Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/380743
respond and how are your players go- ing to respond. "Today they responded very well. You know you're going to deal with it. Now it's behind us. We know what the stan- dard is." Notre Dame's immediate response to the adversity was a definitive one. For the third time this season, the Irish scored in the final minute of the first half, when Golson ran to the corner of the end zone from 15 yards out. The scamper gave the Irish a 17-14 halftime lead and sparked 20 unanswered points in the final 31 minutes. Junior wide receiver Chris Brown maintained his block at the goal line just long enough to let Golson slip in for his fourth rushing touchdown this season. "That's where Golson hurts you," Purdue head coach Darrell Hazell said. "You watch the first two weeks against Rice and Michigan, he kept the play ex- tended, whether he ran it or whether he found a guy down the field. "Those play-making capabilities that he has really keep you off-balance on defense." Golson led Notre Dame with 56 rush- ing yards on 14 carries, the first time an Irish quarterback has led the team in rushing since Andrew Hendrix did so against Air Force in 2011. The three-headed Notre Dame back- field of senior Cam McDaniel and soph- omores Tarean Folston and Greg Bryant combined for only 83 yards on 24 carries (3.5 yards per attempt). Kelly indicated some of the struggles running the ball could be traced to the offensive line, rather than the running backs. "We're not sustaining blocks," Kelly said. "We're in position, but we're fall- ing off a block here. We're missing a fit here. Maybe it's just the continuity took us a little bit longer. It's nothing big, but it's everything." The sluggish offense actually started the game moving with the ease it dis- played in the first two weeks of the sea- son. Senior slot receiver Amir Carlisle returned the opening kickoff 47 yards to Purdue's 45-yard line, and Notre Dame methodically marched the rest of the way in six plays. Golson found sophomore wide receiver Will Fuller from six yards out to first test the score- board's lights. Fuller led the Irish with six catches for 51 yards, the third con- secutive game he has led the team in receptions. Carlisle left the game in the second quarter and soon had an ice wrap on his knee for what Kelly described as an MCL strain. He was one of six Notre Dame players to be late scratches or to leave during the game, including sopho- more safety Max Redfield, who collided helmet to helmet with Purdue sopho- more quarterback Danny Etling in the second quarter. A targeting penalty and Redfield's ejection followed — with the ejection occurring in the first half, Red- field will not be suspended for any of Notre Dame's game against Syracuse Sept. 27 in East Rutherford, N.J. — fur- ther hampering an Irish secondary that was already without fifth-year senior Austin Collinsworth (knee), plus senior safety Eilar Hardy and junior corner- back KeiVarae Russell (academic inves- tigation). On the next play, junior safety Nicky Baratti, Redfield's replacement, injured his shoulder for third time in his career, and in the third quarter, sophomore cor-