Notre Dame Football: The Play That Changed Everything vs Iowa State

Notre Dame played a solid game Saturday, and it can all be traced back to one play.

The Camping World Bowl may not have been the bowl that Notre Dame was looking for, but the Irish couldn’t have asked for a better result.

Notre Dame closed out an 11 win season with a 33-9 victory over the Iowa State Cyclones. It was a solid performance across the board that showcased players on their way out as well as future superstars of South Bend.

In doing so, the Irish secured their first back to back 11 win season since 1988-89, capping off an up and down decade that for the most part was successful.

As for this particular game, however, it was almost entirely successful. A lot of that success was caused by one confidence killing play by one of the most underrated players on the Irish defense.

Notre Dame’s first drive didn’t go well and resulted in a punt, but a beautiful strip by Alohi Gilman was recovered by Chase Claypool. As good as that was, the best was yet to come.

Notre Dame took the lead off a field goal, but still the offense struggled. They were forced to punt again, and then fortunes changed.

Iowa State ran four plays, one of which a nice a 23 yard run by Breece Hall. Iowa State made it into Notre Dame territory before Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah sacked Brock Purdy, who fumbled the ball. Owusu-Koramoah recovered the fumble that he caused and gave Notre Dame excellent field position.

That fumble resulted in Notre Dame’s first touchdown of the game to take a 10-0 lead, and the Irish never looked back.

It was clear that two forced fumbles in back to back possessions were a major hit to the confidence of Iowa State’s offense. They had moments of hope, but overall could not sustain a drive for the remainder of the game. Brock Purdy was nowhere near his usual level of play.

Not only that, the play provided a massive confidence booster to the Irish defense, who immediately tightened up and did a good job of denying the Iowa State offense of getting anything going.

The Cyclones only made it into the red zone twice on eight possessions, running a total of eight plays there. All Iowa State had to show for on offense was three field goals.

Owusu-Koramoah, one of the future stars on defense, provided a truly memorable moment and a glimpse of what’s to come for the defense in South Bend.