Report Card: Grading Notre Dame’s win over Indiana

By Tyler Horka

Notre Dame announced itself to the rest of the College Football Playoff field as a true threat to be the last team standing in a month in a 27-17 victory over Indiana that was much more of a romp than that 10-point margin gets at. The Fighting Irish were impressive across the board, and this report card rightfully reflects that.

Let’s get into the grades.

Notre Dame Rushing Offense: B+

You can’t say, “But half of Notre Dame’s 193 rushing yards came on one play!” and use it as a justification for why the Fighting Irish rushing game was “bad.” That one play is very much a part of the total, a part of this grade, so it deserves the opposite treatment. It deserves to be highlighted for great blocking and spectacular speed on sophomore tailback Jeremiyah Love’s part.

Sure, the rest of the night was pretty rough for Notre Dame on the ground. This Indiana team went into the game as the No. 1 rushing defense in college football, though, and the Irish ran for nearly 200 yards. Nobody else on Indiana’s schedule went over 140.

Much credit to Love for being a game-breaker, but a lot of due goes to the offensive line for winning up front for much of the night and not getting bullied by an Indiana team that has plenty of playmakers in the front seven.

Four of senior quarterback Riley Leonard’s runs went for first downs, two, and his final attempt of the game was a one-yard touchdown that effectively iced the game. He never ran for more than eight yards on any of his scampers, but the little gains added up in a big way.

Notre Dame Passing Offense: B+

Leonard’s best throw in a Notre Dame uniform was probably his last attempt of the game. He hit sophomore receiver Jordan Faison in stride over the middle to get the Irish down to the one-yard line. Leonard ran in his rushing score two plays later.

He finished the game 23 of 32 for 201 yards with a touchdown and an interception. The INT came on a tipped ball at the line of scrimmage. Tip your cap to the Indiana defensive line on that one. Otherwise, you take 200 yards and a completion percentage of over 70 percent all day from Leonard.

Faison had what might’ve been the best effort from a Notre Dame pass catcher all season. He was targeted 10 times and caught 7 passes for 89 yards. In typical Notre Dame fashion, nine other players caught at least one pass. Leonard had enough time to distribute for the most part, and he did so efficiently.

Notre Dame Rushing Defense: A+

Indiana ran for 81 sack-adjusted yards on 3.4 yads per carry. That was in the ballpark of what Michigan and Ohio State did to the Hoosiers earlier this year. Translation: this Notre Dame defense is on par with the upper echelon of the Big Ten’s traditional powers even in the area the Irish have not been elite defensively this season — stopping the run.

Indiana tried Wake Forest transfer Justice Ellison; 11 carries for 37 yards. Indiana tried James Madison transfer Ty Son Lawton; 10 carries for 34 yards. Neither of them got going, and that’s a testament to Notre Dame’s pursuit of ball carriers at all levels, from the defensive line to the linebackers to the secondary.

Notre Dame Passing Defense: A

One-hundred and 21 of Kurtis Rourke’s 215 passing yards came on Indiana’s final two drives. The first of those started when the Hoosiers were down 27-3. Take it from Notre Dame defensive coordinator Al Golden how much those 121 yards and the 14 points they produced mattered.

“We had the game in control the whole game, so I’m not worried about the end of the game,” Golden said. “There’s things that we can learn from it. Obviously we’ve got to finish better and I’ve got to make some calls there, but at that point, I just didn’t think continuing to show elaborate pressures in that situation was to our benefit, to be quite honest with you.”

He’s 100 percent right. When it mattered most, the Notre Dame passing defense was really good and had Rourke in a mental pretzel.

Special Teams: B

Mitch Jeter had a kick blocked, again, but he also made kicks of 49 and 33 yards. He needed to see those go through and he did. The 49-yarder was especially important, both because of the length and the situation when it was made — in the final 10 seconds of the first half to give Notre Dame a full 14-point lead, 17-3.

Coaching: A+

Only five teams in Notre Dame history have won 12 games. Marcus Freeman is the coach of one of them. Lou Holtz was at the helm for two and so was Brian Kelly.

We’re talking about an all-time coaching job from Freeman to take a 1-1 team that lost to Northern Illinois to 12-1 and a berth in the Sugar Bowl against Georgia.

He’s losing doubters with each passing victory.