Did the “real” Notre Dame football team finally show up last week against Navy, or was it just a fluke?

The Irish looked like the team many predicted at the beginning of the season.

A dominating defense was on display in the 52-20 route of a Midshipmen team that entered the game with a 7-1 record. The dangerous triple-option offense that Navy runs so well, was almost completely shut down by the Irish. Notre Dame held Navy below its 300 plus yards per game average and also forced the usually ball protective Navy team — just eight turnovers in its first eight games — to fumble four times, losing all four.

ND is the only one of just two teams (Tulsa was the other) to hold Navy under 290 rushing yards this season.

Offensively, the Irish still struggled running the football with a total of just 105 yards on the ground. On the other hand, the Irish pass offense was in top form as they rolled up 305 yards through the air compared to just 79 for Navy.

Now the question is, are the Irish finally hitting on all cylinders and ready to win the final two games of the season and finish at 10-2?

The defense has been the Irish strong point so far this season with the only exceptions being the Michigan game and the second half of the USC game.

Offensively, the ground game has really struggled, although it has been saved a few times by the running of quarterback Ian Book. The slew of fine running backs the Irish have are not getting much yardage, despite a big offensive line in front of them.

Book finished with 14 completions in 20 attempts for 284 yards. He rushed for 31 yards on five carries. It was a really big day for receiver Chase Claypool, who has shown steady improvement this season. He caught seven for 117 yards and four touchdowns last week in his best performance in an Irish uniform.

As for the running backs, Tony Jones Jr. had 26 yards on nine carries and a score. Jafar Armstrong, who many thought would give the Irish the breakaway speed it needed in the backfield, had just 11 yards on seven carries. He missed some games due to injury, but overall, he has been a disappointment.

More on the game later.

Today the Irish face a 5-5 Boston College team that at times this year showed great promise and at other times, really didn’t look very good.

The ND-BC series is a relatively new one but since the two teams started to play on a semi-regular basis, the rivalry is intense. Some of the games played between the two schools were called “holy wars” since both schools are Catholic universities.

ND leads the series, 14-9, and has won the last five meetings between the schools. The last time the Irish and Eagles played was in 2007 — a ND win, 49-20.

BC has wins over Virginia Tech, 35-28; Richmond, 45-13; Rutgers, 30-16; North Carolina State, 45-24; and Syracuse, 58-27. The losses have been to Kansas, 48-24; Wake Forest, 27-24; Louisville, 41-39; Clemson, 59-7; and Florida State, 38-31.

BC favors the run game and is led by running back AJ Dillon, who has 1,451 rushing yards on 272 carries and 13 touchdowns. David Balley backs him up with 765 yards on 119 carries and seven scores. Starting QB Anthony Brown is injured and has been replaced by Dennis Grosel, who has completed 49 of 99 for 710 yards and eight scores. The top receivers are Koboy White with 363 yards on 22 catches and five scores; Zay Flowers, with 312 yards on 19 catches and three scores; and Hunter Lon with 411 yards on 21 catches and one score.

The game will be televised nationally by NBC TV with a 2:40 p.m. kickoff.

IRISH NOTES ... NBC has something special planned for this final home game of the season. The game will also be live on the NBC Sports Network. On the NBC broadcast, former Doug Flute will do the color commentary as usual. On the sports network, Notre Dame radio voices Paul Burmeister and Ryan Harris will describe the action using NBC’s video. And when NBC goes to a commercial, the sports network will not — instead providing discussions from a yet-to-be revealed panel ... Other Notre Dame stats include receivers Chris Finke with three catches for 57 yards and Braden Lenzy with two for 87 and a score. Freshman C’Bo Flemister had 16 yards rushing on three carries. Quarterback Phil Jurkovec came in to replace Book early in the third quarter and completed two of two passes for 21 yards and rushed for three yards on two carries ... Defensively, Drew White had 10 tackles to lead the way with Howard Cross II, Bo Bauer, Asmar Bilal and TaRiq Bracey making five tackles each. Khalid Kareem had two tackles for loss and Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah and Ovie Oghoufo each had a sack ... For the second straight week, ND will not have a sellout for its home game, the final one of the 2019 season in which all seniors will be honored. ND had 273 straight sellouts at ND stadium which ended last week against Navy when over 3,000 tickets went unsold ... Boston College is the highest-ranked team in total offense nationally (12th) that ND has faced this season but is the second-worst team in total defense on the Irish schedule (128th out of 130) ... Ian Book rates better than any of the other starting quarterbacks on Notre Dame’s schedule, except for Georgia’s Jake Fromm, in Pro Football Focus’ mid-November evaluations of all 130 FBS starting QBs. Book, who climbed 22 spots this week to No. 36 in the latest NCAA pass-efficiency stats, fares slightly better in PFF’s evaluation ... Notre Dame will honor the 150th anniversary of college football Saturday by wearing Under Armour Heritage uniforms that pay homage to the 1988 National Championship team ... The Irish can complete an undefeated home slate for the second consecutive season Saturday. The last time they did that was in 1988-89. ND has won 17 in a row at home ... Sophomore linebacker Shayne Simon will have surgery on his right knee which he injured in the Navy game and is done for the season ... ND’s offensive line gave Book excellent protection in the Navy game which helped him pick the Middies’ secondary apart ... What bowl game will ND end up in for the holiday? This changes slightly from week-to-week. If ND wins today and next week at Stanford the likely spot will be the Camping World Bowl on Dec. 28 in Orlando. The opponent, as of today, would be either Oklahoma State, Iowa State or Texas. One spot in this game goes to the third-ranked team in the Big 12. There is a very slight chance that ND could end up in the Citrus Bowl on Jan. 1 in Orlando or the Cotton Bowl on Jan. 1 in Dallas, but a lot of other things has to happen for either of those situations to work out. I’ll update this again next week after another weekend of games ... In my preseason picks I have the Irish winning today on their way to a 10-2 season. ND is a 19-point favorite. To be honest, I never expected the Irish to so dominate Navy and hinted in last week’s column at a possible Middie upset. But if the Irish defense plays like it did last week against the very good running offense of Boston College, ND should move to 9-2. All ND needs to complete the win is for the offense to find a running game to compliment its passing game. You never take any team lightly but the Irish should prevail today.