The Fighting Irish beat the unranked Louisville Cardinals in week one of the college football season. After a long offseason Ian Book and the Irish are back to compete, so let's break down the Irish's win in week one.
Notre Dame started strong with a big touch down on their first drive. It looked like Notre Dame was going to steam role their way through this game then the Cardinals answered. Jawon Pass helped tie the game at 7 with his 17 yard run.
Notre Dame did not play their best half of football in the first half, but what else is new? The Irish have struggled in the first half against "weaker" opponents a lot the last few years. However the Irish are ranked for a reason.
Notre Dame showed their skill throughout much of this game. Putting up less penalty yards, and fumbling less than their opponent. Louisville gave Notre Dame the ball 3 times through turnovers. Including in the second quarter when the 2 teams gave up the ball to each other 3 times in the span of a few minutes.
First Louisville fumbled the ball and the Irish picked it up, then the following play the Irish coughed the ball right back to the Cardinals. The next play the Cardinals gave the ball right back to the Irish, who scored 5 plays later. Notre Dame managed to capitalize when the Cardinals showed their flaws in week one.
Ian Book helped push Notre Dame to a victory, he scored 1 touchdown on the day, and completed 14 of his possible 23 passing attempts, and he passed for 193 yards in the game. The Irish also crushed things up front with their run game, rushing for 230 yards.
The on-air crew also spoke of Book's leadership throughout the game. Ian Book wears the C on his jersey, showing he is one of the captains on the team, some players lead by example. Book leads using words. When players mess up during practice football culture would say you yell. The Irish, lead by Book are taking a new approach in talking players through the mistake. That all starts with Brian Kelly and Ian Book.
The Irish were flawed in the first week. The defense struggled in the first quarter. If the Irish wanted to move up in the rankings they needed to play a way more dominant game. It's going to take a lot better effort to change Paul Finebaum's mind about ND in the college football playoffs.
The final of this game was 35 - 17 Notre Dame. Don't expect the Irish to jump up from their number 9 rank after that effort in week one.