Notre Dame takes down IU, moves on to quarterfinals

NOTRE DAME, Ind. (WISH) — Notre Dame controlled each facet of the game and beat IU, 27-17, in the first round of the College Football Playoff.

Notre Dame grabbed the momentum less than five minutes into the game, and they never gave it back.

IU was driving inside the Notre Dame 20 yard line. IU quarterback Kurtis Rourke tried to throw into double coverage, and the ball was intercepted by Xavier Watts at the 2 yard line.

On the very next play, Notre Dame running back Jeremiyah Love got to the outside and showcased his explosiveness, outrunning two Hoosier defenders for a 98 yard touchdown.

The Fighting Irish had all the momentum after those two plays, and controlled the rest of the game.

“It’s easy to say we didn’t play our best game, but a lot of that was probably because of who we played,” IU head coach Curt Cignetti said.

Indiana was never able to sustain any type of success after that until it was too late. They were able to move the ball a little bit in the first half, but every drive except for one stalled short of field goal range.

“There were probably some ordinary things that we normally would execute that we didn’t get done very well,” Cignetti said.

“They came out and did what we expected and just a lack of execution on my part,” Rourke said.

Late in the 4th quarter, IU got 2 touchdowns but it was too late to stage a comeback.

The Fighting Irish controlled the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball, limiting IU’s offense to 6.3 yards per pass attempt and 2.3 yards per rush.

It was the same big game problem for the Hoosiers. In the two games they had against top tier opponents, their offense lacked the explosiveness it had against lesser teams.

Against Ohio State, Indiana had just 153 yards of offense and 15 points. Against Notre Dame, Indiana totaled 278 yards and 17 points.

Notre Dame moves on to face Georgia after the win. They’ll play in the Sugar Bowl in the quarterfinals of the College Football Playoff on January 1.