It’s bizarre to think that despite how good Notre Dame has been in the last few years, they’d lost their second game of the year for two straight seasons coming into Saturday afternoon’s game.
Head coach Marcus Freeman and the team said they wanted to break that trend against Rice. Mission very much accomplished. Rather than laying an egg against a team like Northern Illinois this year, the Irish came out and absolutely pounded the Owls from the opening whistle.
Before there were even four minutes gone on Saturday afternoon, Notre Dame had a 14-0 lead. By the end of the first quarter, it was 21-0, and the rout was officially on. Despite the Fighting Irish's 52-0 win, some things still needed to be ironed out. Still, there was plenty to love about the victory.
1 thing to love: Notre Dame’s defense forcing turnovers like crazy
No, the Rice Owls were never going to be much of a matchup for Notre Dame, so while the shutout is fun, it’s more about how the Irish accomplished the shutout that’s a very big deal, especially for later in the season.
The country’s best teams have a very positive turnover margin, and so far, Notre Dame’s is absolutely perfect. After forcing two turnovers last week against Wisconsin, they forced four fumbles on Saturday, giving Freeman’s group a +6 on the year so far. Chris Ash’s unit needed to do more than just shut down the opponent today. They needed to dominate. They did it.
1 thing to hate: Notre Dame’s running game is still very suspect
Notre Dame entered this year wondering if they’d be able to replace Jeremiyah Love and Jadarain Price. Freeman and his staff talked a lot about “next man up.” It’s pretty clear right now that the talent level just isn’t as high as it was. That’s not a strike against Aneyas Williams or Nolan James Jr. or the rest. It’s hard for a team to lose two first-round draft picks and act as if nothing happened.
Still, the sledding on Saturday was far too hard against an outmatched Rice team. Williams had just 29 yards on 9 carries. James had two touchdown runs but still only averaged 4.8 yards per carry.
For the game, Notre Dame had just 118 yards rushing on 32 carries. That’s not nearly enough production. Last week against Wisconsin, they had 111 yards on 35 carries. The running game wasn’t there today, and that could be concerning when the Irish really need it later in the season.
1 thing to love: CJ Carr looks like the real deal
It’s not just that CJ Carr had just four incompletions on Saturday. It’s not just that he threw for 253 yards and 4 touchdowns with no interceptions. It’s that he looked completely in command of the offense and what he wanted to do.
Carr was throwing the deep ball effortlessly. He was checking down when he needed to. He didn’t throw a pass too hard or too soft. Too high or too low. All he did was put it right where players needed it to be to catch it.
There’s been talk all offseason about needing Carr to take the next step in his development for Notre Dame. It’s looking like he did.
1 thing to hate: Wide receiver corps still doesn’t have “the guy”
On the whole, the Notre Dame wide receiver corps has been good. Jordan Faison was especially good with 4 catches for 54 yards and two touchdowns. However, it’s still unclear whether the Irish have a receiver who can take over the game if needed.
There’s only one Malachi Toney at Miami who had 12 receptions for 234 yards in the ‘Canes’ first game against Stanford. It would have been nice to see a receiver do something similar before the game got out of hand and Notre Dame started emptying the bench. The most catches any Notre Dame receiver has had in a game so far this year is 4. Is that a sign that against BYU and Miami, guys are going to struggle to get open?
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