Quarterback
Brady Quinn turned in a heck of a performance. Yes he missed a couple of open receivers – Marcus Freeman on a third down and Matt Shelton on an out route come to mind, but he still completed 25 of 46 passes for 430 yards. Quinn took a beating and still put up 430 yards on a pretty decent defense. He was hitting secondary receivers and making some good reads. He held onto the ball a little too long at times, but overall he played a good game. He had no running game to help him and hung in despite being hit many times.
Grade: A

Runningbacks
Darius Walker found out how the other half lives with his first subpar performance of his short career. Walker got nothing going and could not break any runs even when it appears at times he had the opportunity to do so. Walker also fumbled the ball away at 1 yard in what turned out to the definitive play of game. From that moment on, ND never really appeared in the game. Better days are ahead for Walker, but on this day he made no impact.
Grade: D

Wide Receivers
Rhema McKnight and Anthony Fassano turned in 100 yard games with Fassano breaking the Notre Dame tight end receiving record with 8 catches for 155 yards. McKnight had 113 yards on 7 catches which included a 40 yard touchdown. Matt Shelton had 61 yards on 3 catches, but dropped one pass that hit him in the hands and got tackled from behind by a linebacker when it appeared he was on his way to the end zone. Jeff Samardjiza continues to improve and had 58 yards on 3 catches. Chase Anastasio caught 1 pass for 15 yards that set up Notre Dame with first and goal, but it was a play he should have taken for a touchdown. Two plays later came Walker’s fumble.
Grade: B-

Offensive Line
At times pass protection was really good, but for the day Quinn had defenders in his face more often than not. Run blocking was non existent with the Purdue front seven dominating Notre Dame up front. Throw in multiple motion penalties and the offensive line that was improving took a step back. Notre Dame had to run the ball effectively to beat Purdue and the offensive line made that extremely difficult for their freshman running back.
Grade: D

Defensive Line
It’s hard to fault the defensive line since they were not given much help from the blitz in getting after Orton. There were a few instances when the 4 man rush got pressure on Orton and Derek Landri came up with a batted ball. The line needed to put more pressure on Orton however and come up with some more tipped passes.
Grade: D

Linebackers
Mike Goolsby got faked out by Kyle Orton. Sorry but that should never happen. Goolsby is a 5th year senior and a leader for this defense and allowed Orton to beat him when Goolsby had a clear path to him on 3rd and five from inside the Notre Dame 10 yard line. Purdue went on to cap that 97 yard drive with a touchdown. Goolsby also seemed not to know what was going on when Orton latter connected for a 97 yard touchdown. It seemed the blitz was on but Goolsby didn’t really do much. Other than that there wasn’t much else for the Notre Dame linebackers to do with Purdue lining up with 4 and 5 wide receivers most of the day.
Grade: D

Secondary
No one in the secondary played well at all. Dwight Ellick was abused multiple times and instead of making the tackle on Stubblefield, he went for the strip. That was a 7 point mistake. With no safety help, Ellick has to go for the tackle there and cut his losses. Safety help for the corners was hard find as well with Orton picking apart the Notre Dame secondary. The defensive backs made bad adjustments on multiple passes when they were given opportunities to make plays.
Grade: F

Special Teams
The 101 yard kick return killed Notre Dame early. They had just tied the game at 3 and had some momentum only to lose it on a kick return where they had 2 chances to make the tackle. Most noteably Ambrose Wooden made a half hearted attempt to make the tackle when he tried to just run into Jerome Brooks. Had he wrapped Brooks up he would have been stopped around the 30 instead of running wild for a touchdown. Purdue blocked a field goal as well adding to Notre Dame’s special teams miseries. DJ Ftizpatrick did have a good day punting however.
Grade: D-

Coaching
The Notre Dame coaches had no clue how to stop Purdue. They knew Purdue was going to come in and pass the ball a lot yet there was no game plan to stop them. The defense was unprepared and got torched. Purdue punted the ball only twice while the game mattered and scored at will in the second half. The offensive play calling was very poor once Notre Dame got near the end zone.
Grade: F

Overall
Notre Dame was embarrassed inside Notre Dame yet again under Tyrone Willingham. Purdue won inside Notre Dame Stadium for the first time since 1974 – Gerry Faust and Bob Davie never lost to Purdue at Notre Dame Stadium. This game was a golden opportunity for Notre Dame to get back to where they need to be. Instead, Notre Dame let Purdue steamroll them in their house and gave up another 40+ point performance at home.
Grade: F