Army vs. Notre Dame game balls
Leaving little doubt that the No. 6 Irish rate among the best teams in the country, following a 49-14 rout over No. 19 Army on Saturday, there were plenty of game balls to pass around, too many in fact.
But here are the three we decided on.
QB Riley Leonard
The Irish senior quarterback continued his steady season improvement against Army when he finished the 35-point slaughter with 10-of-13 passing for 148 yards, with 2 touchdowns with 0 interceptions, while adding 8 rushes for 30 yards, before he was lifted in the third quarter after the Irish built a 35-7 lead.
Leonard started fast, completing his first 8 passes of the game for 115 yards, with 2 touchdown passes, in helping his Irish to a 28-7 halftime lead.
Leonard has now thrown for 2 or more touchdown passes in 5 of his last 7 games.
The Irish Defense
With one of its most balanced and dominating performances this season, awarding one single Irish defensive player a game ball wasn’t possible.
Sophomore safety Adon Shuler recorded a team-high 8 tackles, and sophomore linebacker Jaiden Ausberry added 7 tackles, to highlight the dominating defensive performance.
Bundled up, Notre Dame’s defense overwhelmed Army and held it to 127.9 yards below its season average in rushing offense, 101.9 yards below its total offensive output per game, and 21.2 points below its scoring average.
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Collectively, the Irish defense held Army to only 3.5 yards per play, and 6-of-16 on its third-down attempts.
RB Jeremiyah Love
The sophomore tailback rushed for 130 yards on only 7 carries with 2 touchdowns — and he added a 6-yard touchdown catch — for his third multi-touchdown performance in the last 4 games.
This was also Love’s fourth 100-yard rushing game of the season.
Love scored on a 6-yard touchdown reception in the first quarter, then added a 14-yard rushing touchdown in the second quarter and a 68-yard touchdown scamper in the third third quarter.
Along the way, Love extended his streak to 11 straight games with a rushing touchdown, making him only the second Irish tailback to reach that mark in program history.
