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Notre Dame followed its strong Week 1 start against Wisconsin with a brutal 52-0 shutout of Rice in Week 2. The ghost of recent home openers were brought up during the pregame coverage but the Irish killed all of those bad vibes seconds into the action and never let up on the Owls.

The Big Picture

Notre Dame put up 21 points in both the 1^st and 2^nd quarters of the game. The team tagged on another 10 in the third quarter and went scoreless in the 4^th quarter. 

Yardage Summary

The Irish’s overall yardage differential against Rice was +350 and the offense significantly improved their overall production from the Week 1 performance. They logged 350 total yards against Wisconsin, for a +128-yard comparison. 

A lot of this week’s production, 75%, came through the air. Notre Dame finished the Rice game with 360 passing yards compared with 239 passing yards in the Wisconsin game. Notre Dame quarterbacks threw the ball more, 33 attempts this week compared with 29 attempts last week, and also earned more per attempt. The team averaged 10.9 yards per attempt against Rice and 8.2 yards per attempt against Wisconsin.

The remaining quarter of the Week 2 offensive production was earned by Irish rushers. The team walked away from their home opener with 118 rushing yards and they tallied up 111 yards on the ground during Week 1. The rushing efficiency stats were pretty close to.  The team had 32 rush attempts in each of their games played so far.  They averaged 3.5 yards per carry in the Rice game and 3.7 yards per carry in the Wisconsin game.

The Quarterback Stats

Three of Notre Dame’s quarterbacks got reps in Week 2.

• Starter C.J. Carr accounted for 61% of the team’s overall reps and completed 80% of his 20 pass attempts. His 253 yards represented 70% of the collective passing production and all four of the team’s passing touchdowns. 

• Freshman Noah Grubbs logged 11 pass attempts and completed 64% of them for 78 yards. 

• Freshman Teddy Jarrad finished the Rice game two for two in pass attempts and 29 yards. 

The Rushers

Notre Dame had three running backs carry most of the rushing load against Rice.

• Freshman running back Jonaz Walton finished his first college football game with eight rush attempts, 43 yards and an average of 6 yards per attempt.  
• Nolan James Jr. only had six carries for 29 yards in his second game of the season but was responsible for both of Notre Dame’s rushing touchdowns against Rice.
• Aneyas Williams led the group in utilization, with nine carries, and finished with 29 yards. 

The Receivers

A lot of Irish players played a role on the receiving side of things in the Week 2 rout.

• Jerome Bettis Jr. led the group of receivers in production. The sophomore wide receiver finished the Rice game with two catches for 61 yards. 

• Jordan Faison led the group in catches.  Faison brought in four catches for 54 yards and two of the team’s passing touchdowns.
• Jaden Greathouse made his first big appearance of the season, logging three receptions for 48 yards.  

• Micah Gilbert had another impactful performance and caught two passes for 47 yards and one touchdown in Week 2. 

• Five other wide receivers finished the game with between 20 and 36 passing yards.

The Defensive Stats

Notre Dame’s defense lived up to all of HC Michael Freeman’s demands for violence against Rice’s triple option offense.  

The Owls were held to only 64 yards on the ground and 64 yards on the ground. Rice averaged 5.3 yards per pass attempt only 1.9 yards per rush attempt.

The Irish defense finished the game with eight tackles for loss.

• Bryce Young (DL): 2 solo tackles, 1 sack, 2.5 tackles for loss

• Kyngstonn Viliamu-Asa (LB): 2 solo tackles, 1.5 tackles for loss

• Jaiden Ausberry (LB): 2 solo tackles, 1 tackle for loss

• Luke Talich (S): 3 solo tackles, 1 tackle for loss

• Adon Shuler (S): 2 solo tackles, 1 tackle for loss

• Kahanu Kia (LB): 1 solo tackle, 0.5 tackles for loss

• Teddy Rezac (LB): 1 solo tackle, 0.5 tackles for loss

The Irish defense recovered four of Rice’s fumbles. Boubacar Traore got things kicked off on the game’s second play and returned one for 24 yards for a touchdown. Jaiden Ausberry had the second fumble recovery, Kyngstonn Viliamu-Asa claimed the third and Rodney Durham recovered the fourth fumble.

The Flow Stats

Notre Dame scored on seven of its 10 offensive drives. 

Closing Thoughts

No one went into this game expecting Rice to be a major threat. Underdog matchups have a history of not going well for Notre Dame football but this year’s squad went out there and gave a ton of reasons to believe that rend might be a thing of the past. Not only did the team dominate on offense, defense and special teams but we also got to see younger players get meaningful play time and put up solid numbers.

Now we’ve seen the Irish produce on a big, away stage and show no signs of jitters on their home turf. The stat trends are all pointing in the right direction and we get to see if they can keep this train rolling next week against Michigan State.

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