Notre Dame’s 25-10 win over Boston College was far from a work of art. The Fighting Irish came out of their second bye week of the season Saturday in Chestnut Hill with five games to go in the regular season and the goal of a second straight College Football Playoff appearance in their sights.  

The most important outcome Saturday was a sixth consecutive victory (just ask the three top 10 teams that lost Saturday). Notre Dame’s win against the Eagles, who have now lost eight straight, may have looked clunky but it’s still a win. But that doesn’t mean that some disconcerting deficiencies can be overlooked.  

The most alarming of them was the inability for a kicker – take your pick which one – to put the ball through the uprights. Noah Burnette – who has had an injured hip for most of the season – missed on the first extra point attempt of the game early in the second quarter. The Irish tried to make up for it after their second touchdown of the game by going for two, but that try failed and they settled for an awkward 12-0 lead.  

Erik Schmidt missed a 35-yard field at the end of the first half after CJ Carr moved the Irish offense into chip shot range after starting the drive at their own 36 with 17 seconds left in the first half. Marcello Diomede became the third of the gong show entrants to miss the uprights when his point after try missed after Jeremiyah Love’s first touchdown run of the game.  

The only extra point that was good came after Love’s 94-yard touchdown run in the fourth quarter when Schmidt finally split the uprights. The tortured kicking game came one game after Burnette missed both an extra point and a field goal in Notre Dame’s pre-bye week win over USC.  

“The issues were every time we kicked the ball, it did not go in between the field goal posts, and so that’s the issue,” Irish head coach Marcus Freeman said afterward. “We’re going to keep putting guys in there until we consistently have somebody put the ball through the field goal posts. “We have three kickers, but if you rotate three kickers, you don’t have one.  

“We’ll figure out physically what it is, with Noah, but we’ve got to do what we do in practice better in the game. So that’s the situation. We’ve got to figure this thing out because our team deserves for us to be able to make extra points and field goals. So, for us to reach the potential that we believe we have, we better fix it with urgency.” 

Each Week Brings A Different Opposing Game Plan 

The combination of Notre Dame’s passing game, led by Carr, with its running game, spearheaded by Love and Jadarian Price, make opposing defenses try to pick their poison on a weekly basis. Southern Cal decided to take away Carr’s deep passing options and paid for it by watching Love run for a Notre Dame Stadium record 228 yards. BC decided to load up against the run and dare Carr to burn them with his arm.  

The plan was successful early and the Irish punted on their first two possessions. Carr ultimately got on track and connected with Malachi Fields and Will Pauling for touchdown passes of 40 and 44 yards in the second quarter. He was 13 of 18 for 237 yards in the first half and finished the game 18 of 29 for 299 yards and the two touchdowns with no interceptions.  

“You learn quickly in the first two series, they weren’t going to try to let you run the ball,” Freeman explained. “It was zero coverage or cover one with a low hole guy. Like there was one option: it’s they were going to have to throw it over top, and that’s what CJ and the offense was able to do on the majority of the times we attempted it. There (were) a couple that were close that we didn’t connect, but we knew in order to get them to loosen up a little bit and find ways to run the ball with zero coverage or a low hole one, like you’re going to have to throw the ball over top.” 

The Irish running game never got fully on track. Love’s 94-yard run represented 59% of the team’s total of 159 rushing yards in the game. Take that away and the yards per carry drops from 5.5 to 2.3 on the other 28 carries. 

“This isn’t the first team that tried to load the box,” Freeman remarked. “We probably had a different plan coming into this. We can’t fumble the ball on the plus five-yard line, right? We were driving, ready to score points, and then that would have been 14 points, and we fumbled the ball.”  

Another Jadarian Price Fumble 

Price fumbled on Notre Dame’s fourth offensive series in the first half. He had just converted on 3rd and 1 and then took a handoff on the next play and was stripped at the BC three-yard line. It is Price’s third fumble of the season. All three have come in the red zone.  

“Protect the football,” Freeman said of his message to Price going forward. “Continue to focus on it in practice, and then on Saturday, go ball. Go do what you do. He’s earned a lot of confidence and credibility from his coaching staff because of the proof of what he’s done for three years here. 

“So, we’re going to play him a lot,” Freeman continued. “We’re going to give him the ball. We’re going to let Jadarian be him. We’ve got to attack it in practice. We can’t be insane and not say anything about it. We’ve got to continue to work on it in practice and focus on ball security. But we’re going to give him the ball and let him go.” 

Stopping The Run 

Notre Dame’s defense grounded Boston College’s running game. Led by 14 tackles (all solo) from linebacker Drayk Bowen and nine more from Kyngstonn Viliamu-Asa, the Irish defense held BC to a paltry 12 net rushing yards on 33 carries for an average of .4 yards per carry.  

The Irish defense finished with five sacks, 12 tackles for loss (2.5 for Viliamu-Asa and 2.0 for Bowen), as well as nine quarterback hurries in the win.  

BC switched from starting quarterback Dylan Lonergan to Grayson James to try to spark the offense. The result was a touchdown drive at the end of the first half and a field goal drive that opened the second half by using 21 plays to go 74 yards and took 11 minutes and 20 seconds off the clock before the Irish offense ever had the ball in the third quarter (that drive was also extended by the phantom facemask call on Josh Burnham that would have ended the drive on 4th and 3). 

The Eagles managed just 3.6 yards per play on 78 total plays in the game.  

“I think they did a good job stopping the run,” Freeman said of his defense. “We just continued to let them get in third-and-short situations, and they kept the drive — I don’t know how many plays that first drive of the second half was, but it was 12 minutes. Twenty-one plays. I mean, it seemed like forever, and I looked up, and I think it was three minutes left in the quarter. That’s a long drive, and it’s all because of those little gains. Make it third and short. They convert. We’ve got to clean those things up. But yeah, I’m proud of the way they did stop the run.” 

Christian Gray Scratched 

Christian Gray was a late scratch before the game. The cornerback missed his first game since 2023 with a left hip injury. Freeman said earlier in the week that Gray has played through multiple injuries this season. Mark Zachery IV started in his place  

“You miss Christian because of the experience that he brings, right? He’s a guy that’s been out there a couple years, big game experience. He’s a really good player. But that’s why you’ve got to continue to develop other guys. He tried, but we just thought it was best to probably hold him out this game. We just didn’t think he could consistently get his job done with his injury. We’ll see how he feels next week.” 

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