Thoughts From The Press Box: Breaking Down Notre Dame's Victory vs. VT

Click here to check out Blue & Gold Illustrated Football Analyst Vince DeDario's thoughts from the press box concerning Notre Dame's 24-21 over Virginia Tech today at Notre Dame Stadium.

Here's a sampling:

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- At no point in the game did anyone feel comfortable with what the offense was doing. It was a lackluster attempt at an offensive game plan and poorly executed at times as well. Notre Dame would have success running to the outside and then run the ball repeatedly inside with no success. It was just baffling to watch this group today. There were a few bright spots, as there always are, and a win is fantastic but this was not the performance anyone would have wanted who roots for the Irish.

- The quarterback play of senior Ian Book was subpar for the vast majority of the game. This was not a good Virginia Tech defense and he struggled to find open receivers the whole game. He missed Cole Kmet who was wide open in the end zone twice. He threw behind Chase Claypool on a post route on the final drive that, at the very least, would have gained them 40 yards. The first interception was blindly thrown into the flat to “throw the ball away” but it was cover two which means there is going to me a defender just sitting in the flat. It was a very clear read right from the snap that the defense was in cover two and yet he still threw it right to the flat defender. The second interception was absolutely the right read. Claypool had 3-4 steps on both defenders and the radius in which Book had to throw the ball for Claypool to catch it was enormous and he basically threw it to the only spot where it wasn’t going to be a touchdown, short. He was gifted some relief from his third interception of the game which was also thrown well short of his target by a roughing the passer penalty on Virginia Tech. Once again, on way too many occasions Book was quick to escape the pocket and also to throw off his back foot when there was no sign up pressure in front of him. They say that winning cures everything and it is great that they were able to pull out the win but Book still needs to get better if they want to win out and attain the goals that are still in front of them.

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