Far from perfect but a win’s a win
It’s easy to overreact and be upset about how the offense looked, especially in the first almost three quarters of the game. It’s also worth remembering this is a team that didn’t have a traditional off-season and that there was no such thing as spring ball for them this year, aside from one day.
That said, Ian Book has to do a lot of the small things better. He missed throws throughout the day and I’m sure playing his first live game with most of his targets don’t mean instant success but it wasn’t a good showing whatsoever for the fifth year Notre Dame quarterback.
Same with that goes for the offensive line. They played better as the game went on, a positive sign and it’s worth remembering that Duke featured one of the better defensive lines the Irish will play this season. However, the three straight three-and-outs to start the game saw the offensive line look over-matched.
I’m happy to give a pass with everything that went on this off-season but I was expecting more early from the offensive front. Most importantly this team got off to a 1-0 start and ends the afternoon with the all-time highest winning percentage in the history of the ACC at 1.000.
A lot to clean up and South Florida will be a good team to do that against next Saturday but looking sluggish and winning is a lot better than looking sluggish and losing.