Game Recap: Notre Dame Dominates Noles, Stays In The Hunt For CFB Playoff

Source: Michael Reaves / Getty

SOUTH BEND, Ind. — Shockingly enough, Saturday was the first and only time the Notre Dame Fighting Irish will play under the ‘Lady In Black’ at their home stadium this season. The “home game” at Yankee Stadium against Army in two weeks doesn’t count.

Regardless, the Irish rose to the occasion of having the piercing lights shine down on the turf pitch at Notre Dame Stadium as they dominated a hapless Florida State Seminoles 52-3. They were a team head coach Marcus Freeman assured his group with a lot more talent than their 1-and-8 record indicated.

“As you watch film, you know you are going up against a talented group,” he said. “We could have easily overlooked those guys because of their record, but we have a mature group and seniors continuing to lead the right way.”

The Irish hit the ground running, quite literally. Riley Leonard, whose growth and persistence have shown ten-fold as the season has gone on, started the game off with a well-rounded drive that was capped off by a 34-yard scamper to the endzone on just the fifth play from scrimmage.

The Irish defense would start a little shaky the following drive by the Seminoles as FSU matched 75 yards on a long 16-play drive, but they would only muster a field goal out of the arduous endeavor.

After that, it was all Notre Dame as the defense adjusted and held the Noles to five subsequent punts in the first half. Those FSU punts were interwoven by the Irish offense humming like a church choir inside the Gold Dome. Despite a few hiccups early on in the first half, the offense was reignited by Jadarian Price who took the ball and tight-roped down the Irish sideline 65 yards for his fourth rushing touchdown of the season.

Price would finish the night with seven carries and 90 yards on the ground to lead the Irish.

The game’s only passing touchdown from Leoanrd came on the next offensive drive as he hit tight end Mitchell Evans, newly minted ACL and all, for a 12-yard TD pass. That capped off a wonderful 12-play, 77-yard drive.

The Irish defense turned the wick up in the second half, grabbing an interception, forcing a turnover on downs, two more punts, and the cherry on top was an interception returned for a touchdown by Luke Talich.

“That’s a pretty dominant half of football,” Freeman said of the defense. “Our guys are playing with clarity. The guys really understand what they need to do. The guys know it’s a privilege to play for this place. If you believe that then you play like we played in the second half.”

Riley Mills, Donovan Hinish, Jaylen Sneed, Junior Tuihalamaka, Bryce Young, and Jaiden Asbury each combined for eight sacks on FSU quarterbacks Brock Glenn and Luke Kromenhoek.

Once the score was 38-3, that marked the end of the night for Leonard as backup Steve Angeli got to mix it up, and he too was able to nab his third TD pass of the season to Deion Colzie. That plus the subsequent pick-six put the game in the bag for the Irish.

Leonard finished the night with 215 passing yards and a touchdown along with his 70 rushing yards and two touchdowns. Price and Jeremiyah Love each rushed for touchdowns and Jaden Greathouse led the way receiving hauling in five passes for 66 yards.

“The sign of a great team is consistency,” Freeman said. “I challenge these guys to be consistent. Who you are is what you do consistently.”

The Irish are now 9-and-1, ranked 10th in the College Football Playoff rankings with the second set of rankings due to be revealed on Tuesday. A win like this certainly keeps Notre Dame in the hunt. Sadly, with all due respect for Florida State, it does little to improve the standing of the Irish in the eyes of the selection committee, at least one can assume.

However, as we all learned from Northern Illinois in Week 2, beating the Seminoles was ever so important as a bad result would have put the dagger in the season. Now in the mad dash to the finish of the regular season with just three weeks to go, Notre Dame must keep the momentum rolling heading into a match-up with Virginia at home next Saturday.

Game Recap: Notre Dame Dominates Noles, Stays In The Hunt For CFB Playoff  was originally published on ronewibc.staging.go.ione.nyc