Notre Dame travelled a couple hours south to take on the Purdue Boilermakers in an old timey rivalry game for the Shillelagh Trophy, and are going back home to South Bend as 49-10 winners. The Irish had little trouble in taking care of this one as the game was pretty much decided by halftime.
Notre Dame’s first offensive drive of the game only lasted 4 plays, but with a defense that was mostly suffocating (despite a few moments here and there) there were plenty of opportunities to put points on the board.
After that first drive, Notre Dame scored touchdowns on its next four offensive drives.
The party got started with a 27 yard TD pass from CJ Carr to Micah Gilbert for the only score in the first quarter. Carr and Gilbert hooked up again on the next drive for a 56 yard catch and run that set up a 22 yard touchdown run by Aneyas Williams to make it 14-0. Gilbert ended the day with just those two catches for 86 yards and the score.
Notre Dame’s third scoring drive of the first half was the one that took the longest. The Irish used 13 plays to go 85 yards, and after CJ Carr was tossed to the ground on a play as a wide receiver by Hudauri Hines — he checked into a run right at Hines for a 1 yard touchdown to make it 21-0, Irish.
While Notre Dame was sitting pretty good at 21-0, the game was stamped as “OVER” when on Purdue’s next possession, Bryce Young forced a fumble on Ryan Browne, and Drayk Bowen picked the ball up for an easy jog into the end zone.
The Irish kept the pressure up as the first half winded down. On their last possession of the half, CJ Carr hooked up with Nolan James for a short touchdown pass with less than 90 seconds until halftime to make it 35-0 at the break.
Notre Dame got off to a slow start in the second half. Facing 3rd and 10, CJ Carr threw his first interception of the season. Notre Dame’s defense held on 4th and goal on the next Boiler possession, but tripped into a three and out to give the ball right back to Purdue who eventually kicked a long field goal for the only points of the third quarter.
CJ Carr got one last chance in the 4th quarter to drive the Irish down the field for points, and he did exactly that. Carr found Cooper Flanagan for a 2 yard score to cap a 10 play 73 yard drive to make the game 42-3.
Carr exited the game 14-22 for 237 yards and 3 TD and 1 INT to go along with a rushing touchdown.
Notre Dame emptied the benches on both sides of the ball in the middle of the fourth quarter, and Irish freshman Noah Grubbs, drove the team 87 yards for a touchdown — a 4 yard catch by Matt Jeffrey.
While the points scream BIG offensive game, the defense really set the tone. Purdue’s lone touchdown came with 6 seconds left with all of the backups in the game.
More to come on OFD.
