Notre Dame Avenges Last Year's Loss To Louisville, Beats Cards 31-24

Source: Michael Reaves / Getty

SOUTH BEND, Ind. — Last year, the Louisville Cardinals dominated the Notre Dame Fighting Irish when the roles were reversed. Louisville was the lesser-ranked team with something to prove playing on their home turf in 2023. This year found themselves in that same spot.

The outcome was the same in that regard, but this time with Notre Dame coming up big in a game that they needed to win.

The Irish beat the Cardinals 31-24 on an overcast rainy day in front of a sold-out crowd at Notre Dame Stadium that was desperate for their Irish to show them that they could win in tough games such as this.

“Great win,” said head coach Marcus Freeman. “It wasn’t perfect, but to find a way to get it done when it matters most, we had to go out there and prevent them from scoring. I’m proud of the coaches and proud of the players.”

The game began as if the cloud of the Northern Illinois game was still raining upon them (no pun intended). Devyn Cook took the opening kickoff from the boot of Cardinals kicker Brady Travelstead and seconds into his return, coughed up the football which was recovered by the Cardinals. Disaster.

An audible groan could be heard from the Notre Dame faithful, as if to say “This is going to be a long day.”

The subsequent touchdown scored off a 10-yard sling from Louisville quarterback Tyler Slough to Isaac Brown didn’t help things. Down 7-0 just minutes into the game it appears that the groans of the crowd may be accurate.

“You’ve got to reload (in that situation),” Freeman said. “The ability to win the plays between plays is what makes great teams great. Whatever happened the last play, you throw that out and you reload and refocus.”

Enter Riley Leonard. He ‘refocused’ the Irish by engineering a 12-play, 75-yard drive by passing, yes, you read that right, PASSING six times, completing five of them for 31 yards. Heady runs by him and Jeremiyah Love helped out as well, as Love capped off the drive with his fourth rushing touchdown of the season.

Turning a tough start into a lot of momentum, the Irish scored 21 unanswered points in the 1st quarter, one of which being a 32-yard bomb into the endzone for Jaden Greathouse from Leonard. This was procured by the fact that the Notre Dame defense shut down the Cardinals on their next three drives by recovering a fumble, forcing a turnover on downs, and then a punt.

The second quarter began almost the same way as the first .. with a Notre Dame fumble. Jadarian Price took the ball on a run inside his own 10-yard line. Louisville happily took the gift of spectacular field position with Slough side-arming it to Ja’Corey Brooks.

Still leading 21-14, Notre Dame could only muster a 48-yard field goal from kicker Mitch Jeter off an interception previously by Xavier Watts, his second of the season.

The Irish took a 24-14 lead into the locker room at halftime. Louisville moved the ball better, ran the ball better, and frankly played better defense than Notre Dame in the second quarter, but the Irish held on to the lead that would pay dividends later on.

The Irish defense held Louisville scoreless in the 3rd quarter as the Cardinals punted twice and turned over on downs once. But, in like manner, the Irish were also scoreless holding the 24-14 lead into the final quarter.

Breaking the stalemate, Louisville drove to the Irish 39-yard line to open the fourth quarter, but the defense held again leaving the Cardinals’ kicker Travelstead to hit a 56-yard field goal, a new career-long.

The Irish responded with more heads-up passing by Leonard, who led the Irish on a five-play drive resulting in a 32-yard screen pass to Love who took it from there scampering all the way to the endzone, Leonard’s second passing touchdown of the game.

By the game’s end, Leonard would have more passing touchdowns (2) than rushing touchdowns (1), the first time all season that has happened. He finished the day 17-23 for 163 yards and most importantly no interceptions.

“The offense played lights out,” Freeman said. “There was no discussion about changing the quarterback. He played really well, especially in the first half. I’m proud of the way he performed.”

Louisville mounted a late charge in the fourth quarter as Slough found Ja’Corey Brooks again in the Irish endzone. But as the Irish offense had run out of gas, it would be up to the defense to bring it home. They did just that with help from the fact that Louisville had burned through all its second-half timeouts by the two-minute warning.

On 4th and 1 inside the final minute, Louisville went for it and a Slough pass hit the turf. The turnover on downs, Louisville’s fourth of the day, sealed the day for the Irish.

“We knew going into this game, we knew Louisville under (Jeff) Brohm is top in the country in terms of opening drives,” Freeman said. “That was the emphasis: start fast. We started with a fumble, but we reloaded and we handled adversity.”

Despite being outgained by Louisville’s 395 total yards to their own 280, Notre Dame proved to the college football world that they can in fact come up big in tough games. Now having won three straight games after their disaster against Northern Illinois, the Irish have momentum and head into a much-needed bye week knowing they have a rivalry match-up on the other side against Standford at home on October 12th.

Notre Dame Avenges Last Year’s Loss To Louisville, Beats Cards 31-24 was originally published on wibc.com