It was one bizarre Saturday of football, but in the end Notre Dame boarded the bus and headed back up Highway 31 with a 2-1 record, beating a game Purdue team that brought their best to the annual battle with the Irish.
Let’s get down to business and take a look at the good, the bad and the ugly from Saturday night’s 31-24 victory.
THE GOOD
DaVaris Daniels. The best game of a young career for Daniels, who showed himself to be a deep threat as well as dangerous weapon crossing the middle of an opponent’s defense. After a relatively quiet first half, Daniels broke the game open with Rees, targeting him eight times in the second half, connecting for 130 yards and two touchdowns.
Jarrett Grace. He’s nowhere near the cover man that Manti Te’o was last season, but Grace was certainly active Saturday night, doubling up the next closest teammate making ten tackles on the evening as he starts to work his way into the three man rotation at inside linebacker.
Tommy Rees… and the deep ball?!? No, that’s not a typo. Rees was deadly throwing down the field against Purdue, making the Boilermakers pay when he pushed the ball vertically down the field. Rees threw a perfect pass to Chris Brown late in the first half to open up the deep throwing, then on a play that most will forget from the second quarter, Rees was flushed from the pocket and rolled to his left when he spotted Corey Robinson one-on-one deep down the field. Rees heaved it to Robinson, who was interfered with as he tried to come back and make the play. It’s the type of play that’s very difficult for a defensive back to make and credit Rees for giving Robinson a chance to make a play, and turn nothing into 15 yards and a first down.
After throwing for only 94 yards in the first half on just over 50 percent passing, Rees righted the ship while also taking shots down the field. First, he extended a drive by hitting TJ Jones for a clutch 19-yard gain on 3rd and 9. Next he took a 50-50 shot on a back-shoulder throw to Jones who made a spectacular catch inside the one-yard line. But the best throw and connection of the night came from Rees with just under 13 minutes left, hitting Daniels in stride against Purdue’s best cover corner. The 82-yard completion was the ninth longest pass completion in school history. (Let the record show that Rees threw that ball about 50-yards in the air for a perfect strike.)
In the second half, Rees had incompletions that included a throw away, a ball that Daniels caught JUST out of bounds after a perfect throw rolling left, and one where Daniels stepped out before making the catch. (Two red zone incompletions hit Daniels and Jones in the hands, but were just dropped on tough catches.) After rewatching the tape, it was a really impressive second half by Rees, who had the offense on point.
Cam McDaniel. You aren’t going to look at his numbers and see a dominant performance, but never did 3.5 yards per carry look so good. After getting his head split open before half, McDaniel was the back who had his number called to finish the football game, with ten carries on the Irish’s final drive, milking the last 7:22 off the clock.
McDaniel also looks to have taken the role of goal line back, the runner of choice when the Irish had first and goal inside the one. While most called for Greg Bryant and Tarean Folston to get a shot running the ball it was McDaniel who took charge of the position battle after being largely forgotten against Michigan. (As a bonus, he went out and made a tackle on special teams on the ensuing kickoff.)
Sheldon Day. The sophomore defensive lineman was all over the field, a nuisance lined up both inside and out along the line. Day had four tackles, including one for a loss. He was all over Rob Henry, and while he didn’t get a sack, he caused numerous throw aways.
Bennett Jackson. Hard to ignore Jackson’s game-changing pick six. A confident play by the guy that needs to lead the secondary, undercutting a crossing route and taking it in for the touchdown.
THE BAD
Early Drops. You can count four early drops that go against Tommy Rees’ stat ledger, and need to be had by Notre Dame receivers.
Ugly First Quarter. This one isn’t all on the offense, but still — the Irish had just one first down in the first quarter, gaining just 29 yards while letting Purdue possess the ball for over ten minutes. That’s two weeks in a row on the road that the Irish offense didn’t get off to a good start, and with Michigan State and the No. 1 defense in the country coming to down, that’s not a feeling that gives you the warm fuzzies.
Punting. Kyle Brindza certainly didn’t have his best night, averaging just 36.3 yards a kick and failing to get any of his kicks inside the Purdue 20 yard line. After claiming he was an option for two weeks, Wake Forest transfer Alex Wulfeck kicked one time for 38 yards, but did pin Purdue inside their 20.
The run blocking. Whether the credit is deserved by Purdue’s aggressive front or not, there just wasn’t much there for the Irish in the run game, with Purdue defenders all over the place. While the second half showed that the Irish can make a defense pay by taking the ball over the top, expect opponents to copy Greg Hudson’s formula for pressuring the Irish offense.
The Irish’s Zone Defense. A season after using a zone defense that allowed Manti Te’o to nearly lead the country in interceptions, Rob Henry found quite a few holes in the Irish zone.
Henry finished 25 of 40 for 256 yards and three touchdowns. That’s 100 yards better than he did against Indiana State, and the career best game Henry played. Not exactly a ringing endorsement for the Irish pass defense.
Kickoff coverage. There was too much there for Purdue, who took advantage of a nice wrinkle by faking a reverse on just about every return.
Missed tackles. It’s tough to watch film of this defense after seeing last year’s team seek and destroy just about everything (minus Alabama). Matthias Farley had an ugly missed tackle on Purdue’s first drive of the second half, letting Purdue retake the lead. Throw in some other misses by guys like Cole Luke, Carlo Calabrese, KeiVarae Russell, and it’s clear this defense needs to continue stressing the fundamentals.
Not turning and looking for the ball. Both Bennett Jackson and Matthias Farley fail to look back as Rob Henry heaved a prayed down the field. While the Purdue receiver adjusted for the ball, neither Jackson nor Farley did, and it ended up putting the Boilermakers in a position to score again.
THE UGLY
A tough win. Perhaps George Atkinson’s night best encapsulated the Irish’s win. On paper, you’d think the junior running back had a nice night, averaging 5.4 yards per carry again on his five runs and chipping in 11 yards on his one reception, a quick shovel from Rees. But Atkinson still has a really difficult time making defenders miss, and for a 220-pound running back with home run speed, he sure goes down mighty easy, with broken tackles few and far between.
But after watching a crazy Saturday of football, which included one of the worst officiated late game sequences I’ve ever seen, courtesy of a Pac-12 officiating crew in the Wisconsin-Arizona State game, it’s good to escape West Lafayette with a win.
