It wasn’t even this close.
The Notre Dame Fighting Irish are one step closer to achieving one of their biggest goals as they beat the Syracuse Orange SCORE to continue their march to the college football playoff.
It was a dominating day for Notre Dame, but they had a hard time finishing drives. The Irish only scored 10 points off of three Syracuse turnovers, but with the way the defense was playing — it was all that was really needed.
Jalen Elliott picked off the Orange, and Alohi Gilman got TWO interceptions to help the Irish defense put a stranglehold on the Syracuse offense. Starting quarterback, Eric Dungey, was knocked out of the game early for the Orange, and Tommy Devito came in for him.
Devito had a horrific outing, and could never fully escape the pressure from Khalid Kareem, Julian Okwara, Jerry Tillery, Drue Tranquill, and really... whoever the Irish dialed up for the pressure.
The Irish offense never seemed in sync today — especially in the running game. The offensive line seemed to be the biggest culprit as it never got much push off the snap, and they were racking up penalties throughout the game.
In spite of all of this, Notre Dame racked up over 450 yards thanks to Ian Book’s passing game that included passing 23-27 for 293 yards and TD passes to Chase Claypool and Dexter Williams.
Brandon Wimbush came in for Ian Book after the Irish saw Syracuse miss a petty FG attempt that kept the shutout alive. Brandon improved the Irish rushing stats right away. After a mostly tough day on the ground for Dexter Williams, he did break off a 32 yard touchdown run to put the Irish up 36-0 for the day.
It wasn’t the most efficient day, but it was more than enough to beat Syracuse and put a checkmark in the win column.
It was disappointing that the Irish weren’t able to fully capitalize on the Orange mistakes, but it was as dominant of a win as Notre Dame has had all season. I point that out because so many people predicted a close game, and that Notre Dame was going to have to score a lot of points to win.
They only needed a few. Dino Babers is a petty, petty man.
We will have much more on this Irish win over a Top 15 opponent soon on OFD.
