Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1526670
BLUEGOLDONLINE.COM SEPT. 21, 2024 27 DEFENSE DOMINATES WHEN IT NEEDED TO THE MOST Hudson Card's interception returned for a touchdown by Notre Dame sopho- more defensive end Boubacar Traore was an act of desperation. That's how the Fighting Irish had Card playing in Week 3 at Purdue's Ross-Ade Stadium. Completely, utterly, entirely Desper- ate. With a capital D. Notre Dame led the home Boilermakers 28-0 when Card committed a cardinal quarterbacking sin; never flip the ball up as a prayer when under duress. Graduate student defensive tackle Rylie Mills had Card engulfed in his Men's Health cover shoot-worthy arms eight yards behind the line of scrimmage. The play was surely going to result in a sack, but what Card let it result in instead was much, much worse — Notre Dame's fifth touchdown of the first half and a 35-0 Irish lead. If you want to read more about the 35, which eventually became 42 by the end of the first half, go elsewhere in this edi- tion of Blue & Gold Illustrated. A thor- ough account of the Irish's dazzling day on offense will greet your hungry eyes. But this particular exposition is all about the Notre Dame defense, which one week after getting bullied by North- ern Illinois, picked up the pieces of downright disappointment, put them together, formed something much more admirable, packed them for the short trip to West Lafayette, Ind., and abso- lutely unleashed on poor Purdue. Poor Card. The poor packed student section that left plenty of bare metal bleachers visible from the moment Traore, who also had 2 tackles for loss including a sack, crossed the goal line and beyond. "Defense played lights out," Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman said. He can say that again. It was every bit as impressive of a per- formance as the final score suggests. As the box score — 162 total yards, including just 38 on the ground, a meager 3.3 yards per play, only 6 first downs, another in- terception in addition to Traore's, 1 of 12 on third down — suggests. Most importantly, it was a total de- parture from what that side of the ball was the week prior in allowing the Hus- kies to go for nearly 400 yards, in Notre Dame Stadium of all places, pushing the Irish around like rag dolls in their own house. "Our defense takes a lot of pride in how it performs," Freeman said. "Wasn't happy with the performance last week, and they were aggressive and disciplined." Across the board. Senior defensive tackle Jason Onye and graduate student defensive back Rod Heard II led Notre Dame with 4 tackles apiece. Not names you'd expect to see at the top of that chart but definitely indicative of just how top to bottom the effort was for the Irish defensively. Traore embodied it for sure, and he's going to have to do so moving forward. It looks like the starter at his position, graduate student Jordan Botelho, who had 3 tackles including a sack in a quar- ter and change of action before suffer- ing a severe injury requiring him to get carted off the field, will miss a signifi- cant amount of time if not the entire season. Next man up. Notre Dame had plenty of them come through at Purdue. Time for Traore and Co. to start stacking solid showings. "It's definitely a confidence booster PURDUE GAME NOTES BY TYLER HORKA AND JACK SOBLE Sophomore defensive end Boubacar Traore had 2 tackles for loss, including a sack, and an interception that he returned 34 yards for a touchdown against Purdue. PHOTO BY MICHAEL MILLER MISCELLANEOUS NOTES • Notre Dame improved to 314-169-22 overall and 133-97-14 on the road against Big Ten teams. • The Fighting Irish's 6 rushing touchdowns against Purdue were their most since they had 6 against a 52-0 win over South Florida on Sept.19, 2020. • The 66 points scored by Notre Dame were its most since a 66-14 victory against New Mexico on Sept. 14, 2019. • The 28-point second quarter for the Fighting Irish at Purdue marked the most in a single quarter in a road game for Notre Dame since it tallied 28 points at Pittsburgh in the second quarter of a 42-21 victory on Sept. 3, 2005. • Notre Dame led 14-0 at the end of the first quarter, marking the 12th time in 30 games under Marcus Freeman the Irish have shut out their opponent after the first 15 minutes. • Graduate student linebacker Jack Kiser made his 56th career start and he is now tied for fifth all time at Notre Dame with Bo Bauer (2018-23).