Highlights from Notre Dame’s 35-17 Opening Win Over Louisville
Notre Dame won a football game on Monday night, but don’t tell most Notre Dame fans that since most are upset the Irish didn’t come out looking like mid-season form. Notre Dame’s offense sputtered out of the gates while the defense took a look bit of time to get settled before ultimately at least resembling the defense that power last year’s playoff run.
Tony Jones Jr led the Irish offense with 112 yards on the ground while Chase Claypool came up just short of 100 yards receiving.
We are going to have much more on this one over the next couple of days since we have a lot of time between now and Notre Dame’s next game (and these night games on work nights are for the birds).
I was more impressed by NDs DTs than I was with their DEs. Jamir Smith is a load, as was Tony Jones. But their lack of break-away speed limits NDs big-play potential (see: Josh Adams, Dexter Williams). Another injury to Jafar won’t help. DBs played well, especially young Hamilton and, as usual, Gilman. Drew White impressed. Despite scoring 5 TDs, the O’ left more to be desired. Here’s hoping Claypool doesn’t have a shoulder injury like the other two starters who couldn’t play have. That, indeed, would be a major loss. Too many missed tackles and failures on 3rd and short tonight; but being the first game, there’s time to improve on those shortcomings. They say good teams usually improve the most between their first and second games. There’s plenty of room for that. But an 18 point victory on the road against a team fired up to show the country they weren’t as bad as last year suggested was understandable.