Breaking Down Notre Dame’s Win Over Boston College — Stat by Stat

Notre Dame moved to 6-2 on the season and kept its College Football Playoff hopes alive Saturday as it won at Boston College, 25-10.

If you were looking for style points from the Fighting Irish against the previously 1-7 Eagles, you were looking in the wrong place.

A slow start, another slew of penalties, awful special teams play, and plenty else kept this one more interesting than it should have been.

Here are the key numbers that told the story of Notre Dame’s victory, which officially makes it bowl eligible for the ninth season in a row.

Notre Dame’s Takeaway Streak Continues

The issue with Notre Dame at the start of the season was a lack of pressure the defense brought. As a result it wasn’t turning over opposing quarterbacks regularly and was getting burnt for long passes regularly.

Notre Dame’s pressure continued again Saturday, as five sacks were recorded as were 12 tackles for loss against Boston College. Tae Johnson picked off a pair of passes Saturday while Adon Shuler had a game-changing pick in the fourth quarter to turn Boston College away on a red zone trip.

Add it together and it marks a historic run for Notre Dame in terms of interceptions.

Boston College Run Game Non-Existent

As ugly as Saturday’s game was on many fronts for Notre Dame, a reason I never had real concern was because of how one-dimensional the Irish kept Boston College. No matter what the Eagles tried, they couldn’t run the ball. Yes, sacks are added against rushing yards in college, but Boston College totaled an absurd 12 rushing yards on 33 attempts Saturday.

Notre Dame did a lot of things that left you shaking your head Saturday. The run defense was clearly not one of them, though.

Kyngstonn Viliamu-Asa’s Star-Rise Continues

Each week we all seem to movie Notre Dame and notice sophomore Kyngstonn Viliamu-Asa making plays all over the field. Saturday was among his best at Notre Dame as he totaled nine tackles, 1.5 sacks, 2.5 tackles for loss, and one more than questionable taunting penalty.

Couple that with Drayk Bowen’s 14-tackle performance that included a sack and two more tackles for loss, and you can see why Notre Dame’s linebackers are viewed as some of the best nationally.

Players Not Plays: Love’s 94 Yard Touchdown Run

Boston College was doing everything it could to make life hard on Notre Dame’s running backs and was having success. Jadarian rate was held to just 12 yards on three carries while Jeremiyah Love was largely held in check for the night.

However, instead of panicking, Mike Denbrock decided to hand the ball to his best player, despite his struggles on the night, when backed up to its own goal line while holding just a one-score lead in the fourth quarter.

The result?

A 94 yard touchdown run by Jeremiyah Love. It wasn’t his night before his second longest touchdown run of his career, and it wasn’t his night after, but that one carry took whatever wind remained in Boston College’s sails out of them early in the final frame.

Notre Dame’s Insanely Bad Kicker Stat

I’ve been watching football closely somewhere close to 30 years and can’t remember ever seeing what happened to Notre Dame on Saturday. Notre Dame had not one, not two, but three different kickers miss kicks at Boston College. Two were on extra points while one was on what should have been a chip-shot field goal before half time.

Add it up and you have a major hole in a spot that one would expect to be key if the College Football Playoff ends up being reached.

10 Straight for Notre Dame Over Boston College

Notre Dame and Boston College was quite the battle for a good decade-and-a-half. Boston College would regularly ruin Notre Dame’s seasons, and although Notre Dame was largely down during that time, the games were tight and series competitive.

Since Notre Dame ended Boston College’s winning streak in the series back in 2009, Notre Dame has immediately won 10-straight games over the Eagles, with Saturday’s being perhaps the sleepiest of them all.