Rapid Review: Notre Dame 33, Iowa State 9
For the first time since 1988-89, the Associated Press' No. 14-ranked Notre Dame (11-2) Fighting Irish finished with at least 11 victories in back-to-back seasons with a dominant 33-9 victory over Iowa State (7-6) in the Camping World Bowl at Orlando, Fla.
Two Iowa State turnovers and a Notre Dame fourth-down stop in Cyclones territory set up three scores for a 20-6 Fighting Irish halftime lead. Then on Notre Dame's first play on offense in the second half, an 84-yard touchdown romp by senior running back Tony Jones Jr. (11 carries, 135 yards) continued the assertive performance from start to finish.
Earning Player of the Game honors was senior wideout Chase Claypool, who nabbed seven passes for 146 yards, highlighted by a leaping 24-yard touchdown catch on third-and-12 for a 10-0 lead in the first quarter.
Junior kicker Jonathan Doerer converted all four of his field goal attempts — 39, 51, 19 and 39 yards — to aid the cause.
Junior rover Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah paced a superb overall defense that limited the Cyclones to 272 yards total offense. Owusu-Koramoah recorded a team high nine tackles, four for lost yardage, forced and recovered a fumble, and had a quarterback hurry.
1. TOP 3 STORYLINES
• In third-year quarterbacks coach Tom Rees' debut as the play-caller, the offense committed no turnovers and produced a balanced attack with 208 yards rushing on 37 carries while senior quarterback Ian Book completed 20 of 28 passes for 247 yards.
• Notre Dame entered the game No. 4 nationally in turnover margin (plus-1.25) and No. 1 in fumbles recovered (17), while Iowa State was only No. 73 in turnover margin (minus-0.08).
The first two times the Cyclones had possession, they lost fumbles — one on a punt return that Alohi Gilman forced and Claypool recovered, and the second generated and pounced on by Owusu-Koramoah while pressuring quarterback Brock Purdy to help stake the Irish to an early 10-0 lead.
The stat sheet says Notre Dame won the turnover battle 2-0, but a third series also could be counted as a turnover when on fourth and-inches at its 45-yard line with the score 13-3 the Cyclones failed to gain (see Turning Point).
• Minus the fumbled punt after the game's first series, nine of Iowa State's 11 possessions began from or inside its 25-yard line. The Irish defense took it from there..
2. TURNING POINT
Trailing 13-3, Iowa State opted to go for it on fourth-and-inches at its 45-yard line.
Junior defensive tackle Myron Tagovailoa-Amosa knifed through to throw running back Breece Hall for no gain. A 44-yard pass from Book to Claypool took the ball down to the one-yard line, leading to a touchdown sweep by junior running back Jafar Armstrong to build the cushion to 20-3 with 2:25 left until halftime.
Iowa State gambled despite being down only 10, and it backfired.
3. STAT OF THE GAME
Entering the contest, Iowa State quarterback Purdy ranked fifth nationally in passing yards per game with a 313.3 yards average, and was 20th in passing efficiency. He was limited to 17 of 30 passing for 222 yards.
Also. Iowa State was one of three teams not to lose by more than 14 points since the start of the 2017 (joining Oklahoma and Washington) season. The 24-point Irish win ended that streak.
4. GAME BALL
In his final game wearing the gold helmet, Claypool set up Notre Dame’s first score when he recovered an Iowa State fumbled punt, tallied the game’s initial touchdown on a sensational, leaping 24-yard catch in the end zone on third-and-12, and snared a 44-yard pass to the Cyclones’ one-yard line prior to the second Irish touchdown.
His seven catches netted 146 yards, giving him 66 for 1,037 yards and 13 scores for the season and Team MVP.
5. HISTORICAL FOOTNOTE
Notre Dame has now evened its all-time bowl record at 19-19. It has not been above .500 in the postseason since 2004, when it was 13-12.
Brian Kelly is now 5-4 in bowl games, matching Lou Holtz’s record from 1986-96, although all of Holtz’s wins were in majors (versus teams that were 54-2 coming into the game), whereas Kelly does not have such a win yet.
----
• Talk about it inside Rockne’s Roundtable
• Subscribe to our podcast on iTunes
• Learn more about our print and digital publication, Blue & Gold Illustrated.
• Follow us on Twitter: @BGINews, @BGI_LouSomogyi, @BGI_MikeSinger, @CoachDeDario and @AndrewMentock.
• Like us on Facebook.