Notre Dame football: Week 4 offensive grades vs. Wisconsin

1 of 5

CHICAGO, ILLINOIS – SEPTEMBER 25: Notre Dame football fans and students do “crowd push-ups” after a score by the Fighting Irish against the Wisconsin Badgers at Soldier Field on September 25, 2021, in Chicago, Illinois. Notre Dame defeated Wisconsin 41-13. (Photo by Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images) /

The Notre Dame football team took care of business against Wisconsin on Saturday, and here are our weekly offensive grades vs the Badgers.

Notre Dame football scored 41 points against Wisconsin, but that had almost nothing to do with the offense. 21 of those points were scored by the defense and special teams. Frankly, the offense left points on the board and the Irish were tailing 13-10 entering the 4th quarter.

Now, Wisconsin has an admittedly great defense that is designed to create pressure and cause problems. That still doesn’t excuse several performances on the offense. Yes, that’s directed firmly at the running game or lack thereof, and the offensive line’s continued failure.

That’s before you consider Jack Coan, who had an opportunity to prove how much Wisconsin should miss him. He was barely over 50% on his passing while taking sack after sack. The offensive line deserves blame, but so does Coan’s lack of pocket presence and downfield accuracy.

At least, for Coan, Graham Mertz for Wisconsin was somehow worse.

One thing we did find out about this offense was that there is a great backup quarterback, and his name isn’t even Tyler Buchner. Drew Pyne came into the game for the Irish and showed he’s more than capable of being the starter in South Bend. I’m sure that won’t create a sloppy love triangle of quarterbacks for this offense.

Oh, and by the way, Brian Kelly passed Knute Rockne in all-time wins. You’ve heard that a lot, but it’s insane and deserves more credit. So, in all of this, how does the offense grade out?

Home/Notre Dame Football