One of the reasons that Notre Dame’s offense struggled in the first half against Wisconsin on Sunday was that the Badgers came up with a very good approach to take away the deep ball from CJ Carr and Co.
The frustration over the repeated short passing in those first two quarters from onlookers wasn’t out of nowhere. It looked and felt like the way the Irish coaches put training wheels on Carr in his first career start against Miami in 2025. However, quarterback coach Gino Guidugli explained on Wednesday that this game wasn’t about using training wheels, but about the junior signal caller's maturation.
“Yeah, I think, you know, we meet with Coach Freeman every Friday and kind of talk through the travel list and talk about expectations for our position,” Guidugli told the assembled media after Notre Dame’s practice on Wednesday.
“And that was one of the things we touched on there, is that we can't get greedy. We've got to stay patient, be able to take the checkdowns, and those will eventually lead to the shots down the field.”
Notre Dame football turned CJ Carr's checkdowns into second-half answers against Wisconsin
“And I thought he did a fabulous job of just kind of taking what the defense gave him, keeping our offense efficient, keeping us on the chains, keeping the ball moving.”
Guidugli added that the challenge for Carr this week was not to be impatient and force the ball downfield. Instead, he needed to adjust the attack to the check down more often than not. That worked once he got into a groove, especially in three prolonged touchdown drives that helped put the Badgers away.
The best case in point was a drive where Carr checked down to his running backs on block-and-release routes after looking for a longer pass downfield and deciding that Wisconsin didn’t give him what he liked. The checkdowns ended with an 11-yard gain to Aneyas Williams and a big 28-yard gain to Nolan James Jr., respectively.
The idea behind Notre Dame’s offense on Sunday was that the defense would eventually get frustrated by giving up short gains to the running backs and adjust their approach, opening up the longer pass. On the other hand, if they didn’t overcompensate, the Irish could keep throwing closer to the line of scrimmage and let the elusiveness of guys like James and Williams get them the first down.
In essence, what Notre Dame did on offense was similar to what it did on defense. Early in the game, Wisconsin’s deliberate approach moved the ball just enough to make it a game. By the second half, the Irish stayed patient and kept doing what they were doing, and the Badgers couldn’t find success in the same way.
Notre Dame will stay deliberate and take what opponents give them. In the process, they’ll keep winning games by multiple touchdowns.
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