Notre Dame went down to Arkansas this Saturday with the thought its offense might have to score on every possession to try and win the game. That ended up not being necessary but the Irish offense obliged anyway. It was a tense game for about 20 minutes before this game got ugly quickly in favor of Notre Dame.
Here’s our review of the 56-13 win over the Razorbacks.
QUARTERBACK: A
Carr was just a little off on a couple deeper throws and nearly threw an interception to open the 2nd half. Otherwise, what more is there to complain about? It was just another smooth, composed, and utterly efficient performance from the redshirt freshman. In a game where people (like me!) were worried about the threat of Arkansas quarterback Taylen Green, it was Carr who kicked the door down and opened the game going a scorching 8 of 9 for 146 yards.
We’re 4 games in and I’m at the point where I am genuinely surprised and disappointed when Carr drops back to pass and it’s not a completion.
Usually when you see 3 passers in a game things either went really well or really poorly. We saw Kenny Minchey throw an absolute dime for 37 yards and Jordan Faison threw a beautiful ball on the fake punt, too. What a great day for Notre Dame throwers.
RUNNING BACK: A
Seven total touchdowns from this group! Jeremiyah Love didn’t light it up on the ground (4.1 average) but finishes the game with 127 yards from scrimmage and 4 scores. That’s 27 touchdowns scored for the Irish star since the beginning of 2024.
I’m not sure if Jadarian Price will lead the team in rushing but I think he’ll stay pretty close to Love if the carries remain somewhat balanced. This was another game where Price averages over 6 yards per carry.
All 3 backup running backs got in during the 2nd half which was nice to see. True freshman Nolan James got 4 carries last week against Purdue and 4 more against Arkansas. Veteran GiBran Payne had the longest run of the day for Notre Dame at 24 yards. Aneyas Williams had one of the worst moments of vision in recent memory, ran right into a blocker with open field everywhere else on the field, bounced off, and still scored anyway.
Arkansas’ defense was done at that point.
WIDE RECEIVER: B+
The Hogs might have nightmares of Jordan Faison breaking free in the field with the ball right on time and in his hands. He finished with only 89 yards yet in the moment it felt like Carr and Faison were moving the chains at will.
If we can get a little bit more efficiency with Malachi Fields (3 catches on 6 targets) this offense can take another step forwards. His stat line was boosted by the fake punt reception.
I was hoping the 2nd team offense would throw the ball more with Minchey out there. With how well the passing game is looking I hope the Irish can start developing some of the receivers further down the depth chart. Micah Gilbert looks to be a trusted back up. KK Smith, too. I thought it was curious that redshirt freshman walk-on (or whatever we’re calling them nowadays) Matt Jeffery caught that beautiful pass from Minchey and not someone else.
TIGHT END: B
It was a great blocking day for everyone and Raridon chipped in a couple receptions with some nice yards after the catch. A solid day for this position. I’m surprised they didn’t put more emphasis on getting Ty Washington a catch against his former team, though.
OFFENSIVE LINE: A
Great stuff this weekend against an admittedly poor defense. Two of Arkansas’ best players on defense were along their line and they were invisible. The run blocking only looked bad on the opening series resulting in the Irish turning it over on downs near the Hogs’ red zone. That series featured 3 carries for 0 yards and was aided by the fake punt call to keep the drive alive.
No sacks allowed. Check. The offense averaged nearly 9 yards per play, Carr looked comfortable in the pocket all day, and the running game went over 200 yards. This was the unit we were promised in the pre-season.
DEFENSIVE LINE: B
The good news in the game was 3 sacks for the defense, two of them coming from the line. However, it seems that they are contractually obligated not to pick up any other tackles for loss. Just 13 total tackles for loss through 4 games is craziness. The Irish were 131st nationally coming into the weekend and might be dead last by Sunday morning.*
Still, a nice game up front and a step in the right direction. Baby steps?
*UPDATE: It’s Sunday morning now and Notre Dame is tied for 134th alongside Wyoming with 13 tackles for loss. Only UCLA (12) is worse in the nation.
LINEBACKER: B-
I thought the tackling was a little iffy early in the game and improved as the score got out of hands. Arkansas running back Mike Washington had a few really nice runs, and finished with a not-terrible 4.2 yards per carry average. The Hogs might’ve gotten something working on the ground with Taylen Green’s running ability (81 yards, although 54 of them came on one carry) mixed in but they didn’t have the luxury of being patient with the running game.
I just can’t believe we’re not seeing some more impact plays from the linebackers. I know traditional stats don’t tell you everything. Things remain pretty weird, are we going to see someone like KVA go through his sophomore season without developing into one of the more promising linebackers in the country? How many stuffs does Drayk Bowen have this season!?? It can’t be many!
SECONDARY: B+
Hey, things looked much better in the secondary! The Hogs were throwing the ball all over the place in their first 4 games and were licking their chops against this wounded and confused Irish secondary. Leonard Moore was still out with injury but nickel corner DeVonte Smith returned to stabilize what became one of the weakest positions on the entire roster.
The Razorbacks did hit on 5 explosive pass plays, which I guess is within the realm of what was expected. The good part for Notre Dame is that only one of those plays came before garbage time. Even if you criticize the secondary for allowing 5 completions totaling 120 yards, that meant Taylen Green only gained 87 yards on his other 27 throws.
NOTES:
My game preview discussed a possible culture win for Notre Dame in this matchup. I don’t know if that’s what we’ll call this but it seems like Sam Pittman has lost all of his support following this shellacking. I’ve always viewed Arkansas as a homeless man’s blue chip program–they have a storied history from decade’s past but just have not been good in modern times. Yet, their history (and not having to compete in-state with other programs or professional sports) drives them forward with the demand that they be better. Pittman is surely gone, it’s just a matter of when.
I’ve seen Jeremiyah Love’s helmet fall off so many times. And, plenty of players are on the field with a strap unbuckled which seems crazy dumb to me. I noticed Taylen Green’s helmet has a space for the lower straps to hide in the helmet. I think that’s pretty cool.
Keep those straps…uhh..strapped.
This was the first time in 8 seasons that Notre Dame cracked the 600 total yards mark–and if they kept their foot on the gas it could’ve been so much more. The last game that happened was back in 2017 in a 48-37 win over Wake Forest. The Irish had 710 yards that day, and went over 600 yards a total of 3 times in 2017.
Notre Dame had 32(!) first downs. That was the most since the 2022 shootout win at North Carolina.
Neither team returned a kickoff. This is happening more and more in college football.
O’Mega Blake caught a 33-yard pass on Arkansas’ 3rd snap to open the game. I thought, “here we go this is going to be the guy to torch this secondary” and it never materialized. Blake would be targeted 10 times and only had 13 more yards through the 3rd quarter.
I did the research and Arkansas was one of the first schools in the country to debut advertising on their field in mid-September last year. They inked deals with Walmart and Tyson Foods, which makes sense for them. The logos were huge! In the gameday discord chat I created a poll asking whether you’d prefer on-field advertising on Notre Dame Stadium’s field or a jersey patch, if you had to pick one. From the results, 60% preferred an on-field form of advertising. I picked the jersey.
Walmart couldn’t ask for better product placement this early in the game.
At this pace, CJ Carr would finish the regular season with this stat line: 213 of 312 (68.2%) for 3,273 yards, 27 touchdowns, and 6 interceptions. This is 2009 Jimmy Clausen territory.
Here’s a fun stat I had to search for a while to find. Do you know when the last time Notre Dame scored 50+ points in back-to-back games against current Power programs? You have to go back to the 1996 season with a pair of 60+ point efforts in wins over Pittsburgh and Rutgers.
Related, in Notre Dame’s last 20 offensive possessions stretching back to the beginning of the Purdue game, discounting end of half/game kneel down type situations, the Irish have the following results: 1 fumble, 1 missed field goal, 3 turnovers on down, and 15 touchdowns.
Predicting a loss only to see Notre Dame win by 43 points is certainly something I’ll remember for a long time.
Don’t feel badly about that prediction, it seemed the logical outcome of the way the defense had been playing. Which leads to the interesting question of why the baby steps improvement? You downplay again the culture argument, which I am willing to accept based on your overall reluctance to accept program culture as a predictor. But in a related way, did MF succeed with his public, even eloquent doubling down on not bad-mouthing anyone (aka BK) and instead working hard to improve every single aspect of everyone’s work at least in the marginal way limited time allows?
I’m interested, because that might indicate there is hope the defense can continue to improve.
The defense has improved. Players are making steps. I thought the biggest thing scheme wise was our safeties were more visible with big plays. They really hadn’t been. Also, the DL got pressure in a situation where I am sure they were being told lane discipline at the expense of everything else. The only big runs by the QB were on designed runs, not breaking contain.
i am not sure it is possible for the offense to play better. Admittedly, Arkansas can’t tackle, but players were wide open everywhere. How dis Ole Miss not hang 60 on these guys?
three big special teams plays in two weeks.
This weeks defense looked like a defense that could be part of running off 8 more in a row.
still need to worry about 1 in a row. This is the type of game Freeman has trouble with. Big win, marquee game. Come home. Team believes their own press clippings and they struggle.
Didn’t predict anything this dramatic but I said before the game was optimistic nd would show signs of improvement and would win by two scores.
Said this season reminded me of 2022 with the offense and defense flipping roles. I guess the downside of that would be stanford 2022 would be the nc state game. Oh man if he gives up 40 to nc state you can blame me
Now is when leadership can mean so much. You will have a confident team coming out of the tunnel next week but will they be focused on the task at hand? Boise St. has hung 47+ points on their last 3 opponents. Granted Air Force was the best of those 3. We’ve seen ND flat and disappointing against far worse teams than Boise. Let’s hope yesterday’s game wasn’t “too easy”.
I thought the most promising thing yesterday was that the ND D looked to have made adjustments in game to slow down the Ark. offense. I’m not savvy enough to know what they were but, the Ark. running stop being as effective after the first few possessions.
To your point: 100% concur, but the glimmer of hope is that MF concurs with you also 100%. Look at what he said after the game in his presser, about coping with the pressure of success being harder than coping with defeat and poor outcomes. I have to think he is fully aware of that need for focus. He as much as said that this awareness was based on his own (bitter) experience. We’ll have to see. At least for the defense, my take is that he knows he has very big problems with Chris Ash, which he is committed to fixing without firing, at least for the season. But he knows that process has just begun and will take time, as he pointed out, there is only so much practice time available every week. So on that side, I don’t see any overconfidence at all.
Rests getting our well-behaved crowd to be mildly supportive for this type of game. Turns out it was a good idea to come in Green.
I really enjoyed that the announcers highlighted that Williams’ TD came against their 1st string defense.
Question: is Price better than Love? This combo is elite and fun to watch.
Price has been a great surprise, love to see him fully recovered from his injury. But he’s not Love.
Great game. Good outcome. Have to ask: what did the oddsmakers miss? Maybe the most logical answers are ND’s conditioning, athletic superiority, and better offensive and defensive schemes. Still, how could the oddsmakers have missed all that?
I was deeply disappointed to see Lou Holtz in Arkansas attire. How could he? Really!
Just saw that Pittman was fired today. Could it be the biggest thing the oddsmaker’s missed was coaching incompetency?
Lou was honorary captain for Arkansas, even he’s not so much of a troll as to wear ND crap while doing that.
LOI was asked who he was rooting for, while in the attire. He responded one school fires you, the other builds a statue of you, what do you think?
Looks like the oddsmakers missed that after a couple of brutal losses the team was ready to quit on Pittman.
Liking the grades on this one. Obviously a very good result and hard for the offense to be much better, but even with it only being 13 points against a very solid offense I can’t say I loved the defensive performance. I honestly am not sure what Drayk Bowen is still doing in there on obvious passing downs; he looks out of position all the time.
But, then again, if Arkansas couldn’t put up a bunch of points it’s unclear who other than USC left on our schedule is going to do it. Especially after yesterday 10-2 seems doable in a way I didn’t feel two days ago. Not likely, but doable.
I thought Drayk looked good on that spy role?
Yes, he did very well at that. He got better as the game wore on. Adjustment by the staff? I think so.
Didn’t get to watch the game; the offensive highlights were beautiful. Jadarian Price would be a first-team all-American on any team that didn’t also have Jeremiyah Love.
But how did Arkansas only score 13 points? If you told me the defense gave up 6 yards per play, I would have asked if Freeman was ready to take the play calling over yet. But only 13 points? How did they manage that?
Kinda like last year’s defense when the other team got an occasional big play or sustained a drive…ND clamped down at the end and/or caused a turnover. On the 3 scoring drives Arkansas went 27 plays for 173yds…about half their offense. In between those three were two 3 and outs.
First drive went Inc, 14, 33, 7, inc, inc, fg
Third drive 14 plays 75yds, 6 plays between 8 and 21 yards, fat guy TD
Fifth drive Inc, 54, -10, inc, 0, fg
Their two biggest plays of the day were on drives that did nothing else and just allowed them field goals. Final drive of the half 20yds on one play, fumble. ND answered all 6 of the Razorback possessions with touchdowns.
Arkansas only got the ball 3 times in the 2nd half. First two were 10 and 11 play drives ending on downs. Last was by the Talich interception in the endzone. Of those 29 plays for 128yds, Green scrambled 3 times for 41, plus on a 4th down ran about 60 yards sideways to avoid the rush only to self sack by running out of bounds.
All the big plays are still concerning, but ND did not allow Arkansas to capitalize on them. There’s more to clean up, but the defense has turned the corner from the dumpster fire to a pale shadow of what they could be. Next step is becoming a solid top 30 defense. By the end of November they could be good enough to contend…if ND is given a shot.
As good as Carr was, he really brought down our Y/A.
Took me too long to realize what you meant lol. Yeah, Minchey and Faison must be fuming about that 😛