Three Things From Notre Dame’s Shutting Out Bowling Green

All good things.

When the Notre Dame Fighting Irish go into a game and shut the opponent out, score 50+ points, and cover the giant 45.5 point spread, that’s a damn good day for me as a fan. Now, I know that the talent gap between the Irish and the Bowling Green Falcons was astronomical on Saturday afternoon, so people might think that it’s tough to have some true takeaways from the game. I definitely get that mentality, but I think we can find some things going forward as we go toward USC Week.

3 Things One Could Consider

Oh, so THIS is what a tune-up game looks like.

I try to avoid comparing the Irish to the SEC just like a lot of the country does, but it was interesting to feel like an SEC powerhouse school this past weekend. We had a cupcake game right before our big rivalry game. I have to be honest with you, it was nice. I still don’t agree with teams in the SEC getting a chance to play a FCS school in mid-November, as that is lame and will forever be lame. But, this game was well-timed for the Irish. The offense sputtered a bit the prior few games, so it was good to build the confidence of the players especially on offense. I’m SO glad, even with this game, the Irish still have not played a FCS opponent ever. I did see this value, even though the Irish seemed to score at ease with the lack of defensive coverage Bowling Green had.

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I’m liking seeing Javon McKinley out there more and more.

Not that I ever disliked him out there, but I feel like he might’ve been forgotten about. He had some nice plays for TDs on Saturday afternoon, especially after what seemed like a busted play where he got open and Ian Book found him. I definitely like that he is in the fray more often than not, now. Boosting his confidence to play can help this season and definitely next season when the wide receivers will be losing Chase Claypool and Chris Finke. I’m a fan of him being out there, and could be a dark horse like a Miles Boykin, as Philip pointed out earlier this season.

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I, weirdly, had less animosoity for BVG than I thought I would have.

After Brian Van Gorder left in 2016, the Irish have had 2 (and trending toward 3) great seasons. So, maybe it was time, plus good teams/defenses, plus seeing us rip apart his defense on Saturday that made me less mad at him than I thought. I don’t actually wish ill will on him, as he was just a bad defensive coordinator. I found it more funny that he is still back at his old tricks with another couple of defenses (Louisville and now Bowling Green). Maybe I was saving the animosity for USC this coming week, as we all should look to have. You can’t use your energy on Bowling Green, save it for the true rivalry game this weekend. Go Irish. Beat Trojans.