Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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BLUEGOLDONLINE.COM OCT. 11, 2025 21 on-one battles more consistently. We knew that was going to be the challenge. It wasn't going to be out-scheme them and confuse them. It was going to be on both sides of the ball, we have to win more one-on-one battles. And we did that more." Notre Dame redshirt freshman quar- terback CJ Carr completed 15 of 23 passes for 189 yards with 2 touchdowns and 0 interceptions. He didn't have his A+ game, but even if this was his B-some- thing stuff it was more than enough to out-duel his counterpart, Boise State veteran Maddux Madsen, who connected on 22 of 37 throws for 215 yards with 0 touchdowns and 4 interceptions. The Notre Dame defense played a major factor in making Madsen look incredibly mortal. The Irish sacked him four times. He wasn't afforded too many comfortable pockets to pass from, and even when he was, the Notre Dame secondary looked much more like the one that was largely responsible for the nation's No. 1 pass efficiency defense metric in each of the last two seasons than the one that was near the very bot- tom in the FBS in passing yards against for most of the month of September. "It feels like we're getting our identity in check," said sophomore cornerback Leonard Moore, who returned from an ankle injury that held him out for two games and had 2 interceptions of Mad- sen. "We're going out there playing fast and playing violent." Notre Dame also held a Broncos (3-2) team that was averaging 221 rushing yards per game to 100 yards on 2.9 yards per carry. Conversely, Notre Dame's highly touted rushing attack spear- headed by tailback tandem Jeremiyah Love and Jadarian Price ran for 200 yards on 6.5 yards per carry. Love did most of the heavy lifting with 103 yards on 16 rushing attempts. Price had 83 yards on 8 carries, including a 49-yard breakaway touchdown — as he does. "When you have the two best run- ning backs in the country, it's hard to be wrong in the run game," Carr said. Ove ra l l , d e s p i te i n e f fe c t ive n e ss in plus territory early on, including a fourth-and-goal stuff of Love woe- fully short of the end zone, Notre Dame found a form of complementary football that worked and resulted in the team holding a winning record for the first time this season. That's progress ahead of a home stand that continues with North Carolina State Oct. 11 and South- ern Cal Oct. 18 before a bye Oct. 25. "We'll get back to work tomorrow, but enjoy this because you get 12 guaranteed opportunities and it's hard to get one," Freeman said. "It's hard to earn a victory. Sometimes we take that for granted." FIRST QUARTER NOTRE DAME 6, BOISE STATE 0 Top moment: After junior run- ning back Jeremiyah Love temporarily left the game with an injury following runs of 36 and 7 yards, redshirt fresh- man quarterback CJ Carr finished off the scoring drive with a 19-yard touch- down pass to redshirt senior wide re- ceiver Will Pauling at the 4:47 mark of the quarter. However, freshman kicker Erik Schmidt's extra point was blocked. Feature performers: Junior line- backer Drayk Bowen and sophomore linebacker Kyngstonn Viliamu-Asa combined for the first of Notre Dame's season-high 4 sacks, this one to force a punt on Boise State's second drive. In addition, Carr was 6-of-8 passing for 85 yards and 1 touchdown. Stats: What would turn out to be a heavy penalty day for both teams showed that trend right out of the gate, with the teams combined for 7 penalties … The Irish outgained Boise State 147 to 29 in total yards. Items: Notre Dame starting right tackle Aamil Wagner came out of the game late in Notre Dame's first offensive drive of the game, when his knee got rolled up on. He returned on the next drive … Sullivan Absher came into the game at right guard and Guerby Lam- bert shifted from right guard to right tackle, with Wagner on the sideline. SECOND QUARTER NOTRE DAME 14, BOISE STATE 7 Top moment: Notre Dame took the lead for good on a touchdown and two- point conversion with 48 seconds left in the half. But Boise State tried to get some momentum back in the closing seconds, getting down to the Irish 31- yard line with time to — at the very least — add three points. Instead, redshirt freshman safety Tae Johnson got his first career interception and returned it 24 yards with 8 seconds left. Feature performers: Redshirt senior wide receiver Malachi Fields started the go-ahead scoring drive with a 22-yard reception. Love was the workhorse on the drive, carrying the ball 5 times in the 9-play, 75-yard touchdown drive, including the final 4 yards untouched for his sixth rushing touchdown of the season and ninth overall. Stats: This was Boise State's most im- pressive quarter offensively. The nation's No. 9 team in total offense piled up 96 of its 315 total yards in this period, converted 3 of 5 third-down opportunities and scored on quarterback Maddux Madsen's Redshirt sophomore defensive end Boubacar Traore and the Fighting Irish harassed Boise State quarterback Maddux Madsen all game, sacking him four times and intercepting him four times. PHOTO BY MICHAEL MILLER