Notre Dame offensive lineman Cain Madden (62) plays against Purdue during the second half of an NCAA college football game in South Bend, Ind., Saturday, Sept. 18, 2021. Notre Dame defeated Purdue 27-13. | Michael Conroy/AP

Irish unit has underperformed, with 20 sacks allowed and a sputtering running game

SOUTH BEND, Ind. — Notre Dame may be undefeated four games into this college football season, but that has happened in spite of an uncharacteristically leaky offensive line.

Among 130 FBS teams, only lowly Akron has allowed more sacks than the 20 Notre Dame has surrendered thus far. And the Fighting Irish running game, even with Kyren Williams coming off an 1,125-yard season, has sputtered to just 2.29 yards per carry, third-worst in the nation.

The only programs with more enfeebled rushing attacks: Louisiana-Monroe and Bowling Green.

“The offensive line,” Notre Dame coach Brian Kelly said before facing No. 7 Cincinnati on Saturday, “it is what it is.”

Under normal circumstances, there might be some heat on the position coach, but Jeff Quinn has been a trusted Kelly associate for more than three decades. They first worked together as assistants at Michigan’s Grand Valley State in 1989, and their collaboration has continued through Kelly’s head coaching stops at that same school (1991-2003), Central Michigan (2004-06), Cincinnati (2007-09) and Notre Dame.

Quinn went 20-36 as head coach at the University of Buffalo from 2010-14 before returning to Kelly’s staff as an offensive analyst in 2015. From there, Quinn’s role has shifted as needed: assistant strength and conditioning coach (2016), senior offensive analyst (2017) and, upon the well-regarded Harry Hiestand’s return to the NFL’s Bears in 2018, offensive line coach.

So it was that Kelly chuckled a bit this week when asked what he has learned about Quinn during this rocky start to the season for that typically stalwart unit.

“I’ve known Jeff for over 30 years,” Kelly said. “There’s nothing that I don’t know about Jeff. He takes it harder than anybody else. He’s got to keep working with his group like he has every day.”

When right guard Cain Madden, the graduate transfer from Marshall, was asked how tough this stretch has been on Quinn, a Notre Dame spokesperson briefly intervened before allowing him to answer.

“He’s the same guy every day,” Madden said. “You don’t get [any] up and down. He’s really consistent with how he coaches, and he’s coaching us to get better. That’s what you’d expect from a position coach.”

In fairness to Quinn, Notre Dame was without its top lineman, senior center Jarrett Patterson, all spring due to season-ending foot surgery in 2020. Frequent shuffling marked spring practice.

Notre Dame has since churned through four different left tackles. Freshman Blake Fisher won the job out of fall camp before going down in the opener; next it was Michael Carmody’s turn until his ankle gave out.

Lately the starting spot has belonged to redshirt freshman Tosh Baker, but versatile Joe Alt, a 6-8 freshman from Minnesota, keeps pushing for playing time. Converted center Zeke Correll has been starting at left guard, but untested Andrew Kristofic has joined the jumbled mix.

Most of the breakdowns have been on the left side, especially in pass protection. Graduate transfer Jack Coan, knocked out of Saturday’s win over Wisconsin (his old school) with an ankle sprain, wasn’t very mobile even before that setback.

“The right side has been assignment-correct,” Kelly said of Madden and right tackle Josh Lugg. “They’ve done a nice job. We’ve got to be a little bit more consistent on the left side, certainly.”

That will happen when you lose a quartet with 144 college starts to the NFL. There will be no Joe Moore Award this year for the Notre Dame offensive line, which claimed the national honor in 2017.

When it was suggested Notre Dame rarely has seen line struggles like this, Kelly pushed back.

“Oh, no, we’ve had periods like this at Notre Dame before,” he said. “Look, the O-line is always going to get the scrutiny. This isn’t just, ‘Let’s throw the O-line under the bus.’ Everybody’s got to pitch in here; coaching, players. We’ve all got to get better.”

At this point, the school’s fan base would settle for something approaching mediocrity.

“When you have a bunch of new pieces, that’s the biggest thing: getting on that same thought process and having everyone thinking the same,” Madden said. “When we break down the film, we’re so close to being there. We know we’re going to get there.”

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Notre Dame quarterback Jack Coan heads to the locker room after an injury during the second half of an NCAA college football game against Wisconsin Saturday, Sept. 25, 2021, in Chicago. Coan did not return to play. | Charles Rex Arbogast/AP

Nine out of 13 experts say go with the home underdog at Notre Dame Stadium against the No. 7 Bearcats

LAS VEGAS — They marveled at the Golden Dome, gawked at the 134-foot-tall granite-paneled Touchdown Jesus mural that faces Notre Dame Stadium.

The 1988 UIC Flames baseball team, for which Chicago native and Florida-based bettor John Murges pitched, lost twice (by 8-1 scores) at Notre Dame. He experienced the aura of an initial sporting visit to South Bend.

Of the baker’s-dozen experts I tapped for wagering insights on Saturday’s Cincinnati-Notre Dame football game, Murges is the one who has walked in the cleats of the Bearcats, who play the Irish for the first time.

“Impressive,” he says of the campus. “Surreal, invigorating and spiritual. Cincinnati may be favored, but, unfortunately for the Bearcats, the ghosts of Notre Dame will disrupt their plans. The Irish make it 27 consecutive home wins.”

No. 7 Cincinnati (3-0) opened Sunday as a two-point favorite at No. 9 Notre Dame (4-0) at Circa Sports, whose line I employed for consistency with my all-star panel.

Cincinnati has played in some big games but has come up empty.

In 1976, it lost at Georgia and Maryland, both top-10 teams. It lost the Orange Bowl, after the 2008 season, to Virginia Tech. A year later, it lost to Florida in the Sugar Bowl. It is 0-6 against Ohio State.

Considering stage and circumstance, this might be the most important game in the Bearcats’ 68-year history. With a victory, the relative minnow remains in the hunt for a national-playoff berth usually reserved for the game’s whales.

“The biggest, most publicized game in their history,” says San Diego handicapper and aerospace engineer Jim Schrope, who makes Notre Dame a two-point favorite.

“The stat sheet doesn’t show the Bearcats to be elite. Notre Dame is improving and gaining confidence each week. I think coach Brian Kelly and the home field will be the difference in carrying the Irish to a tight victory.”

Las Vegas Review-Journal sports-betting scribe Todd Dewey also likes Notre Dame:

“As a touchdown underdog, Notre Dame whipped Wisconsin and is now getting points at home? Yes, please. The Irish are 5-2 straight up and ATS as home dogs under Kelly. Make that 6-2.”

BOOKIES KNOW SOMETHING?

Notre Dame +2 covers, in a 9-4 ruling by our panelists.

Vegas handicapper Ted Sevransky — Teddy Covers at WagerTalk and SportsMemo — gives the rested Bearcats a situational edge: “The Irish have played four tough games in a row and are primed to run out of steam.”

Fellow Vegas ‘capper Dana Lane also taps Cincinnati, crediting Notre Dame’s opportunistic defense but questioning its overall team speed.

Tom Barton, a Long Island-based handicapper, picks the rested Bearcats, too, against a Notre Dame squad that had a grand battle with Wisconsin.

I mention the Bearcats’ penchant for committing and inciting penalties and turnovers — a 4.8% interception rate and 2.5 giveaways per game, both bottom 20 nationally. Sloppy and aggressive, they were borderline dirty against Indiana.

“Could be,” Barton says, “but I think they can clean that up. If you saw it, the coaches definitely saw it.”

Bi-coastal bettor Bill Krackomberger recommends heeding the spread:

“The fact that Notre Dame is an underdog at home should tell you the bookmakers might know something. Throw in some shaky quarterback play from Notre Dame and a young offensive line, and I lean toward Cincinnati.”

JUST AIN’T READY

Texas ‘capper Paul Stone likes ND as long as quarterback Jack Coan (sprained left ankle against Wisconsin) plays. He spotlights Notre Dame having won outright its last five games as a home underdog (see chart below) since 2014.

At the Vegas Stats & Information Network, Matt Youmans is 4-0 wagering on Irish games this season. He’ll take 2 1/2 points, the number at several shops around town, but hoped to nab 3.

VSiN colleague Tim Murray’s father and sister went to Notre Dame, and he went to Chicago to watch the Irish pound Wisconsin.

That new Notre Dame defensive coordinator Marcus Freeman spent his previous four years as a defensive coach at Cincinnati benefits the Irish, Murray believes. This, he says, is the Bearcats’ Super Bowl.

“Is Cincinnati ready to be a road favorite against a top-10 team?” Murray says. ”The Irish defense keeps improving, and Freeman will have great insight on his former team.”

In Boston, Sam Panayotovich, of Fox Sports and the New England Sports Network, cannot pass on a good team catching points at home.

The Mount Carmel graduate expects Notre Dame’s defense to badger Cincy quarterback Desmond Ridder the same way it pestered Wisconsin’s Graham Mertz. The Irish intercepted Mertz four times, including two pick-sixes at the end to turn the game into a rout. Wisconsin was idle, too, the previous week, but the Irish showed the stamina.

Case Keefer, who covers sports betting for the Las Vegas Sun, is on Notre Dame.

“The Irish likely won’t donate turnovers to the Bearcats like the Hoosiers did [with four] a couple of weeks ago,” he says. “And Notre Dame Stadium is significantly tougher to conquer than Memorial Stadium [in Bloomington, Indiana].”

I see the Bearcats’ sloppiness undoing them. Not ready for prime time. I hear what the shoeshine boy says to Steve McQueen at the end of “Cincinnati Kid” when, finally, he beats McQueen in pitching coins against a wall.

It might be the collective voice of every Power Five program echoing down onto these Cincinnati kids.

You just ain’t ready for me, yet.

HOME COOKIN’

Notre Dame’s last five games as a home underdog:

Year Team Line Irish wins . . .

2020 Clemson ND +5 47-40 (2OT)

2018 Michigan ND +2 1/2 24-17

2016 Miami ND +1 30-27

2015 Ga. Tech ND +2 1/2 30-22

2014 Stanford ND +3 17-14

Source: Phil Steele annual

PICKING SIDES

No. 7 Cincinnati -2 at No. 9 Notre Dame

Notre Dame Stadium, 2:30 p.m. Saturday

On Bearcats -2 (Four) — Tom Barton, Bill Krackomberger, Dana Lane, Ted Sevransky.

On Irish +2 (Nine) — Todd Dewey, Case Keefer, Rob Miech, John Murges, Tim Murray, Sam Panayotovich, Jim Schrope, Paul Stone, Matt Youmans.

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Browns running backs Kareem Hunt (27) and Nick Chubb (not pictured) combined for 92 yards on 13 carries (7.1 avg.) in the fourth quarter against the Bears on Sunday at FirstEnergy Stadium. | David Richard/AP Photos

Defensive coordinator Sean Desai wasn’t buying the idea that the defense wore down against the Browns because it was on the field for nearly 40 minutes. But a lighter load wouldn’t hurt.

One of the many joys of watching Walter Payton, especially in his early years with the Bears, was marveling at the way Payton could wear down a defense with a seemingly indefatigable physical and mental toughness.

Payton’s relentless aggressiveness just wore people out– an effect that never was more evident than in back-to-back games against the Chiefs and Vikings in 1977 that sparked a miraculous run to the playoffs. That spectacular 18-yard run where Payton avoided or broke seven tackles — the definitive Payton run that is part of any Payton highlight package? It happened in the third quarter of the 28-27 victory against the Chiefs and help set up the first of Payton’s three second-half touchdowns that day, two in the fourth quarter.

Payton had 33 carries in that game, but outdid himself the next week, when he had 40 carries for an NFL-record 275 yards in a 10-7 victory over the Vikings. The 58-yard run that put Payton on the brink of the record came with three minutes to play in the game.

But you don’t need one of the greatest running backs in NFL history to wear down a defense. Sometimes all it takes is time — like when the Bears’ defense was on the field for nearly 40 minutes Sunday (39:34) against the Browns. With an inept offense held to just 42 plays, the Bears’ defense was out there for 78 plays.

And it took a toll. The Bears’ defense held the Browns to 4.8 yards per play (53 plays, 252 yards) and had sacked Baker Mayfield five times deep into the third quarter, with the Bears trailing just 13-6 despite a miserable offensive performance. But in the final 16:43 of the game, the Bears’ defense weakened and allowed 7.3 yards per play (23-168) as the Browns had the ball for 11:45 in the fourth quarter and coasted home to a 26-6 victory.

The Bears need to establish an NFL-quality offense against the Lions on Sunday not just to save Matt Nagy and itself, but also a defense that still has considerable bite but can’t run a marathon every week.

The Bears’ defense carrying Nagy’s offense was one of many broken-record themes at Halas Hall this week. It put defensive players and coaches on the spot — having to tip-toe around the reality that the defense wore down because it was on the field too long.

“I don’t think so,” defensive coordinator Sean Desai said. “I’ve got to do a better job of putting the guys in position to make plays, and then we’ve got to make plays.”

That’s a common, almost autonomic response from defensive players and coaches who want to avoid pitting the offense vs. the defense — a threat to the stability of any football team. It seems to defy human nature — the reality is pretty clear. But not to Desai. The Bears’ defensive unit not only says it, but believes it. Lives it.

“Human nature is a little bit different from football players to fans,” Desai said. “These guys understand what their jobs and their roles are, and our job on defense is to get the ball back to the offense and to stop scores.

“Maybe the media and fans have a different feeling towards that, and that’s OK — that’s their right to have those feelings. But when these guys are in the grind every day and going through it, they understand what it is. We know our standard on defense and we’re going to try and uphold that standard for as long as we can.”

That’s an admirable mentality on a team like the Bears that has been defense-heavy throughout Matt Nagy’s tenure. But every team, every defense has its breaking point. The solution to the defensive breakdowns is not stamina and focus, but first downs and touchdowns on the other side of the ball.

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Steven “Hedake” Smith was an Arizona State point guard who participated in point shaving in the 1990s. | Netflix

Series sheds light on some lesser-known incidents around the world of sport

‘Bad Sport’

Three and a half stars

A six-part series premiering Oct. 6 on Netflix.

For as long as we’ve had modern-day sports we’ve had infamous scandals, from the 1919 Black Sox through to the NFL suspending star players Alex Karras and Paul Hornung for gambling in 1963, through Pete Rose and Tonya Harding and Lance Armstrong, not to mention doping in track and field, SMU football getting the “death penalty” for the 1987 season, baseball’s steroid era and the horrors of the sexual assault scandals at Penn State and in USA Gymnastics.

And that’s hardly a complete list.

We’re all too familiar with the myriad of black eyes on our favorite sports — and yet there are scandals we might have forgotten, scandals we might never have known about. Do you remember the 1994 Arizona State basketball point-shaving scandal, or the pairs figure skating controversy at the 2002 Winter Olympics? Have you ever heard of “Lucky” Luciano Moggi, the Italian football director who manipulated matchups to favor his Juventus club? Or how about Hansie Cronje, the South African cricket captain who was second in popularity only to Nelson Mandela in his home country before it was revealed he was involved in fixing international games?

The six-part Netflix limited docuseries “Bad Sport” digs deep into the dark side of the games, as we see the beauty and pure competition of sports sullied by athletes, officials and shadowy outsiders who are motivated by political self-interest or blind ambition or greed or a deadly blending of two or three of the aforementioned. The producers who gave us “Don’t F**k with Cats” now tell the stories of a number of figures who scurried down the rabbit hole into a world of corruption and paid high prices for their crimes and indiscretions.

Episode 1, titled “Hoop Schemes,” is maybe the most engrossing entry in the series, as we revisit the 1994 Arizona State University basketball point-shaving scandal, in a true-life story reminiscent of the James Caan classic “The Gambler” with elements of “Goodfellas.” I’m always amazed at how the documentarians in Netflix crime series can get central figures to sit down for in-depth interviews — often after they’ve served time and/or seen their lives ruined by their actions. This time we hear from admirably honest and deeply remorseful former ASU players Steven “Hedake” Smith and Isaac “Ice” Burton, who conspired with bookmakers to shave points in a series of games. Orchestrating the fix from afar was one Joe Gagliano, who says, “In January, 1994, I was trading bond futures at the Board of Chicago [at the age of 22] . . . making an absurd amount of money at a young age.”

A campus bookie at ASU who had become acquainted with Gagliano called him and said, “Joe, I got a fix.” Turns out Smith, the star point guard for ASU, had accrued a sizable gambling debt — and he was told the debt would be forgiven AND he could make some cash if he would tank in a couple of games. Gagliano bet a whopping $1.1 million on the first fixed game and continued to let it ride, at one point risking more than $5 million on the ASU-Washington game — in the process dropping the line in Vegas from ASU -12 to ASU -3. That drastic line move and the fact Smith and his co-conspirator Burton were dropping thousands on diamonds, cars, clothes and shoes attracted the attention of the feds. Gagliano, Smith and Burton all wound up doing time.

Subsequent episodes chronicle the misadventures and misdeeds of a variety of figures from various sports, including:

o Randy Lanier, a professional race car driver who competed at the highest levels in events such as the 24 Hours of Le Mans and finished 10th as a rookie driver at the Indianapolis 500 in 1986 — all while he was spearheading a massive international pot smuggling operation.

o Luciano Moggi, the chief managing director for the prestigious Juventus Football Club in Italy, who was caught on wiretaps in the mid-2000s putting pressure on higher-ups with the referees’ commission to ensure favorably inclined officials would work matches involving Juventus.

o Tommy Burns, a hardscrabble wise guy who killed a number of valuable show horses via electrocution so the owners could make insurance claims in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. Says Burns: “A woman walked up to me, says, ‘Hey, can you kill my horse for me,’ [like she was saying], ‘Can you cut my grass for me?’ ” Good God.

o Hansie Cronje, the greatly admired captain of the South African national cricket team in the 1990s, who shocked his countrymen when he admitted his involvement in match-fixing with an Indian betting

“Bad Sport” also revisits the figure skating controversy at the 2002 Winter Olympics, when the Canadian pairs duo of Jamie Sale and David Pelletier clearly outperformed the Russian team of Elena Berezhnaya and Anton Sikharulidze — but the Russians won the gold, with the French judge casting the deciding vote. The judge soon admitted she had been pressured to vote for the Russian pair, then reversed her story, then we heard about the alleged involvement of a Russian mobster, and eventually TWO gold medals were awarded, which managed to appease everyone and nobody at the same time.

One wonders if there’s any sport that hasn’t been touched by scandal by this point. Maybe cornhole or pickleball.

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The Chicago Bears’ defense was really only bad in the first game of the season. The team clearly wasn’t ready to go. We all know how pathetic the offense and coach have been which gives the defense no help as well. The Los Angeles Rams owned them and won the game 34-14. Since then, the […] Chicago Bears: 1 player that needs to keep his good play up – Da Windy City – Da Windy City – A Chicago Sports Site – Bears, Bulls, Cubs, White Sox, Blackhawks, Fighting Illini & MoreRead More

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At least 16 people were shot, two fatally in citywide gun violence Friday. | Sun-Times file

A SWAT team responded after a person was killed and two others were wounded in a shootout about 10:30 a.m. in the 1200 block of North Mason Avenue.

Two people were killed and 16 others, including two teens, wounded in citywide gun violence Friday.

A SWAT team responded after a person was killed and two others were wounded in a shootout in Austin on the West Side. Police officers responding to a call about 10:30 a.m. saw four people get out of two cars and begin firing toward a house in the 1200 block of North Mason Avenue, Chicago police said. People inside returned fire and hit one of the gunmen, police said. The person was transported to a hospital and was pronounced dead. Their name hasn’t been released. The other shooters jumped back into the cars and left, according to police. Two people inside the home were also shot, police said. Paramedics took one person in serious condition to Mount Sinai Hospital, Chicago Fire Department spokesman Larry Merritt said. The other went to a hospital too but the condition was not immediately released. One person was arrested near the scene and another was taken into custody by Oak Park police officers after the suspects were involved in a crash, police said. The second car was found burnt near Chicago and Lockwood avenues.

Hours earlier, a 26-year-old woman was standing outside of a residential building about 12:45 a.m. in the 6200 block of South Rockwell Street in Chicago Lawn when two males approached and opened fire, striking her in the head, police said. She was pronounced dead at the scene, police said. Her name hasn’t been released yet.

In nonfatal attacks, two teens were shot Friday evening in Austin on the West Side. About 5 p.m., they were walking in the 300 block of North Pine Avenue, when they heard shots and felt pain, police said. A 17-year-old boy was struck in the right foot, and a 16-year-old boy was struck in the right shoulder, police said. The 17-year-old was taken to Loretto Hospital and the younger boy was taken to Mt. Sinai Hospital, police said. They are both in good condition.

At least 12 others were wounded in citywide shootings Friday.

Ten people were wounded in shootings in Chicago Thursday.

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Bears coach Matt Nagy is 1-2 this season. | AP Photos

He could have chosen to be bold and stake his reputation on a banged-up Andy Dalton or a still-reeling Justin Fields for the most critical game of his career. Instead, Nagy decided to act as though the injury report was deciding for him.

Last season, coach Matt Nagy and the Bears had a six-game losing streak. The season before, they lost four in a row.

Neither compares to their one-game losing streak right now.

After the Bears gained 47 yards on 42 plays last Sunday against the Browns, Nagy took criticism like never before. On Monday, one ESPN analyst wondered whether Nagy was trying to set up rookie quarterback Justin Fields to fail. Another called for his job. Later in the week, a debate show on the network wondered whether Fields should force his way out of town — and away from this mess altogether.

Locally, it was worse. The Wiener’s Circle called for Nagy’s firing on the famous sign outside its building and passed along the link to a petition online. Bears fans on social media and in their own homes insulted Nagy like, well, he was a customer at The Wiener’s Circle.

The fire rages outside.

”Where I’m at right now is inside,” Nagy said Friday. ”I’m inside with these guys. I’m inside this building. I’m inside with everybody that’s here together doing this.”

In terms of self-preservation, the Bears’ game Sunday against the winless, historically hapless Lions — thought of as a gimme as recently as 10 days ago — is the most important of Nagy’s career. A loss would spin the Bears’ season further out of control and do nothing to quell concerns that Nagy — despite his experience tutoring Patrick Mahomes in 2017 — is the wrong person to shepherd Fields’ career.

More immediately, a loss would send the Bears down the long ramp toward another six-game losing streak, with the Raiders, Packers, Buccaneers and 49ers next on their schedule.

The McCaskeys never have fired a coach in the middle of a season. If Sunday is ugly, perhaps they would reconsider.

Nagy feels the pressure from inside and outside Halas Hall. That’s part of the reason that, for the first time in his head-coaching career, he refused to name a quarterback during game week.

He could have chosen to be bold and stake his reputation on a banged-up Andy Dalton or a still-reeling Fields but decided to act as though the injury report was deciding for him.

If Dalton can’t play because of a bone bruise in his left knee and Fields shines, then Nagy made the right call. If Fields struggles, then Nagy was a victim of medical circumstance. If Dalton shines, then it validates him being Nagy’s starter. If he doesn’t, it’s because of the knee. Nagy probably figures he can’t lose — unless the Bears lose the game.

Nagy bunkered himself in like never before during the week, playing coy about quarterback and play-caller alike. On Tuesday, he took the bizarre measure of asking his offensive players during a meeting what suggestions they had to fix the offense. Veteran Nick Foles chimed in with an idea; Fields said he didn’t.

Either way, it was a bad look for Nagy for his offense to seem so lost so early in the season.

”We’re going to fight for him this weekend,” tight end Cole Kmet said.

We’ll see.

For three seasons and three games, Nagy has done an impressive job of rallying his players and minimizing whatever rifts existed between a dominant defense and a popgun offense. If he can’t hold his team together Sunday — if his players won’t fight for him — it’s fair to wonder what exactly he does well.

For two-plus seasons, Nagy’s quarterbacks — his area of expertise — have been among the worst in the league. And play-calling might not be entirely under his control anymore. While he wouldn’t say whether he had ceded that duty to coordinator Bill Lazor, it’s hard to believe Nagy’s bosses would accept another week with the same structure.

Nagy said Friday he wanted to keep the play-caller secret, so as not to give away tendencies to the Lions, the biggest walkover opponent the Bears will face all season.

”As much as the coaches can take accountability of what happened [last] Sunday, the coaches weren’t out there playing,” running back David Montgomery said. ”It was on us as an offense, us as a team, to get the job done. The play doesn’t make the play; the player makes the play.”

Montgomery is as close to Nagy as any player at Halas Hall. They communicate even when both are outside the facility, be it through FaceTime, text messages or phone calls.

He described Nagy last week as ”the leader we know him to be.”

”We still have a lot of opportunities and a lot of games to prove what we’re capable of,” Montgomery said. ”We’re still stuck together like glue.”

If the Bears don’t prove something Sunday, things will fall apart even more.

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Julia Child and her husband, Paul, are seen in an image from the documentary “Julia.” | Sony Pictures Classics

Upcoming documentary on the great chef also celebrates her husband Paul, content to stay in the background as she taught French cuisine on TV.

The label “date movie” hasn’t traditionally been applied much to documentaries, but filmmakers Betsy West and Julie Cohen have twice now made non-fiction films of trailblazing female icons that also happen to be portraits of loving, supportive marriages.

In “RBG,” the 2018 Oscar-nominated bio-documentary of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the filmmakers lingered over the encouraging role of her longtime husband, the lawyer Martin D. Ginsburg. Their latest, “Julia,” is likewise about a pioneering 20th century woman, the adventurous TV chef Julia Child, whose ascent was tenderly and enthusiastically advocated for by her husband, Paul Child. He even wrote a sonnet for her.

For never were there foods, nor were there wines

Whose flavor equals yours for sheer delight.

O luscious dish! O gustatory pleasure!

You satisfy my taste buds beyond measure.

“Feminist love stories are our genre,” Cohen says in an interview alongside West. ” ‘RBG’ was a great date movie. ‘Julia’ is a slightly more expensive date movie because it really needs to be the movie and then a good dinner.”

“Julia,” opening in theaters Nov. 5, is an affectionate and flavorful tribute to a beloved culinary figure. The film surveys a life that found fame relatively late. Child was nearly 50 by the time her debut cookbook “Mastering the Art of French Cooking” was released in 1961. Her career on TV, beginning with an omelet on Boston’s WGBH, came the year after. There and beyond, Child was a charismatic, 6-foot-2-inch exception to a male-dominated cooking world and a carefree antidote to the force-fed image of the TV-dinner-cooking ’50s housewife.

Her husband, a former diplomat, contentedly took a background role. In “The French Chef Cookbook,” Julia Child wrote: “Paul Child, the man who is always there: porter, dishwasher, official photographer, mushroom dicer and onion chopper, editor, fish illustrator, manager, taster, idea man, resident poet, and husband.”

“Julia” is only set partly among the pots and pans (and heaps of butter) that made Child famous. (The filmmakers even built a replica of her kitchen to make and photograph some of her best-known dishes.) But the heart of “Julia” may lie outside the kitchen in capturing her larger life and passions. Over time, she spoke more openly about her political beliefs.

Child wrote a letter in 1982 that was sent to Planned Parenthood donors. It read: “Few politicians will take the risk of publicly supporting either contraception or abortion — and who is ‘for abortion’ anyway? We are concerned with freedom of choice.”

“What Julia did at the time was pretty risky. This was not a time when celebrities or celebrity chefs were going out of their way to take positions that were controversial,” says West. “Julia was very confident in her beliefs and determined to bring her celebrity to something she truly believed in.”

For West and Cohen, “Julia” is only part of their output following “RBG,” a blockbuster documentary that collected more than $14 million in ticket sales. Their “My Name Is Pauli Murray,” released Friday on Amazon Prime Video, profiles a pivotal but sometimes overlooked activist and writer who helped lay the legal framework for both the civil rights and women’s rights movements.

“There is just a huge landscape of women out there whose stories haven’t been adequately told,” says West. “It’s frankly an opportunity for us to tell these stories.”

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