Notre Dame cruises to victory against Purdue
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. (WISH) — It was clear on the fifth play of the game.
Jeremiyah Love got the handoff from Riley Leonard and raced towards the sideline. He turned upfield, got passed the outstretched hands of one Purdue defender, and was gone.
Love sped passed the last line of the Purdue defense for a 48 yard touchdown.
Notre Dame had set the tone early, and rode the momentum for the rest of the game, beating Purdue 66-7.
“I didn’t necessarily picture that I was going to score on that run,” Love said. “It just happened and it helped my team start fast.”
The Fighting Irish got it going on the ground early. They had five rushing touchdowns in the first half, with Leonard picking up three of them.
The most impressive one was his second. He got around the edge, broke two tackles down the sideline, and stiff armed a Purdue defender as he crossed the goal line.
“I think the second you play hesitant is when things get scary,” Leonard said. “So I just play my game and trust in the Lord. I’m going to lower my shoulder. I’m going to get the first down for my guys.”
Leonard rushed for 100 yards and those three touchdowns all in the first half. He did not play a snap in the second half.
“Riley’s going to get the credit because he’s the quarterback, and he had a lot of yards rushing” Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman said. “Riley’s going to get the blame when we don’t have success. That’s the life of being a quarterback. There’s a lot of people that deserve credit for Riley’s performance, including Riley. I’m proud of him.”
It wasn’t just the run game. Notre Dame’s defense stifled the Boilermakers.
It took over 34 minutes of game time for Purdue to finally cross midfield. In the first half, Purdue mustered just 72 yards of offense.
The Irish defense got in on the scoring too, with a pick six late in the first half. Hudson Card was trying to throw the ball away to avoid a sack, and ended up tossing it into the arms of Boubacar Traore who strolled in for an easy touchdown.
“I didn’t think it was even going to come to me,” Traore said. “I saw the ball and I just had to make the best out of the situation so I caught the ball and just ran with it.”
It was almost the complete opposite game from Indiana State to Notre Dame for Card. He completed 96% of his passes in the season opener (24 for 25) for four touchdowns.
On Saturday against the Irish, he completed just 11 of his 24 passes for 124 yards and threw the pick six.
“My hope is that they learn from this so it never happens again,” Purdue head coach Ryan Walters said. “Obviously, everybody is disappointed, embarrassed, angry, frustrated, shocked, right now. But this is a long season. You can’t let one game define you.”
The same could be said for Leonard, but it a positive way. Against Northern Illinois in his last game, he threw two interceptions and only had 1.5 yards per carry.
Against Purdue, he had no turnovers, completed 11 of his 16 passes for 112 yards, and rushed for 9.1 yards per carry.
“The biggest thing for me is I didn’t do a good job of handling success after Week 1 and I learned from that,” Leonard said. “I learned the hard way last Saturday. But I think it’s important that I learned from that.”
“Seeing Riley come out and persevere through all the bad comments in the media and all that stuff, just seeing him persevere through all that, it really was something to see,” Love said.
This was the first game that Notre Dame and Purdue played at Ross-Ade Stadium since 2013. The two teams will play each year through 2028, with both teams having two home games in that stretch.
After the game on Saturday, Notre Dame has won nine straight games against Purdue.
This story will be updated.