Despite a sloppy start, and a questionable officiating job, the No. 21 Notre Dame Fighting Irish defeated the Boise State Broncos 28-7. to pick up their third win of the season advancing to 3-2. The Irish offense looked the sloppiest they had been since week one against Miami, but still managed to score 28 points on the Broncos defense. The Notre Dame defense held the Boise State to 315 yards of offense and seven total points. Chris Ash's unit took another step in the right direction and finished the game with four interceptions, one from safety Tae Johnson in the first half, two from cornerback Leonard Moore and one from safety Luke Talich all in the second half.
In the first half, Notre Dame was able to move the ball up and down the field, but finishing drives became a problem. The Irish turned the ball over twice on downs both on the Boise State side of the 50-yard line. They had 251 total yards of offense at the half including 134 passing yards and 117 rushing yards, but only had 14 points at the break. The defense held Boise State to seven first-half points including 29 total yards of offense in the first quarter. The Broncos finally crossed mid-field on their fourth offensive possession of the game.
Boise State went into halftime with 125 total yards of offense. Their fifth drive of the game ended with an interception by Johnson who returned it back into Boise State territory. Unfortunately, the play was called back by an illegal block in the back. Overall, the first half was sloppy with both teams combining for 12 penalties for for a combined 87 yards. Notre Dame led the way with seven penalties for 67 yards. At the break, running back Jeremiyah Love already amassed 89 rushing yards, 11 receiving yards and a rushing touchdowns.
Quarterback CJ Carr was a bit off in the first half but still went 10 of 16 for 134 yards and a passing touchdown to wide receiver Will Pauling. The most puzzling stat offensively for the Irish from the first half was the usage of running back Jadarian Price who only received one handoff through the first 30-minutes of play. Thankfully, the offense put a drive together at the end of the half and converted the two-point conversion to take a 14-7 lead into the halftime break.
The second half was more of the same. Neither team was able to gain any momentum and the officiating didn't help the cause. Price extended the lead to 28-7 in the fourth quarter with a 49-yard touchdown run where he broke a smattering of tackles. The Broncos were held to seven points heading into the two-minute warning, but the Notre Dame defense backed off into a prevent-look defense and allowed Boise State to drive right down the field. Fortunately, Moore picked off Madsen and the Irish offense was able to run out the clock.
Notre Dame finished with 390 total yards of offense and held Boise State to 315 total yards of offense and just seven points on the afternoon. In a game with questionable officiating, both teams combined for 24 penalties for 224 total penalty yards. The Irish won their first game in this three-game homestead and will prepare to take on the NC State Wolfpack next Saturday inside of Notre Dame Stadium.
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