Okay, go with me here when I talk about this Notre Dame win over Boise State. The bright spot in the 2-2 start to the season was the high scoring offense that was led by quarterback CJ Carr and an elite backfield. Coming into the matchup against the Broncos I expected that unit to have a great shot to keep rolling, but that's not how it played out, and I'm actually feeling good about that.
Carr was off in the win, the offense scored just 28 points and overall it had a sloppy performance that included too many penalties, getting stuffed on a 4th-and-goal and a muffed end around that should have gone for a big play. After converting 60-percent of its third downs in wins over Arkansas and Purdue, the offense went just 4-9 (44.4%) in the win over Boise State.
Certainly not what I expected, but I think this is exactly the kind of win this team needed, and I feel a lot better about this team than I did coming into the game.
Odd take, I know, but work with me here.
My biggest fear coming into this game was what would happen if Carr - a redshirt freshman - had an off day? What happened if the offense couldn't score touchdowns on 10 of 11 first half possessions like it did in its first two wins? What if the offensive line has another rough day? What if the backs can't go off? Can this team score enough points to win? I don't know about you, but what we saw the first four games didn't give me the warm and fuzzies about Notre Dame's ability to win if the offense had an off day.
Well, that's exactly what happened against Boise State. Not every aspect of the offense had an off day, but overall the offense was not its normal high-octane self. But even when the Broncos took a 7-6 lead I sat in the press box far more confident that this team would be fine and win the game.
I knew the offense would eventually figure things out enough to start putting the ball in the end zone, and they did that by scoring 21 points in the final 31 minutes of the game. But that wasn't really what eased my concerns about a NIU repeat.
That feeling was more about the "Welcome to the 2025 season" moments we saw from the defense. The 13 points allowed against Arkansas were a welcome sight, that is for sure, but there were a lot of missed opportunities there by the Razorbacks, who simply buckled under the weight of the Irish offense scoring at will. That was not the case against Boise State, where the Irish defense had to shine in a game where its own offense was struggling to score points.
We saw a Notre Dame defense that looked much, much more like the 2023-24 units that allowed just 15.7 points per game in the 29 games prior to Chris Ash arriving on campus. In his first four games, the Irish defense gave up an abysmal 27.8 points in the first four games. It was a passive defense that could not defend the pass and was wasting an athletic roster.
That was not at all what we saw against the Broncos. We saw a much more aggressive defense, one that was willing to attack the run without sacrificing the throwing game. We saw the secondary playing far more aggressive football, the linebackers were used to attack and the defensive line was used to get penetration much more than it was used to eat up space.
The result was without question the best all-around performance of the season. Boise State was held to just seven points and 315 yards. Those 315 yards were Boise State's lowest output since September of 2022. More impressive is the reality that 118 of those yards came in the fourth quarter with the contest no longer in doubt.
We had two major questions answered in the win over Boise State, and I think big picture those answers were far more important than the offense going out and dominating Boise State and the Irish earning a 41-20 win, which was my predicted score. A game where the offense sputters a bit and the defense dominates is not something we were certain could happen against a quality team this season. The 28 points Notre Dame scored against Boise State would not have been enough to beat Texas A&M or Purdue, but it was enough to win by three touchdowns against the Broncos.
The second question we had answered was Notre Dame's defensive talent good enough to play like it did a season ago. That wasn't a question for me, but I read more and more questions about the talent not being good enough as the defense continued to struggle. Many seemed to want to place the blame for the defensive struggles on the players and their perceived "lack of talent" after the Irish lost stars like Xavier Watts, Rylie Mills and Jack Kiser.
That can now be officially thrown out the window. This defense always had the talent, and when they were unleashed against Boise State we saw just how dominant this defense could be. The reality is if you break down the game you'll see there were still plenty of mistakes by the defense, and there is still plenty they can and must clean up on defense. But when the unit was turned loose it was able to then make a lot more plays, which resulted in those mistakes not being nearly as costly, and it allowed the defense to dominate from start to finish.
The next step is proving this wasn't a unique game plan designed for Boise State. Schematically that is always true, you don't just rinse and repeat game plans week after week. What I'm referring to is the mentality, the aggressive philosophy, the desire to attack. That can and MUST be replicated from here on out.
That's why I'm actually happy we saw the offense sputter a bit, because I know that unit is going to score a lot of points this season. If the Notre Dame plays this type of defense the rest of the season this team is going to be incredibly hard to compete with, and will be a very, very dangerous team once we get to the postseason.
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