22 SEPT. 25, 2021 BLUE & GOLD ILLUSTRATED
BY TYLER HORKA
I
t wasn't particularly pretty. It
surely wasn't perfect. But in the
end, all that mattered to Notre
Dame was that it wasn't a Purdue
victory.
The Fighting Irish beat the Boiler-
makers 27-13 in front of a near-capacity
crowd of 74,341 at Notre Dame Stadium.
If the fans, most clad in Irish green,
came to see an offensive outburst, well,
they didn't get their money's worth.
But if they came to see No. 12 Notre
Dame improve to 3-0 by dominating
defensively for large stretches of the
game, then the price of admission was
most certainly worth it.
They also got to see a sixth straight
win for Notre Dame over Purdue (2-1)
and Brian Kelly tie Knute Rockne for
most all-time wins (105) by a Notre
Dame head coach.
"It wasn't flawless by any means,"
Kelly said. "But playing a Big Ten op-
ponent that has really good players and
a couple of guys that are going to play on
Sundays that are outstanding players.
"You know, we did some really good
things defensively."
MOVING FORWARD
Notre Dame makes defensive improvements and does
enough offensively en route to 27-13 win over Purdue
