Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/894058
22 NOV. 6, 2017 BLUE & GOLD ILLUSTRATED The Wolfpack committed 11 first- half penalties for 74 yards compared to Notre Dame's three for 25 yards. Items: Once again, after the Wolf- pack took a 14-7 lead (14:42) on a third-and-10 pass from Finley to Kelvin Harmon for 15 yards, Notre Dame responded with a 14-play, 72- yard drive, capped by Wimbush's three-yard touchdown run on third- and-goal with 9:37 remaining. THIRD QUARTER: NOTRE DAME 35, NC STATE 14 Top Moment: On the opening series of the second half, NC State faced third-and-10 at the Notre Dame 42. Finley then threw his first inter- ception of the season that Love broke on perfectly on an out to the sideline and returned it for a 69-yard touch- down. That provided Notre Dame a 28-14 cushion with 12:05 left. Top Performer: The Notre Dame offensive line opened a massive hole for Adams for a 77-yard touchdown jaunt in which he was untouched and increased Notre Dame's lead to 35-14 with 4:11 remaining. It was Adams' nation-leading sev- enth run of at least 60 yards (plus a 59-yard scamper), and fourth of at least 70 yards, which also leads the country. Per usual, he credited the offensive line for his success. "They lead this team, and they bring all the energy. We do the best that we can to kind of feed off of them and really try to push the tempo," Adams said. "They bring the aggression and have the mindset to dominate, and it spreads out through- out the entire offense." Stats: Notre Dame accumulated 332 yards of total offense after three quarters, 252 rushing and 80 passing. North Carolina State had 258, with 211 through the air and 47 on the ground. Items: Following Love's touch- down, the Wolfpack drove to Notre Dame's 6-yard line, where it faced fourth-and-one. There, NC State run- ning back Jaylen Samuels was stuffed for a one-yard loss by freshman tackle Myron Tagovailoa-Amosa and junior linebacker Te'von Coney to give Notre Dame possession at the 7-yard line with 7:31 left. FOURTH QUARTER: NOTRE DAME 35, NC STATE 14 Top Moment: Instead of running up the score for "style points," the Irish ran out the clock inside North Carolina State's 5-yard line. Top Performer: Sophomore run- ning back Deon McIntosh was the workhorse for the Irish over the fi- nal 18 minutes with 11 carries for 63 yards, while Notre Dame basically ran clock. Stats: The Irish outgained the Wolfpack 422-263 in the game, nota- bly 318-50 on the ground. Items: For the sixth time in eight games, Notre Dame finished with more than 300 rushing yards. In the 13 seasons from 2004-16, the Irish had only two such games (versus Mi- ami in 2012 and UMass in 2015). ✦ Notre Dame's offensive line continued its physical dominance of opponents while leading Notre Dame to its sixth 300-yard rushing performance (318) in eight games this year. PHOTO BY ANGELA DRISKELL NOTRE DAME 35, NC STATE 14 Oct. 28, 2017 ✦ Attendance: 77,622 Notre Dame Stadium ✦ Notre Dame, Ind. 1st 2nd 3rd 4th Total NC State 7 7 0 0 14 Notre Dame 7 14 14 0 35 NCST ND FIRST QUARTER NCST Pratt recovered blocked punt in end zone (Wise kick) 10:05 7 0 ND Smythe 25-yard pass from Wimbush (Yoon kick) 9:36 7 7 Drive: 2 plays, 60 yards, 0:29 SECOND QUARTER NCST Harmon 15-yard pass from Finley (Wise kick) 14:48 14 7 Drive: 7 plays, 71 yards, 2:46 ND Wimbush 3-yard run (Yoon kick) 9:37 14 14 Drive: 14 plays, 72 yards, 5:11 ND Stepherson 11-yard pass from Wimbush (Yoon kick) 5:30 14 21 Drive: 8 plays, 60 yards, 2:18 THIRD QUARTER ND Love 69-yard interception return (Yoon kick) 12:05 14 28 ND Adams 77-yard run (Yoon kick) 4:11 14 35 Drive: 2 plays, 77 yards, 0:16 NCST ND Total First Downs 14 25 Rushing 4 15 Passing 9 6 Penalty 1 4 Rushing Attempts 24 54 Yards Gained Rushing 81 342 Yards Lost Rushing 31 24 Net Yards Rushing 50 318 Net Yards Passing 213 104 Passes Attempted 37 19 Passes Completed 17 10 Had Intercepted 1 0 Percent Completion 45.9% 52.6% Yards Per Attempt 5.8 5.5 Yards Per Completion 12.5 10.4 Total Offensive Plays 61 73 Total Net Yards 263 422 Average Gain Per Play 4.3 5.8 Fumbles: No.-Lost 1-0 0-0 Penalties: No.-Yards 12-89 4-29 Punts: No.-Yards 8-356 7-242 Average Per Punt 44.5 34.6 Average Net Punt 43.1 28.6 Punt Returns: No.-Yards 2-22 3-11 Kickoff Returns: No.-Yards 5-118 3-73 Interception Returns: No.-Yards 0-0 1-69 Fumble Returns: No.-Yards 0-0 0-0 Miscellaneous Yards 0 0 Possession Time 25:43 34:17 Third-Down Conversions 5-16 9-16 Percentage 31.2% 56.2% Fourth-Down Conversions 0-2 0-0 Percentage 0.0% 0.0% Sacks By: No.-Yards 2-7 1-6