Notre Dame exploded for 42 first half points and showcased a suffocating defense as the Fighting Irish ran over hapless Purdue by 66-7. Riley Leonard ran and passed for 100+ yards and three rushing touchdowns. Jeremiah Love and Jadarian Price combined for 200 yards rushing and each had a long scoring run.

Rush End Boubacar Traore added a pick-six as part of a 21-point burst in the last two minutes of the second quarter. Backup quarterback Steve Angeli got into the act with two touchdown strikes in the third period. Later, Kenny Minchey closed the scoring with a keeper as Coach Marcus Freeman emptied his bench.

Unfortunately, Notre Dame paid a high price for the victory. Three starters went down in the second period with what appeared to be serious leg injuries. Two members of the offensive line, Ashton Craig and Billy Schrauth, were among the victims. Defensive end Jordan Botelho went down moments later. His injury appeared to be the most catastrophic. Update: Craig and Botelho will miss the rest of the season. Schrauth will likely be out for a month.

Purdue, on the other hand, was awful. Their offensive line could neither protect quarterback Hudson Card nor generate a rushing attack. They managed only 162 total yards against 578 for the visitors, of which 362 came on the ground. Only one of their 15 drives was productive and lasted as long as three minutes.

The Boiler defense could not contain the edges and missed too many tackles to count. Star safety Dylan Thieneman had nine tackles but he missed at least that many. I couldn’t help wondering how bad Indiana State must be to lose to Purdue by 49-0.

Irish fans breathed a sigh of relief as the certainty of a mismatch became obvious. Three games into the season, however, this team remains difficult to read. The injuries were not felt this week but if they are serious there may be consequences down the line.

Meanwhile, the Irish appeared to settle on an offensive identity. It was run heavy and acknowledged the fact that Leonard is not a prolific passer. He did run extremely well and showed no visible effects of his labrum injury. More weeks of evidence for this strategy is needed, though. I still suspect the inner Denbrock prefers to chuck the ball all over the field.

Let’s review the answers to our pregame questions:

• Will Notre Dame make changes to its starting lineup? Only where injuries forced reserves to come in.
• Can the Irish defensive front seven contain Purdue’s running game? If Purdue had a running game, I must have missed it.
• Which team will have the fewest penalties and turnovers? Notre Dame won this battle. The Irish had five penalties and no turnovers to seven and two, respectively, for Purdue.
• Will the Irish special teams bounce back from a poor game last week? It was good to see a clean field goal by Jeter. Max Hurleman is my new favorite punt returner.
• Can Notre Dame’s secondary keep Card from having another stellar performance? Card had little or no time to find an open reveiver, and there were precious few of them.
• Will Faison help rekindle the Irish passing game? Faison did not play but four tight ends caught passes and Jayden Thomas had a strong game.
• Can Notre Dame reassert control over the line of scrimmage? Absolutely. Let’s hope this continues.
• Will the Irish coaches have a game plan that matches their personnel? Yes. They used Leonard appropriately and he responded. The backs were explosive and the blocking was much better despite the injuries.

A few defensive players who performed well include Botelho before his injury, Jason Onye, Traore, Jordan Clark, and Kennedy Uhrlacher. On offense, the line got after it with a physical performance. The group was fortunate to have veterans Rocco Spindler and Pat Coogan to plug in when the starters went down. It was also great to see veteran tight end Kevin Bauman catch a touchdown pass.

Looking ahead to next Saturday, a team from the Mid-American Conference invades South Bend. Should be easy, right?

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