Game Observations (Defense): Notre Dame 45 Boston College 31

A look at the play of the defense against the Fighting Irish

Boston College (5-4) was defeated by the Fighting Irish (8-0) on Saturday 45-31 in the latest installment of the Holy War. Here are some of the observations we made watching the game on the offense. 

* Notre Dame's offense was too much for BC and beat them in a number of ways. We will get into those below, but the Eagles had two turnovers which kept them in the game, otherwise the Irish moved the ball at will. 

* First off, tackling was bad. Every time ND tried running the ball, or after a catch it seemed like they were covered in grease because BC couldn't wrap them up or tackle them. Easy extra yards came from this especially on the ground. And it wasn't just Ian Book, the running backs seemingly looked unstoppable too. 

* Speaking of Book, he looked in complete command against BC. The Eagles finished the game with zero sacks, and the ND quarterback finished 20-27 through the air. Whenever he tucked it and ran (85 yards), he was able to find huge holes up the middle of the Eagles defense. 

* Notre Dame's offensive line crushed BC up front. The Eagles were not able to get any pressure on Book, and the front seven was completely neutralized in any sort of pressure scheme. BC was clearly beaten up front by a much more talented front five.

* Ben Skowronek was a tough matchup for BC and the Eagles really had no answer in coverage. The Northwestern transfer is a big kid with strong hands and beat up on BC's secondary all game (minus his fumble). 

* Linebackers looked slow. Just a week after I praised how quick they looked against Syracuse they had a clunker of a game against ND. They were slow getting to the edge, and spent the game chasing instead of attacking. 

* BC's third down defense was rough as well. The Irish was only 4 of 8 on 3rd down, but they also hit on two fourth downs, and went for two field goals. No real stops by the defense

* The stat that shows how much BC's defense struggled? The Irish didn't punt the ball once on Saturday night. 

* Clearly the Eagles didn't have the guns to go toe to toe with the Irish on Saturday on defense. But this is where Hafley's recruiting will hopefully pay dividends in the future. There are a couple of recruits that fit that need for speed (Trevin Wallace and Andre Porter).