The Notre Dame offense showed up to play the Purdue Boilermakers, but the defense was still more than questionable. The Irish were without starting cornerback Leonard Moore and starting nickelback DeVonta Smith for the game, and it really showed.
The game started as a bit of a track race with the Irish scored touchdowns on its first four possessions.
After getting a three and out on Purdue to start the game, CJ Carr hit Malachi Fields on a 66 yard post to take the early lead. Purdue, however, answered
Notre Dame’s energy with a 6 play 75 yard drive that resulted in a touchdown via a really nice halfback throwback pass to tie the game at 7.
The Irish turned the running game ON. The next three Irish touchdowns came from a 1 yard Jeremiyah Love TD dive, and Jadarian Price scored a couple of touchdowns — with one being on his first carry of the game (21 yard score).
The Irish did allow a couple of Boiler field goals (one of which came shortly after a fake punt conversion) and got the ball back with 1:46 left in the half. On the first play of the drive, CJ Carr was strip sacked by pressure from the left side and the Boilers took over. One stuffed run later — the game was put under a weather delay because of lightning in the area.
After a two hour delay — the game resumed with 1:31 left in the 2nd quarter. Notre Dame’s defense held well — including a third down sack from Donovan Hinish and Gabe Rubio, and the Boilers had to kick a FG to make it 28-16.
Then a little Irish fun ensued. Jadarian Price returned the kickoff 100 yards for a touchdown. There was a flag on the ground, but after the referee summit — they picked it up and the Irish made it 35-16 with 1:00 left in the 2nd quarter. Purdue, however, only needed 53 seconds to find the endzone with a Nitro tuggle touchdown reception to make it 35-23 at the half.
The weather delay served as the halftime break (plus a 3 minute TV timeout), so no team will go back to the lockers for halftime.
Notre Dame wasted little time on its opening drive of the second half. After gaining a couple of first down, CJ Carr handed it off to Jeremiyah Love, and he went 46 yards for a touchdown to make the scoreboard read 42-23.
The Irish forced a punt and went right back to work. After a personal foul flag on Purdue during the punt, it took ND only 3 plays to score on a beautiful out and up route by Jordan Faison for 48 yard score to make it 49-23.
As maligned as the defense has been, they did get their second 3rd down sack of the game on the next Purdue drive, and that turned into a punt — and an 8 play, 70 yard touchdown drive with Jadarian Price ending up in the endzone for the fourth time in the game.
Before the end of the 3rd quarter, Notre Dame started sending in the backups on offense — including Kenny Minchey at quarterback and Aneyas Williams at running back. Carr’s day was done, and he finished with a nice stat line of 10-12 for 223 yards and 2 touchdowns. Love had 157 yards on 19 carries with 2 touchdowns, while Jadarian Price added 74 yards on 9 carries with three touchdowns (plus his 100 yard kickoff return for a score).
After a failed 4th down conversion, Purdue started driving for a second, but freshman Dallas Golden got his first career interception to get the ball back for the Irish. Notre Dame refused to send out James Rendell and turned the ball over again on downs.
Purdue tacked on another touchdown to make it 56-30.
More to come on OFD.
