Players Of The Game: Notre Dame vs. Bowling Green

Notre Dame improved to 4-1 on the season with a dominating 52-0 victory over Bowling Green. It was Notre Dame’s first shutout since 2014.

Here are the top players from the victory:

OFFENSE

QB Ian Book - 16-20, 80%, 261 yards, 5 TD’s

Book started Notre Dame’s victory over Virginia with eight straight completions, but he was even better to start this game, completing his first ten passes. By the time Book threw his first incompletion he had already tossed three touchdown passes to spark Notre Dame to 21-0 lead.

There were aspects of Book’s game that have been subpar in previous games, but in the early going against Bowling Green he showed much-needed improvement. Book was poised in the pocket and calmly went through his progression to find tight end Tommy Tremble for the game’s first touchdown, and his quick read on a first-quarter RPO resulted in the Irish signal-caller pulling the ball and hitting tight end Cole Kmet in stride for a 21-yard touchdown pass.

Book completed a season-high 80-percent of his passes and threw five touchdowns for the second time this season.

Runners Up: RB Tony Jones Jr., WR Javon McKinley

DEFENSE

DE Julian Okwara - 3 tackles, 2 tackles for loss, 1 sack, 1 blocked kick

He didn’t get as many hits on the quarterback as he would have liked, but Okwara was impactful in the win over Bowling Green. The first time Bowling Green marched into Notre Dame territory, a pressure from Okwara knocked the Falcons out of field goal range and ended that drive.

The Bowling Green tackles had a hard time containing Okwara on the edge, with the senior end doing damage against the run and pass. He led the Irish defense with eight quarterback hurries and was strong at the point of attack in the run game.

Bowling Green attempted a field goal in the third quarter but an Okwara block kept the Falcons off the board.

Runners Up: DT Myron Tagovailoa-Amosa, DT Jayson Ademilola,

SPECIAL TEAMS

PR Chris Finke - 3 returns, 34 yards, 11.3 avg.

Finke bounced back from a rough performance against Virginia by setting up a pair of scores against the Falcons. The fifth-year senior captain returned his first punt 25 yards to the Bowling Green 46-yard line, which set up Notre Dame’s second score of the game. The next time he returned a punt he took it 15 yards to midfield, which led to another Irish offensive touchdown.

Finke did a good job coming up and fielding short punts, which kept Bowling Green from stealing extra yards.

Runners Up: P Jay Bramblett, LB Bo Bauer

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