So much has been made of Boston College upsetting Notre Dame right after the Irish last took down a top-ranked team. Through one quarter of the 2020 edition of this meeting, the seeds for history repeating itself could be sewing. Whether the Irish still are getting adjusted or the Eagles are exceptionally prepared remains to be seen. All we know is we have a dogfight to the tune of a 10-all tie.
The Irish had a chance to assert themselves on their first drive as the Irish had a nice mixture of runs and passes to get into the red zone. They even earned a first-and-goal after a defensive holding call, highlighting the problem with penalties the Eagles have had. But Ian Book had trouble finding open receivers, and the drive stalled out. Though the Irish gladly took a 23-yard field goal from Jonathan Doerer, it was a disappointing end to a promising drive.
Phil Jurkovec only was too pleased to take advantage of his current team’s fortune and begin his revenge against his former team. On his opening drive, he went 4 of 6 for 51 yards and got some help on a 22-yard run from Travis Levy. Though Shaun Crawford sacked Jurkovec right after that run, all that did was delay the inevitable. Jurkovec found Zay Flowers for a 4-yard touchdown to put the Eagles in front.
The Irish’s offense never got a chance to immediately respond to that touchdown because on the very first play of their next drive, a handoff between Book and Chris Tyree was botched, and Brandon Barlow recovered it to set the Eagles up in the red zone. Fortunately, the defense pushed the Eagles back, and the turnover only cost the Irish an Aaron Boumerhi 41-yard field goal. That turned out to be crucial because Book responded to that with a quick, complete 77-yard drive. It ended with a 10-yard touchdown to Ben Skowronek, so no real harm has been done so far.