Two years in a row Notre Dame came into a matchup with Purdue deflated. Two years in a row the Irish have left the matchup with a W, though this one was a bit different.

That probably says as much about Purdue – no longer a complete train wreck – as it does about Notre Dame, but Saturday’s 56-30 Irish victory was enlightening, in multiple ways.

The Chris Ash situation is officially a five-alarm fire

While Notre Dame fans were pretty sure there was a defensive problem after two weeks, there was at least the inkling of a possibility that the Irish had just faced two really good offenses in the first two weeks. Maybe, just maybe, the Irish defense’s struggles were closer to a regression than a disaster.

The first half of today’s game wasted no time dispelling such a notion. The Boilermakers are no longer an FCS team wearing B1G patches on their uniforms, as they functionally were last season, but there is no universe in which they should drop nearly 300 offensive yards in a half on this ND defense if things are being done properly. Luckily, the Irish had 5 offensive possessions and scored 5 touchdowns (counting the kickoff return by Jadarian Price – only a strip-sack prevented ND from going for 100% first-half touchdowns) and were able to keep scoring until Purdue could keep up no longer.

But the damage was done, and whatever is going on with the ND defense has officially graduated beyond a concern and crossed the line over into needing significant action to be taken. And while he won’t say so, Marcus Freeman seems to know it.

The Irish D shut out Purdue in the second half until a crazy good throw and catch over freshman Dallas Golden in the final minutes, but it wasn’t much of a salve. On one possession in that half, there were at least 3 plays where ND’s defense was running around trying to get lined up properly right up to the snap of the ball, and that possession only ended because a Boiler dropped the ball on third down (a running theme of the game).

Even Brian Van Gorder had a few good games before going off a cliff. Ash’s unit went from a truly elite defense under Al Golden to an atrocious one instantly, and it’s hard to know why. The departures of valued veterans like Xavier Watts, Jack Kiser and others would explain a slight regression; it does not explain this. It’s clear something needs to be done. What that is, Freeman (who, incidentally, will likely have to answer to his boss, if not the fans, what in the world Ash told him that made him seem like the right fit for a position almost any sitting college DC would’ve taken) will have to figure out.

The running game (and O-line) leads the good stuff

However, despite the above, ND did win by 26 points and were able to get Kenny Minchey a few series, so it wasn’t all bad.

The Irish offensive line wasn’t perfect, but for the second straight week they looked to be taking serious steps toward being called solid again. The front five created big holes for Jeremiyah Love and Jadarian Price, who seemed able to rip off big gains at will to the point where OC Mike Denbrock basically stopped calling pass plays for a while just to enjoy it. Both averaged over eight yards per carry. (The O-line also gave CJ Carr plenty of time to throw most of the game, the strip-sack excepted.)

Both Love and Price had remarkable explosive plays, with Price taking a kickoff back for 6…

and Love racing to the edge at warp speed, outrunning half the Purdue defense for a TD very, very few players could have scored.

Whatever else is ailing the Irish right now, it’s nice to see the running game fans expected to see entering the season doesn’t appear to be on that list anymore.

CJ Carr is officially the goods

Notre Dame has a really good quarterback. A really, really good quarterback. And it has little to do with the final stat line of 10/12, 223 yards, 2 TD. (No offense, but…it’s still Purdue.)

Love and Price being awesome is nothing new, though no less enjoyable for it. But my favorite 90-second sequence of the game was when Carr, already with one perfect deep-ball TD under his belt, surreptitiously signaled to Jordan Faison to run an out-and-up route before the snap, then dropped a beautiful throw into his breadbasket for six.

After the extra point, NBC cameras caught Freeman with a sly little smirk on his face that suggested he was thinking the same thing we were: This kid is something else. Three starts into his career, and he’s already doing stuff like this? This is going to be a fun couple of years.

(By the way, Carr joked in the postgame press conference that they’ll have to change the signal for that play going forward.)

Not for nothing, too, but Denbrock, Carr and Faison seem to be able to make a living off that 13-yard sideline buttonhook route. It’s there for the Irish seemingly whenever they want it, and Carr can make the throw in his sleep. That’s a nice little option to have in your back pocket.

Young dudes making plays (and some less so)

I don’t think it’s a coincidence that freshman Madden Faraimo was on the field so much at the apparent expense of Drayk Bowen in today’s game. Faraimo is long, athletic and plays very well in coverage; it was his tipped ball that landed in the hands of Christian Gray for an important early interception. He showed the talent that made him so highly coveted in the most recent recruiting class.

Of course, fellow freshman Dallas Golden, on the field for the first time, made his presence known throughout the game as well after getting the starting nod at nickel. I don’t have the Pro Football Focus numbers handy, but the eye test seemed to show him living up to the moment, and he was rewarded with his first career interception later in the game.

I feel for another freshman, Mark Zackery, who is clearly not going to be the same kind of instant stud that Leonard Moore (who missed today’s game) and Ben Morrison were, but is being plunged into the deep end of the pool anyway by necessity. Few achieve that rarefied air. I don’t doubt for a second Zackery will be a very good corner; it just may take a little bit more time. Purdue hunted him early and often, which led to some success. Like Gray, Zackery will have to “be a goldfish” and just keep trying to improve.

Forget the stinking playoff for now

Despite the never-ending line of articles this week titled something like “Can 0-2 Notre Dame still make the playoff?” and Jason Garrett and “Hicksie” (seriously, Jason?) yammering about it during the game today, the Irish shouldn’t even be thinking about the long view right now. There were some good signs today, but the team that faced Purdue will not win 10 straight games. There will have to be improvements. They all know it. Freeman knows it. We know it. And it’ll have to start next week against Arkansas, whose 2-2 record belies how dangerous they are; only fumbles on go-ahead drives in consecutive weeks have kept them from a 4-0 record and likely top-20 ranking going into a showdown in Fayetteville.