Yes, Aneyas Williams posted the first run of 20 yards or more this season for Notre Dame. Yes, CJ Carr has been picking the leaky Purdue defense apart like the Heisman candidate he should be. But what should terrify anyone on the Fighting Irish schedule this year is Chris Ash's unit.
Keep in mind that the Boilermakers entered Saturday averaging 39.3 yards per game and it wasn't like they put up those kinds of numbers against all bad teams. Both Wake Forest and UCLA are legitimate bowl contenders. So far today though, not only hasn't Barry Odom's squad scored a single point, they haven't really threatened the red zone.
Dominance doesn't quite capture how Notre Dame's defense has played in the first half, in a kind of "prove-it" game against a seemingly decent Big Ten squad. They proved it from the very beginning when Bryce Young recorded a sack on the first defensive snap of the game for the Irish.
Notre Dame defense shuts down Purdue like no one else has come close in 2026
Young added a second sack, forcing a fumble that Drayk Bowen picked up and returned for 15 yards, ND's third defensive touchdown of the season.
While Young arguably had the best first half of the group, one of the most impressive aspects of the Irish defense's play was that everyone got in on the act. That included true freshman Joey O'Brien, who recorded his first collegiate sack on a safety blitz that derailed one of Purdue's drives.
Speaking of sacks, Purdue allowed four in the first half, forcing Ryan Browne to often throw before he wanted to if he didn't want to rack up even more pressure in the backfield. That effort meant that a quarterback who entered Saturday averaging nearly 300 yards per game passing threw for just 78 yards in the first half.
Granted, Purdue's run game was jealous of that production, considering it managed just 12 yards on 18 attempts. That's an average of 0.7 yards per rush.
It's not as though Notre Dame's defense was unimpressive in its first three games. It in fact, was one of the best units in the country entering Week 4. But a unit that allowed just two touchdowns in the first 3.5 games so far this year, pitched a dominant shutout in the first half against Purdue.
Is the rest of the nation paying attention to where Notre Dame is really dominating? CJ Carr and company are plenty good, but the really scary side of the ball for the Fighitng Irish is on a defense that has been lights out since Week 4 of 2025.
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