Notre Dame opened up the 2026 season with a neutral site home game in Green Bay accompanied by the motto “Leave No Doubt” carried around the program. During an uninspired and seemingly conservative first half, doubt looked very much on the table. Nursing a small halftime lead, the Irish came out with a commanding 3rd quarter performance to put away an improved Wisconsin team in front of a mixed red and blue crowd inside Lambeau Field.
Here are my key takeaways from Notre Dame’s 41-13 win over the Badgers.
#1 The Offense Has Work to Do
The second half looked much, much better but overall the known unknowns ended up looking like this offense could hold the team back unless there is considerable development at a few spots. Early on, the run game was completely bottled up and the backs lacked vision and the cutting ability to find extra yardage. The passing game threw short most of the time and couldn’t get things opened up at all. No third down conversions were made in the first half, either.
Things early looked a lot like a struggling Charlie Weis offense. No run game, a competent and accurate quarterback able to run the offense but not make a big difference without explosiveness or YAC on the perimeter. What we saw in the 2nd half can probably get this team to 12-0, but I expect some struggles along the way. The offense really, really, really needs someone besides Jordan Faison to become a consistent playmaker as a receiver. It feels like until that happens the team can’t progress to a true National Championship contender.
#2 The Offensive Line Needed Time to Gel
And they may need several more games to continue to gel together. The offense started Styles Prescod at right guard, one of the more strange late-August decisions that pretty much no one saw coming more than 10 days ago. They reverted to veteran Sullivan Absher at right guard in the second half and the results overall were far better.
There were a couple poor protection snaps on the edge but in the first half I didn’t think the line was playing terribly. The second half was such a boost that overall I’m oddly happy with the way things turned out up front. We have a pretty good history with the players and coaching staff that the offensive line isn’t going to develop into a problem and the arrow is pointing upward.
#3 The Defense Did Their Job
How the Irish would deal with a completely revamped Wisconsin offense was a major storyline coming into Sunday night and they passed the test. Not amazingly, but overall sound work. The Badgers didn’t break 300 yards, scored only one touchdown, and didn’t approach 5 yards per play. The DJ McKinney pick six was also a pivotal moment in the game that finally gave Notre Dame some breathing room.
Wisconsin quarterback Colton Joseph did some good things in the passing game (217 yards) but he was completely bottled up in the run game (15 non-sack yards) and that had to be perhaps the biggest key in the game. I bet Notre Dame believed Joseph couldn’t beat them through the air and they were right.
#4 Injuries, Not Cool
Both Jason Onye and Tae Johnson left the game before halftime and didn’t return. The latter came back out with a boot on his foot which is never a great sign. Although, Johnson looked to be in good spirits talking with KVA on the sideline so perhaps it’s just a high ankle sprain or something of that nature?
#5 This Wasn’t Really a Blowout
The country will see the box score shrug and move on, I’m sure. Wisconsin added a bit of garbage time yards on their final drive (even calling a timeout to get in a couple more snaps) but the Irish were “only” +1.00 YPP in the game. Maybe Wisconsin ends up being a pretty quality opponent down the line and has a good season. Still, for the level that Notre Dame is searching for there were a lot of things that weren’t good enough in Green Bay.
But, it is game 1 on a weird Sunday night, so.
#6 Uniforms
I couldn’t read the numbers or nameplates for either team. This was a uniform travesty.
Programming note!
I will no longer be doing Sunday game reviews on the site. The instant reaction articles tended to drive more discussion and eyeballs after football games and we’ll keep those going. I’m getting old, my opinions aren’t amazing, and jamming in game reviews every weekend had been getting incredibly difficult. Game reviews have always been about our readers and fans having more of a platform anyway. This change allow me to enjoy game weekends a little more, spend more time with my family, and keep the site working throughout game week. Go Irish!
Here’s hoping Wisconsin rips off 8-9 wins this year. Great halftime adjustments, especially by the offense, now we have to see if they can sustain the momentum. Rice should serve as an easy tuneup, need to get some non-Faison WRs involved going forward
They have a schedule for it, maybe. No Oregon or Ohio State. A middle portion that will offer some challenges (at PSU, USC, at Iowa) then a really soft final month of Rutgers, at Maryland, at Purdue, and Minny.
PSU a big opportunity coming up.
The schedule is definitely a factor in Wisconsin’s chances of getting to a respectable record. Their 3rd toughest remaining opponent is Iowa, who I think they can hang with. We’ll see what Penn State looks like in a couple weeks. USC is looking like a tall task for this Badgers team but it will be in Madison, and we know how well Riley plays on the road
Trojans burst under pressure, especially his!
Your comments are always and still on point, and your opinions are indeed amazing (except for the occasional failure to note really pertinent Rolling Stones songs). But we’ve been through your understandable decision to drop the Sunday reviews. Thanks for picking up for Andy (for which I hope he enjoyed the game).
Speaking of the game — massive disappointment tonight from J Greathouse. You’re right on the money, if we don’t fix the WR issue we’ll suffer.
Greathouse continues to be an enigma 🙁
i’m saying this hoping i’m very wrong and that Greathouse makes me look stupid…but i think his injury may have taken his spark away, last year he seemed invisible because he was rarely targetted and was in to block (usually very well). Yesterday he was just invisible. So yeah, i’m holding my breath and crossing my fingers that i have him all wrong.
Yeah, it’s weird, because all of the hype over him during fall camp. I wonder maybe if the hammie is a lingering concern — either he retweaked it, or maybe even partially mental. He seems like a very good young man. Good luck to him!
So the guys over at Irish Breakdown gave some insight into the pass game during their Upon Further Review. Wisconsin stayed in a two high safety look nearly the entire game. Faison was left single covered more than the other receivers so Carr targeted him more. The RBs and to a lesser extent the TEs got so many targets because Wisconsin was giving up the short throws in an effort to not get beat deep. This apparently was their pass game philosophy last year too. So i’ve still got hope that Greathouse, Gilbert, and Graham can get open.
I agree that we need at least one more wide receiver other than Faison (and two would be perfectly fine) to start to perform at a higher level, especially when we play BYU, Miami and SMU. Watching on TV, it’s hard to see what’s happening with the receivers who did not get targeted, but I have to figure that they’re getting covered, and CJ can’t throw them the ball. Either that or CJ is fixated on Faison and the staff is having a rough time getting him to look at other receivers. My money is on the former.
We won this game because our QB was better than their QB. You can say that our guy had more support, and that may be true (especially after the first 20 minutes or so of the game), but nonetheless, he made more plays than Colten Joseph (he was “The Other CJ”). Our CJ kept the offense moving, despite the fact that the running game was fairly non-existent in the first half.
Our defense remains fun to watch. The Other CJ only rushed for a total of three total yards (two sacks likely depressed his total, but I’m hard pressed to see that he made that much positive yardage). Every time he tried to run (except for maybe their first two possessions), we had some speedy defender on him and bringing him down.
Remember when missed tackles were a thing for the ND defense? For the last season or two, and tonight, I only saw a couple of missed tackles. When we wrap someone up, they go down. Kudos to the coaching staff for instilling this habit and to the team for taking it to heart.
Let’s hope the injuries to Brauntae Johnson and Jason Onye are minor.
The tackling was excellent, I should’ve mentioned that.
Yes, and that tackling shows a ton of growth by HCMF — also figuring out how to do that while safeguarding health, esp brain impact. I heard he had a whole suite of techniques for that.
In Fickle’s presser after he commented that UW’s tackling was much poorer 2nd half. To tlndma’s comment below, I really do feel we wore them down. You can see that on the ND Highlights clip. Kinda funny because UW has a heavy average weight for their team. Maybe our s&c program is taking hold? HCMF mentioned that in the presser.
Great comment, Cubsfan, my remarks on tackling and shutting down their QB run were inspired by your mention.
The second half tackling was absolutely incredible. Felt like a 100% success rate, and 90% of the hits were massive.
It wasn’t a blow out until it was.(28-3 in the 2nd half) Once ND got up 2 scores Wisc. was doomed. You could see early on Joseph had a very good chance of throwing a pick 6 and then he did.. They weren’t going to win on his arm. My biggest takeaway is ND figured it out at the break. Both lines played better in the 2nd half. Adjustments and Wisc. getting worn, I’d guess.
Others:
Using the RBs in the pass game.
CJ Carr staying patient not forcing the issue.
The secondary looked to be the best unit. Qne big breakdown, it happens when you are so aggressive.
Aneyas Williams finding his game 2nd half.
There was much to like (Wisc.) is better. There is much to work on and some time to do it.
Great halftime adjustments, pretty amazing stuff.
I was most impressed by the D taking Joseph’s run game OUT of the equation. The players all said that before, in their nice guarded way, as did Ash and MF. And they just flat did it. Which meant that life being a tradeoff, our Michigan transfer CB was left very man and probably helped contribute to him biting on the TD.
Eric, do what ever you need to keep the site going. We understand family comes first. I will be very sad, if you ever fold the tent. We have such a good community here. There is so much respect for each other. Remember sometimes less can be more. I’m with you to the finish line, when ever that comes.
I will try! I’ve always liked the locked in structure of the football season from a writing perspective but the game reviews have really gotten tough to deal with and after many years it was starting to affect how I was enjoying the sport.
A good idea I might try is a quarterly report every month or so…
Quarterly reports monthly? Now you sound like my corporate management team 😩
🙂
I did like the reviews, they were always good to come back to. But honestly, Tom is right 100%. It’s important to dial back and keep stoking your creative fires. Because also as Tom says, the genuine collegiality is quite unique.
Plus, Andy is awesome to pitch in, and the other guys on the Staff. Tell Larz to renegage some more, we need Canada!
Try recruiting one of the commentators on Discord for an occasional game review may be a thought?
A periodic report, yes –– how about one prior to BYU, then one after Miami, then one towards the end?
I’m Tom in case anyone is wondering. HAha Noise.
I was too tired to type tlndma 🙂
Those early evening starts for you guys are all nighters for me over here
Might be looking at a Theo Riddick-esque season from the backs. The vision running inside didn’t look great, and two new starters at tackle doesn’t necessarily bode well for running outside (at least early in the season). Luckily both backs do both look like they could be elite in the passing game.
I’d start thinking about removing fade routes from the playbook. For whatever reason, Carr could never connect with Fields last season on them, and they didn’t hit last night. Really weird for a guy who is generally quite accurate.
Wasn’t a big game, but hopefully getting a few catches last night gets Gilbert some confidence. Seems like a guy who could be a useful target on seam routes.
A lot of times you will see a defense that is either fundamentally sound, hits hard, or gets its hands on the ball a lot. This defense looks like it might do all 3 all season. Being an RB going against these D Tackles, LBs, and Shuler has to be such an exhausting and painful experience.
Carr throws very hard on the fade route, which leaves little room for error. It’s probably something they can work on once the receiver situation settles.
I also saw a lot of people slipping, which likely affected the timing of the routes. Faison’s best catch seemed to be because Carr threw to where he would have been without a slip.
Carr’s vision, arm strength, and timing might be lethal whenever we play at home because they practice on that surface.
Unrelated: that was the greatest punt I’ve ever seen.
I know that I’m badly dating myself, but I personally witnessed the ND punter do almost the same exact thing for No. 2 ND against No. 7 LSU back in 1970 (ball went out of bounds just in front of the pylon, after taking a weird sideways bounce). There was about 2:30 left on the clock and we made them punt out of their own end zone. We got the ball on about their 38, moved it to about the 31 and kicked a fg at the end of the game to win, 3-0.
And so thanks for another example! I missed that game, coming back from the war. Read about it in the Stars and Stripes.
It will be very interesting to see how our new Aussi guy settles into this. I wonder what happened on the first semi-blocked kick. HCMF had some ambiguous remark about something needing to be corrected. But the other punts went well, and his holding seems good.
Is Punterbro still around?
Nice points!
Yes, on the punt. Back before the ball got a little narrower, “coffin corner” used to be a real thing — a legit goal for top punters. Helped in our last win over tOSU (where’s emojis when you need them) — 90 years ago I admit, but my dad was there and the punter lived on his floor in the dorm (cue more emojis and a shout out to Cubsfan).
Lots of talk that at least part of the second half resurgence in the running game (other than the likely fatigue of the Wisconsin defense) was the substitution of Sullivan Absher in at right guard in place of Styles Prescod.
Yeah, changing Prescod’s position and flipping sides was too much to ask from him. He’s gonna be good though, just needs time
Anybody know the snap counts? It’s always fascinating to see how much each player actually gets in comparison to projected depth chart.
Matt Freeman posted them from PFF whatever that is, with some decent comments, but it’s a premium thing, so I don’t think I can repost that. Of interest to me, Faison and Gilbert each got 60+, the #3 WR was Greathouse with 30 some, then Graham with 16. Lots of TE snaps.
The link just in case:Snap Count Thoughts | Wisconsin Week | Irish Sports Daily
Landon Tengwell hated how ND used the TEs as inside run blockers. He felt it just gummed up the works. It sure looked to, on the film. I’ve wondered for sometime if NDs short yardage issues start with Denbrock. His breakdown did not dissuade me from thinking if might be so.
Tengwell’s review and explanation of the run game was amazing. i learned a lot in that one short video
Yes, the way the TEs turn up does look very… gummy.
i can’t remember who it was, maybe IB, but for the DTs no one had more than 34 snaps (Mukam) and 6 total DTs had double digit. Hopefully Onye isn’t down long, but even if he is there’s enough depth to hold up til he’s back
The RBs were so consistently hitting the play gap before blocks could develop in the first half that I was wondering if it was an established strategy and we thought we could find a crease against Wiscy’s front 7 by going downhill. The change in how the RBs ran from the first to second half seems inexplicable if it wasn’t a coached strategy. So weird.
For normal people who aren’t locked into the OL, Knapp put together a really special performance, like an 11 reception for 260 and 3TDs WR level game. Moving him to guard might have unlocked a Leonard Moore-level contributor on offense.
His holding call was absolutely perfect technique and should be on his NFL draft scouting film. I think the reason he got called is because he was too fast with his hands. He had a hand on the DLs shoulder pads and chopped the arms so fast that the ref assumed he pulled the guy down by the pads, but absolutely not the case.
In slo-mo it is super obvious how perfect a play it was from Knapp. In real speed, I can see how it would be hard to see Knapp’s hand leave the pad and swipe the arm, but any NCAA level ref should simply know that technique. And no matter what, if a DL falls on his face in front of an OL, it should never ever ever be called holding, even if it somehow technically might have been.
For anyone curious, here is a blog post on the snatch and trap. It even uses Q Nelson at ND as an example. Tengwall’s video also has a good breakdown of the Knapp play.