Notre Dame and Boise State stepped onto the field to play a football game, and I suppose they played one that finished with the Irish downing the Broncos 28-7 — but WOW was it a sloppy, sloppy game. The two teams combined for 24 penalties and 224 yards. Thank the maker that the Irish won the turnover battle, 4-0.
The first quarter really set the stage, as Notre Dame took the opening drive 73 yards to eventually turn it over on downs on 4th and goal from the two. The Irish quickly dispatched with the Boise
State offense in 5 plays, and got the ball back. Six plays later, CJ Carr found Will Pauling for a 19 yard touchdown. The ensuing PAT was blocked, and the Irish led 6-0.
While the Irish defense was playing well, the offense had a three and out and then on the next drive they turned it over on downs once again. Boise State finally capitalized on the failed 4th down attempt, and drove 70 yards on 10 plays to take a 7-6 lead.
At this point the Irish had more than triple the yards of the Broncos, but looked desperate on offense to shake free its mistakes. They then answered the Boise State touchdown with a touchdown drive of their own, which ended with a Jeremiyah Love touchdown run. Notre Dame converted the 2 point conversion to take a 14-7 lead into halftime.
Notre Dame forced Boise to punt on the first Bronco drive of the second half, and took their next possession 79 yards for a touchdown. The score came via a CJ Carr to Malachi Fields 6 yard pass to make the game 21-7.
By this time, Boise was chasing points and their final four drives of the game resulted in two turnover on downs and two interceptions (Leonard Moore and Luke Talich). Jadarian Price ripped off a 49 yard touchdown run in the middle of the fourth quarter to put the irish up 28-7.
Notre Dame covered.
That quick rundown in no way can describe the awful football we witnessed with laundry (earned and unearned) all over the place. Notre Dame’s offense also created their own non-penalty errors with missed blocks, overthrows, and general “offness” which felt like the opposite of last week’s win over Arkansas. On the very bright side… the Irish defense only gave up 7 points and 100 rushing yards.
It was an odd day. The win is good. The cover is good. The way it all went down… well not so good. I spent a great amount of time over the past week explaining how this year’s Arkansas game was really last year’s Purdue game, so I guess that makes this game last year’s Miami of Ohio game.
If that makes sense.
More to come on OFD.
