In a game where Notre Dame wanted to flex its muscles a little bit for some style points, things got out of control in a hurry, and it ended with a 70-0 win over the Syracuse Orange.
Notre Dame scored three
touchdowns before the Irish offense even took the field. The first was a 44 yard interception return by safety Jalen Stroman on the second play of the game — a play that looked very similar to Tae Johnson’s return against Pitt (Johnson was out for today with a hand injury).
The second touchdown was a 22 yard punt return by Luke Talich. The ball was partially blocked, but it went forward in the air and Talich caught it at the 22 and took off with a wall of blockers to his right side.
The third nonoffensive score came on the next Syracuse possession. The Orange tried challenging Leonard Moore, and the All-American sophomore picked it off and scrambled down the sideline for a 46 yard pick six.
When the Irish offense finally took the field for a drive, CJ Carr handed the ball off to Jeremiyah Love, and the Heisman candidate flew to the end zone for a 45 yard touchdown run. On the third play of the next Notre Dame drive, CJ Carr handed the ball off to Jadarian Price, and he took off for the end zone for a 58 yard score to make it 35-0 in the first quarter.
Just a few seconds into the 2nd quarter, Notre Dame made the score 42-0 after a short touchdown pass from Carr to Will Pauling. On Notre Dame’s next offensive drive, the Irish drove the ball 59 yards and ended it with a 14 yard touchdown run by Jeremiyah Love (who had 7 carries for 103 yards and 2 touchdowns in the first half).
The biggest amount of drama came late in the first half. Notre Dame was forced to punt the ball after a 3rd down sack of CJ Carr, and Syracuse drove the ball just enough to attempt a cowardly 48 yard field goal at the end of the half — but the football gods wouldn’t allow such a stain, and it doinked off of the goalposts to make it 49-0 at the half.
It was, perhaps, the most brutal first half I’ve ever witnessed.
The Irish didn’t dial it back to start the 3rd quarter either. On the third play of Notre Dame’s opening drive, Jeremiyah Love ran it 68 yards for a touchdown to make it 56-0 Irish. At that point, Love had 171 yards and 3 scores on 8 carries.
Do we need to go on? Maybe, but I’m going to take a pass.
More to come on OFD.
