In a game that held a spread of 30.5 by kickoff, Notre Dame and Boston College found themselves in a clunker. The rule of a good team is, however, you win your clunkers. Notre Dame did that by a score of 25-10 and we can breathe a little bit.
Notre Dame’s first two drives to start the game foreshadowed everything. The Irish offense had a three and out on the first drive and on the second drive they turned it over on downs at midfield. The Irish defense, at least to start the game, held things in check
and forced Boston College to punt on its first two possessions. It was 0-0 at the end of the 1st quarter, and you had the feeling things were going to get weird.
Notre Dame got on the board first on the first play of the 2nd quarter with a 40 yard CJ Carr touchdown pass on a 4th down play call. Notre Dame, however, went to kickoff with only a 6-0 lead after a Noah Burnette extra point went wide.
The Notre Dame defense rose to the occasion and picked off Dylan Lonergan on the next possession. The ball was tipped by Adon Shuler and fell into the arms of Tae Johnson who was seated on the ground. Another big pass by CJ Carr on the next possession had the irish inside the 5 yard line, but Jadarian Price fumbled the ball away to gove it back to Boston College.
The Eagles switched from Lonergan to James Grayson on the next drive, and even though BC turned the ball over on downs, he did provide a bit of a spark for them. Notre Dame moved the ball downfield again on the arm of CJ Carr, who found Will Pauling for a 44 yard TD pass. The Irish failed on the 2 point conversion and held a 12-0 lead.
Grayson took over again for BC and late in the second quarter he drove the Eagles down for a touchdown on a play that saw Leonard Moore bump into his man near the goaline and fall down. Notre Dame tried to answer with a quick drive down the field to set up a field — which was missed by Eric Schmidt and the halftime score remained 12-7 Irish.
Boston College got the ball to start the second half and used a 21 play drive to go 74 yards to eventually kick a field goal. The drive was aided on a HORRIBLE facemask call on Joshua Burnham when he sacked Grayson on 4th down.
Notre Dame answered the BC field goal quickly and went 75 yards in just over 3 minutes in a drive that ended with a short Jeremiyah Love touchdown run. Notre Dame brought in its third kicker of the night to attempt the extra point, and Marcello Diomede joined the MISSED WIDE club to make the game 18-10.
Boston College put together another drive and despite a fumble return for touchdown by Drayk Bowen that was called back (another bad replay call as the ball was never fully under control), Adon Shuler eventually intercepted Grayson on the 6 yard line. One play later, Jeremiyah Love streaked down the sideline for a 94 yard touchdown. A rare extra point kick later, and Notre Dame took a 25-10 lead.
The ensuing Boston College drive got deep into Irish territory, but after a series of sacks and an intentional grounding call forced a 4th and 32 pass which was knocked down, and the Irish offense took over again with just over 4 minutes left in the game.
After punting to the one, Tae Johnson picked off Grayson to essentially end the game.
More to come on OFD.
