Notre Dame football found something much more important than a victory over a struggling Purdue Boilermaker team
Notre Dame football may have finally found their offensive identity against the Purdue Boilermakers. They’re going to need it.
Head coach Marcus Freeman and Notre Dame football got back to their winning ways on Saturday after a 56 to 30 victory over the Purdue Boilermakers. While the Chris Ash defense continued to struggle mightily, Mike Denbrock’s offense showed a lot of promise while making several big plays. It was a very positive step.
This performance wasn’t just about getting a win over Purdue, and it wasn’t even just about scoring 56 points. There was a much larger takeaway. The Notre Dame offense, which has had good moments the first two games, may have finally found their true offensive identity on Saturday in South Bend.
We have heard since Coach Freeman took over that this was an offensive line driven program, one that is going to prioritize being physical and run the football at a high clip. This offense found that identity on Saturday, rushing for 258 yards and five touchdowns on 6.6 yards per carry. They were led by star running back Jeremiyah Love, who erupted for 157 yards and two scores on 8.3 yards per tote.
The identity, however, isn’t just about running the football. We have also heard Freeman speak a lot about playing complimentary football in the past. That means the passing attack, and creating some explosives as an extension of that strong rushing attack.
Explosive Notre Dame offense
Redshirt freshman CJ Carr did just that over the weekend. The 6-3, 210-pound passer was extremely efficient during the game against Purdue, completing 10 of 12 passes. That efficiency wasn’t the impressive part. No, the impressive part is that those 10 completions went for 223 yards and two touchdowns. That’s an average of 22.3 yards per completion, and 18.6 yards per pass attempt.
This offense has been too methodical in recent years, lacking the ability to create big plays. That has caused the offensive attack to get condensed too often, needing to find a way to open up the offense. Failure to make enough big plays has limited things to a disturbing level.
With Carr making those big throws down the field, it is a very positive sign that this could end up being one of the more well balanced offenses we have seen in sometime. If Malachi Fields and Jordan Faison keep creating big plays down the field, this group will be nearly impossible to stop. They will need to be with how poorly the defense has looked.
Yes, this Purdue team they just beat isn’t very good. Unlike the defense, however, the Irish offense to exactly what you’re supposed to do against an inferior team, dominate. This feels like another strong stepping stone for the offensive attack after having a strong showing the previous week against the Texas A&M Aggies.
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