Notre Dame annihilates Army to come within one win of College Football Playoff
NEW YORK — Start spreading the news. Notre Dame is not leaving today. The Fighting Irish want to be a part of it — the College Football Playoff — and with one more win, they will be.
No. 6 Notre Dame scored early and often against previously unbeaten No. 19 Army at Yankee Stadium, leading wire-to-wire in a 49-14 victory that pushed their record to 10-1. It’s the first time the Irish have won 10 games in the regular season in the Marcus Freeman era, and their head coach now has 11 wins over ranked opponents.
No other coach in program history has ever had more in his first three seasons. Freeman stands alone, and the Irish stand on the precipice of a key preseason goal — a playoff berth.
“We’ve improved, but we’re starting to be more consistent,” Freeman said. “That’s the sign, and I’ve said this before, of great teams, great businesses, great people — consistency.”
Notre Dame knew curtailing Army’s triple-option offense would be a challenge. It knew it could not afford to allow the Black Knights to churn out yards, shortening the game and improving the odds of an upset. So the Irish set the tone from the start with a three-and-out on Army’s first possession — plus 4 more three-and-outs and 3 turnovers on downs thereafter.
Once again, defensive coordinator Al Golden’s unit showed why it is one of the best in the country. No matter the opponent, no matter the circumstances, the Notre Dame defense shuts the door time after time. It’s production from all levels, too, with the defensive line, linebackers and defensive backs all showing up in different moments.
No weak links but one area to improve — getting flagged. Three penalties aided in Army’s first touchdown drive of the game.
“We eliminate the penalties, I don’t think any team can score on us,” sophomore safety Adon Shuler said.
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Army only accumulated 233 total yards. The Black Knights went into the game averaging a nation’s-best 334.9 rushing yards per game. The Irish held them to 204. Quarterback Bryson Daily ran 39 times for 139 yards, his worst game in terms of yards per carry of his otherwise spectacular season.
On the other side of the ball, it was the Jeremiyah Love and Riley Leonard show — as usual. The former, Notre Dame’s sophomore running back, carried the ball 7 times for 130 yards and 2 touchdowns. He added a 6-yard score through the air. Leonard completed 10 of 13 passes for 148 yards and 2 touchdowns, meanwhile. He ran 8 times for 30 yards.
Love scored three times in the same game for the first time in his career and went over 100 yards in back-to-back games for the first time in his career, too, after totaling a career-high 137 against Virginia in Week 12. Leonard’s passer rating of 223.3 was the second-best of his career.
Junior running back Jadarian Price had his first multi-touchdown game of his career, and freshman tailback Aneyas Williams got into the end zone on a 58-yard score in the fourth quarter to aid in the Irish racking up 464 total yards by the end of the night.
“We’ve grown a lot in our mentality, man,” Love said. “Everybody on the offensive side of the ball are dogs. Coach [Freeman] calls us savages. That’s really what we are.”
The bright lights of New York were met with even brighter performances from the Fighting Irish. Now it’s time for Notre Dame to take on the country’s other bright-lights capital — Los Angeles, where the Southern Cal Trojans are waiting to play CFP spoiler in the regular season finale.
