Notre Dame captured its ninth win of the season last week on the legs and arm of Ian Book and another steady performance by the defense.

ND dominated Boston College in a 40-7 win, allowing a score early in the first quarter and then shutting down the Eagles’ usually potent running game the rest of the way.

Book was the offensive leader again completing 26 of 40 passes for 239 yards and three touchdowns and leading the rushing game with 66 yards on 12 carries.

Book was also non-committal about coming back to the Irish next season. As is the custom for every last game at home, all seniors were honored, including Book. But he had another year of eligibility left meaning he has a choice of returning for another season, calling it a career, or transfer to another school to play his final year. Book’s only comment when asked about returning in 2020 was, “We’ll see.”

The win also completed another unbeaten home schedule for the Irish, to go along with the 2018 season. It’s the first time since 1988-89 that ND has won all its games at home in back-to-back seasons. In addition, a 31-6 record in its last 37 games is ND’s best record over a 37-game span since 31-5-1 from 1991-93.

ND’s defense held BC running back AJ Dillon to just 56 yards on 14 carries. He entered the game third in the nation averaging 145.1 yards per game. His backfield mate, David Bailey, who was averaging 76.5 yards per game, had only 26 rushing yards on 10 carries. QB Dennis Grosel, who was 9 of 20 passing for 63 yards with one interception, managed to gain 66 rushing yards when flushed out of the pocket by the ND defense. However, his final total dropped to 45 net yards, thanks to four sacks by the Irish defense. Three ND seniors accounted for those sacks with defensive end Adetokunbo Ogundeji recording two and defensive end Khalid Kareem and safety Alohi Gilman each adding one. Kareem was also credited with forcing a third fumble in two weeks.

More on the game later.

Today the Irish conclude the 2019 regular season with a road trip to Palo Alto, California, to take on the always dangerous Stanford Cardinal.

The Cardinal enters at 4-7, losing their last three games. The wins have been over Northwestern, 17-7; Oregon State, 31-28; Washington, 23-13; and Arizona, 41-31. The losses have been to USC, 45-20; UCF, 45-27; Oregon, 21-6; UCLA, 34-16; Colorado, 16-13; Washington State, 49-22; and last week to California, 24-20.

Stanford’s offense is led by QB David Mills, who has completed 130 of 195 passes for 1,677 yards and nine touchdowns but has five interceptions. He is replacing injured starter K.J. Costello, who has been out since late September and won’t play today. The top rusher is Cameron Scarlett with 797 yards on 188 carries and six scores. Scarlett also has 22 catches for 215 yards and six scores. Stanford’s top receiver is Connor Wedington with 496 yards on 50 catches and one score.

ND leads the series, 19-13 and won last year, 38-17, in South Bend. However, ND has lost the last four games played in Palo Alto, which is something to think about.

The game will be televised nationally by Fox with a 4:10 p.m. eastern time kickoff (1:10 p.m. Pacific time).

IRISH NOTES ... Other BC game stats. Tony Jones Jr. finished with 61 yards on 15 carries; Braden Lenzy had 66 yards on one carry and a TD. Cole Kmet led the receiving corps with 71 yards on seven catches and a score ... Jonathan Doerer hit on four field goals of 47, 29, 45 and 37. With 12 field goals made in 14 tries, Doerer is 16th nationally in field goal accuracy (.857) ... Frosh Kyle Hamilton had his fourth interception of the season. Hamilton, despite not starting in ND’s base package, is tied for 15th nationally in interceptions per game (0.4) and is tied for first among freshmen. Defensively, Asmar Bilal had eight tackles while Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah, Gilman and Drew White had seven apiece. Kareem and Ogundeji had six each ... The win over BC was the seventh straight by the Irish in the series ... Claypool passed former ND receivers Tim Brown (137) and Jim Seymour (138) in collegiate receptions after hauling in seven passes for 60 yards last week ... Notre Dame has now held 23 of its last 24 opponents to 30 or fewer ... Book is in sixth place on the school’s all-time, single-season rushing list for quarterbacks, with 487 yards. Just ahead of him is the 2015 season of DeShone Kizer (520 yards). Book also is just behind Kizer (992 yards) in seventh place on the career QB rushing list with 974 ... On Saturday receiver Cole Kmet tied former All-American Ken MacAfee’s 42-year-old school record for TDs in a season by a tight end (6). He’s also moving up the charts in single-season tight end receptions (36, tied for eighth) and tight end receiving yards (405, 10th) ... False start penalties continue to haunt the Irish this year. Through 11 games, the AP No. 15 Irish have already been penalized for 29 false starts. The starting offense, with quarterback Ian Book, has accounted for 21 of those penalties ... As I wrote last week the bowl picture for ND hasn’t changed a lot, except a possible opponent has emerged. ND still looks like its headed to the Camping World Bowl in Orlando, Florida, scheduled for Dec. 28. The bowl selections will be announced on Dec. 8. The Oklahoma State Cowboys look as the likely opponent for the Irish. The Cowboys, ranked No. 21, are 8-3 and finish their regular season tonight against No. 7 ranked Oklahoma. If the Cowboys pull off an upset win tonight then their bowl destination could change. If the upset occurs then Iowa State, Kansas State or Texas come into the picture as a possible ND opponent ... Former ND coach Bob Davie, who is head coach at New Mexico, has reached a “mutual” agreement with school officials to step down as coach after this season. As you might remember, Davie was not present when New Mexico visited ND earlier this year because he was recovering from a medical issue. New Mexico is 2-9 this season and Davie is 35-63 at New Mexico. He twice guided the Lobos to bowl games and earned New Mexico’s first bowl victory in 10 years. Davie was 35-25 at Notre Dame from 1997 through 2001 ... In my preseason picks I have the Irish finally winning a game in Palo Alto after four straight losses, and finishing 10-2. ND is favored and if they play defense like they have the past two games and if Book and company continue to score points, ND should prevail today. This is my last column for the regular season. I will have one more column, previewing the Irish bowl game. GO IRISH.