Notre Dame’s passing recreation nonetheless wants a variety of work. But it surely additionally proved to be the important thing to placing No. 15 Louisville away.
The No. 16 Combating Irish beat the Cardinals 31-24 after two huge cross performs within the fourth quarter helped put the sport away. Louisville defenders acquired combined up in protection as Jayden Harrison acquired huge open for a 34-yard catch. Two performs later, Riley Leonard hit Jeremiyah Love for a 32-yard catch-and-run TD on a display screen cross to present the Irish a 14-point lead with 9:16 to go.
Leonard’s stat line was abysmal earlier than discovering Harrison. Previous to that cross, he was simply 15-of-21 passing for 97 yards. He completed the sport 17-of-23 for 163 yards.
The insecurity within the cross recreation confirmed on the drives sandwiching Love’s TD catch. Earlier than the TD, Notre Dame had the ball in Louisville territory dealing with a fourth-and-3. As an alternative of throwing the ball, Leonard ran it up the center. He acquired stuffed.
Notre Dame then didn’t put the ball within the air after Louisville minimize the result in seven with simply over 5 minutes to go. Leonard was tackled for a loss on a rollout to the correct on third down and the Cardinals acquired the ball again with lower than three minutes to go.
The Cardinals then dedicated an important error. Needing a yard on fourth down, Louisville acquired flagged for delay of recreation with 1:10 to go earlier than Tyler Shough snuck it for what seemed to be a primary down. After the penalty, his ensuing deep throw into double protection fell incomplete.
A turnover-filled first half
The opening kickoff supplied a glimpse into the primary half. Louisville kicked off to Notre Dame and RB Devyn Ford fumbled the ball as quickly as he was hit on the return. The Cardinals turned the fumble right into a TD.
From there, Louisville couldn’t cease turning the ball over. The Cardinals fumbled on back-to-back possessions after Notre Dame tied the sport. That helped give the Irish a 21-7 lead that they might by no means relinquish.
A type of fumbles was a nasty punt snap that arrange Notre Dame close to the objective line.
The 2 groups mixed for 5 turnovers as Notre Dame had one other fumble and Shough threw an interception.
Why the win is so necessary for Notre Dame
Louisville was simply one among two ranked groups remaining on Notre Dame’s schedule. Because of Florida State’s struggles to begin the season, USC is now the one ranked group remaining for the Combating Irish. And it’s onerous to see Stanford, Georgia Tech, Navy, Virginia and Military entering into the AP High 25 forward of their video games in opposition to Notre Dame.
Had Notre Dame misplaced on Saturday, its playoff hopes would have been on life help because of that schedule — particularly with a loss to USC. A 9-3 Notre Dame group with just one ranked win would seemingly don’t have any shot on the School Soccer Playoff barring a maniacal season throughout the nation.
As an alternative, Notre Dame’s path to 10-2 or higher remains to be very clear. Even when the passing recreation remains to be, uh, a piece in progress.
Leonard has thrown for simply 750 yards throughout 5 video games up to now this season. The 163 yards he threw for on Saturday tied his season excessive. Notre Dame can preserve successful video games in opposition to its upcoming opponents with a robust run recreation and an offense that features like this. But it surely’s not going to be a critical contender until it may possibly throw the ball way more successfully.
