Notre Dame Offensive Keys to Victory vs Boston College

Notre Dame squares off against another rival today when the Irish host Boston College. The Irish offense will need to be on top of its game if Notre Dame is going to dominate the Eagles the way they'll need to. There are plenty of keys to victory in this game that are true of every game; things like being focused, playing with intensity, not turning the ball over and being situationally sound. There are four other keys that will play a significant role in Notre Dame handling its business on offense against Boston College.

1. Start Fast - This is always a top key, and it's no different this week as the Irish need to look to put Boston College away early. Older Notre Dame fans remember the Eagles having success against the Irish in big games, with the 1993 loss being most prominent in our minds. This is not those BC teams, but it doesn't make this game any less dangerous if Notre Dame isn't locked in and comes out sloppy. We saw Georgia lose to an Auburn team that is 5-4 and lost the game before and after the matchup against the Bulldogs. Last night, we saw 3-6 Colorado - a team who lost six of their last seven games - beat No. 14 Houston by a 42-32 score. Anything can happen, and that has been especially true this season.

Notre Dame will need to make sure that Boston College is not able to gain any momentum in this matchup, and that will be up to the offense more than anyone else. The Eagles have a scrappy defense that is better than its numbers reflect. If they are able to get into an early rhythm it gives them the confidence to believe they can play with the Irish. Notre Dame sputtering early on offense not only gives the defense confidence, it also gives the Eagle offense confidence and that is when this game could get sticky.

The Irish need to come out aggressive early and take the fight to Boston College, they need to execute and they need to turn their early possessions into touchdowns. The goal being to quickly put Boston College away, allow the Irish to earn an impressive blowout victory and hopefully, a chance to rest starters in the second half.

2. Establish the Ground Game - Boston College has a scrappy defense, and it has been especially true in the throwing game. Notre Dame needs to get quarterback CJ Carr going for many reasons, the least of which is giving him a game where he can put up big numbers in hopes of boosting his Heisman Trophy stock. More importantly, the pass game will be what fuels a championship run, and building on last week's success is important. With all that being said, why am I talking about establishing the run game?

Well, there are two big reasons. One is that is where Boston College is weakest. Boston College ranks 31st nationally in pass defense and they've picked off 12 passes this season. BC played a stretch of three games against Virginia Tech, SMU and Pittsburgh, which put them against three offenses that ranked in the Top 25 nationally in pass offense coming into this weekend. All three were held below 200 yards through the air and both Virginia Tech and SMU were held below 5.5 yards per attempt. 

The best friend to Carr and the pass game is coming out early and establishing the ground game. Balance is always key, and that will be no different early in this game, but having success running the ball early forces Boston College to focus more of its game plan on slowing down the run. The more resources BC is forced to apply to the run game obviously takes resources away from the pass game, which should help Carr have a big day. This is especially true in the RPO game play-action game.

3. Attack the Middle of the Field - Notre Dame's pass game is a heavy perimeter attack, and there are certainly areas where they can have success in that department against Boston College as well. I don't think Notre Dame needs to attack the middle of the field to beat Boston College, but I do believe it makes a blowout performance more likely. Boston College is vulnerable in the pass game with their safeties and nickels, which puts the Irish in some serious matchup advantages in the pass game. If the run game gets going that makes the middle of the field even more open, and I'd like to see the Irish take advantage.

But it goes beyond that. Notre Dame needs to be able to attack the middle of the field more effectively overall, especially if they want to make a deep playoff runs. We saw some success there against Miami last week, and part of this key is wanting to see them establish this part of the offense even more, building on what we saw last week.

4. Go Big Play Hunting - Boston College has been solid at limiting big plays this season and Notre Dame needs to become more of a big play offense. There are things we can see the Irish do schematically to scheme players open and create more big plays in both the run game and pass game. It's good that Notre Dame is so efficient, but to win a title the offense will need to generate more big plays. Notre Dame ranks 76th in the country in plays of 40 yards or more and 64th in plays of 30 yards or more, which needs to improve. Taking advantage of a scrappy Boston College defense that doesn't give up a lot of big plays would be a great step in the right direction.

It would be great to see Jordan Faison, Jaden Greathouse and maybe Mylan Graham going off a bit today in the pass game.

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