Notre Dame football: Team effort moves Brian Kelly past Knute Rockne

Notre Dame football: Team effort moves Brian Kelly past Knute Rockne

Second Half

To start the second half, Notre Dame football and Wisconsin exchanged punts, before the Badgers broke a big run to get into Irish territory. Mertz turned it on quickly with momentum and got his first touchdown pass of the season to tie the game at 10. That’s what happens when the offense rolls over. From there, the Irish offense continued to implode and Coan got banged up.

Drew Pyne took over for the injured Jack Coan midway through the third quarter. He came out slinging the ball, pushing it past the 50-yard line before his first drive stalled and the Irish had to punt. The second drive for Pyne didn’t go as well. On the first play, he was blindsided by Tosh Baker’s man and fumbled.

Wisconsin jumped on it. They began a short field grind, setting themselves up in the red zone to begin the fourth quarter.

The defense got off the field to start the fourth, forcing a field goal. Now done three, it became Drew Pyne’s turn to prove himself. Except, Chris Tyree didn’t like that idea very much, and took the kick back for six to take the lead right after Wisconsin’s field goal.

On the next drive, Isaiah Foskey recovered a Graham Mertz fumble to set the Irish up with a short field. Pyne went right back to slinging it around the field, quickly pushing the ball deep into the red zone. That’s where he found Kevin Austin on a slant route for a touchdown to make it a two-score game halfway through the fourth quarter.

Mertz took Wisconsin into range for a 52-yard field goal, which never had a shot. Wide left. 7:28 remaining. The Irish punted back fairly quickly, and that’s when Brian Kelly got an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty called against him.

It didn’t matter, though, because Cam Hart had his second interception of the game almost immediately. The offense tried to drain some clock and Wisconsin’s timeouts, before kicking a field goal to make it a 14- point game

A pick-six by Jack Kiser killed any hope the Badgers had. Then Drew White had his own pick-six to rub salt in the wound.