Notre Dame Football: Jafar Armstrong was Offensive Player of the Game

Jafar Armstrong came up huge for Notre Dame football in a game that was closer than many people thought it should have been.

No one expected this game to go the way it ended up going for Notre Dame football . Aside from the first drive of the game, the Irish just didn’t play with any intensity. It was a very poor effort starting from the coaching staff right on down through the majority of players. The offensive line was very “soft” and just looked lost on the edges way too often against Ball State.

We all expected the offense to at score upwards of 30 points, but obviously that wasn’t the case. Because of that it, isn’t an easy task to pick an “offensive player of the game”  — and I’m shocked to even say that. Overall though, I think Jafar Armstrong deserves it the most this week. 

Armstrong carried the ball 13 times for a total of 66 yards and a touchdown. He was pretty solid throughout the game with pass protection, especially for only being his second game as a running back. But what pushed his performance over the edge for me was him making some really good plays in the slot. He added 3 receptions for 61 yards to his day.

I think he will continue to be a huge weapon coming out of the backfield for the Irish if they continue to execute and make the right play calls that favor the strengths of this offense.

But the second half — specifically the fourth quarter — was not easy to watch for this offense. If they don’t have a better performance offensively against Vanderbilt next week, we could be looking at a very disappointing loss at home. 

We can’t forget though that the Irish are still 2-0 heading into Week 3 and a win is a win, even though we all wanted to see young guys get a shot and the starters get some rest. Sometimes it just doesn’t work that way, because it’s college football and it’s very unpredictable.

That said, offensive improvement all around is must for the Irish team. On to the next one.