Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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BLUEGOLDONLINE.COM OCT. 3, 2026 27 PASS RUSH LOOKS REAL AND MAY JUST BE GETTING STARTED Less than 10 seconds into Notre Dame and Pur- due's 90th rivalry clash, Bryce Young had already powered his way into the Boilermaker backfield, slammed quarterback Ryan Browne to the turf and probably made Purdue head coach Barry Odom regret he won the coin toss. Then again, there was no deferring what the Irish pass rush was about to unfurl at Ross-Ade Stadium on a Purdue passing offense that showed elite quality (16th nationally in pass efficiency) and quantity (third in passing offense) in its first three games of the season. Both crumbled in a 49-10 road victory by the third-ranked Irish (4-0), their 11th straight in the once-annual series that's moved to intermittent mode and may eventually go away for good after the current contract runs out in 2028. There were probably times Odom and those not cheering for Notre Dame among the non-sellout crowd of 52,273 in West Lafayette, Ind., wouldn't have minded if the series ended before this game. From Notre Dame's standpoint, it's not that dominating a Purdue team (1-3) that still has a lot of rebuilding to do on defense, despite Odom bringing in a total of 136 scholarship newcomers in his two offseasons with the Boilermakers (86 from the transfer portal alone), creates a blueprint for taking down ranked teams like Miami and BYU later in the season. But racking up a season-high 6 sacks while mar- rying that pass rush to a multiplicity of effective coverage looks on the back end is something worth celebrating — and extrapolating. Purdue finished with 178 passing yards, roughly half of its season average. With Boilermaker quar- terback legend Drew Brees watching from the sideline, starter Ryan Browne threw for only 111 yards, and his 97.6 pass efficiency rating was more than 80 points below the season rating he brought into the game after torching UCLA on the road the previous weekend. "I mean, they're all dogs down there," freshman safety and first-time starter Joey O'Brien offered of the Irish defensive line. "Boubacar [Traore], Bryce, Armel [Mukam] — the list goes on and on. [Line- backers] Drayk [Bowen], Kyngstonn Viliamu-Asa, too. They just make it easy." O'Brien even got into the act, combining on a sack with Traore. Mukam, Loghan Thomas and freshman Rodney Dunham each recorded one. Young finished with two, continuing his breakout junior season. The volume mattered. So did the variety. The second Young sack, which came in the sec- ond quarter, touched off a chain of events that led to Bowen scoring on a 15-yard fumble return for a 28-0 Irish command. "I knew we had to get pressure on the quarter- back, and however many guys we had to send in, we would do," Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman said. "But we got good four-man pres- sure. The one play which was huge is Bryce sacks the quarterback, Boubacar forces the fumble, Drayk scoops and scores. "That was a huge moment for us. It was that pressure. It was the four-man pressure that we were able to get on the quarterback that really helped this defense." And therein lies the part of the performance that travels. Six sacks against Purdue are impressive. Affect- ing quarterbacks without having to compromise the back end of the defense to manufacture them could become something much more significant. And it may be just a precursor of what's to come. — Eric Hansen CARR HITS PURDUE DEFENSE WHERE IT HURTS When asked for the clean version of what he said to Purdue cornerback Hudauri Hines, CJ Carr grinned ear to ear. "Uh, we were just talking about the game and how it was going," Carr said, earning laughs from the room. "Yeah." There probably was no clean version because Carr can get salty when he needs to be. With Notre Dame up 14-0 in the second quarter, Carr lined up as a wide receiver as the Irish ran a wildcat play for 1 yard. Hines took the opportunity to get a legal, if somewhat cheap, shot on Carr. Irish head coach Marcus Freeman half-joked that maybe his star junior quarterback should have been ready for it. But his response spoke to the player he is. Carr got in Hines' face, said some choice words and walked right back to the huddle. On Notre Dame's next snap, he took it himself for a touch- down. "He is a dang competitor," Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman said. "He is a competitive dude, and I'm sure he wanted to run the same play again." Carr delivered another sterling performance in which his services were no longer required in the fourth quarter. He completed 14 of 22 passes for 237 yards (10.8 yards per attempt) with 3 touch- downs and his first interception of the season, though a 35-0 game would be the time to throw that. And he did it with what's becoming his modus operandi: Hitting the defense where it hurts. Meaning, he attacked the Boilermakers' cover- age in its natural weak spot. Purdue came out with a heavy dose of Cover 2, which the Irish didn't see much on tape aside from its Week 1 win over Indiana State. That forced an PURDUE GAME NOTES BY ERIC HANSEN AND JACK SOBLE Junior defensive end Bryce Young set the tone on the first play from scrimmage with the first of his 2 sacks against Purdue. The Irish finished the game with 6 sacks. PHOTO BY MICHAEL MILLER