutout, it wasn’t a banner day for the Irish defense. Brian Kelly even said as much in post game as there were a lot of coverage breakdowns in the secondary, and some mistakes by the linebackers as well. It’s concerning with the USC Trojans coming to town next week — but that’s next week.

There was a solid rotation on defense throughout the game. Notre Dame has moved Houston Griffith to safety and Cam Hart to cornerback and both saw action today. Bo Bauer, an OFD favorite, saw a good amount of time out at LB and seemed to be in on more plays than his 4 tackles would suggest.

It was a good day.

It wasn’t a great day, and not the 70-0 day I had imagined — but there was more than enough here to be happy with the win. The shutout is important — which makes Julian Okwara’s blocked field goal attempt even more important.

Notre Dame scored a lot of points moving the ball efficiently, but there was a noticeably small number of explosive plays for a 52-0 type of win. The longest pass play was a 40 yard reception from Brock Wright, and the longest rush was Tony Jones’s 36 yard scamper — neither ended in the endzone.

So, yeah, it’s all good here. No one should ever complain about a 52-0 win, but there’s enough “not good” on film to really focus on with a big rivalry game next on the schedule.