Notre Dame proves it can win defensive slugfest in beating Boise State, 28-7

Notre Dame’s only deficit of the day must not have sat well with the Fighting Irish.

Boise State took a 7-6 lead with just over four minutes remaining in the first half. At that point, anything wacky or weird could have easily ensued. And — or — the Irish could have easily lost another home game by one point in a game in which it botched an extra point.

Nope. Not this time.

Notre Dame responded immediately, taking the lead back just before halftime on a nine-play, 75-yard possession, and the Irish opened the second half with a defensive stop and another effective scoring drive of 10 plays and 79 yards. By then, after a successful two-point conversion, they were up by two touchdowns on an afternoon in which the Broncos were hard-pressed to put points on the board.

Final: Notre Dame 28, Boise State 7. See? No. 21 Notre Dame (3-2) can win grind-it-out, defensive slugfests in the year 2025. It wasn’t expected to be one with two teams averaging just over (Notre Dame) and just under (Boise State) 40 points per game, but you’ve got to roll with game flow.

And the Irish did admirable job with that.

“We were able to be more consistent,” Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman said. “We were able to win the one-on-one battles more consistently. We knew that was going to be the challenge. It wasn’t going to be out-scheme them and confuse them. It was going to be on both sides of the ball, we have to win more one-on-one battles. And we did that more.”

Redshirt freshman Notre Dame quarterback CJ Carr completed 15-of-23 passes for 189 yards with 2 touchdowns and 0 interceptions. He didn’t have his A+ game, but even if this was his B-something stuff it was more than enough to out-duel his counterpart, Boise State veteran Maddux Madsen, who was 22-of-37 for 215 yards with 0 touchdowns and 4 interceptions.

The Notre Dame defense played a major factor in making Madsen look incredibly mortal. The Irish sacked him 4 times. He wasn’t afforded too many comfortable pockets to pass from, and even when he was, the Notre Dame secondary looked much more like the one that was largely responsible for the nation’s No. 1 pass efficiency defense metric in each of the last two seasons than the one that was near the very bottom in the FBS in passing yards against for most of the month of September.

“It feels like we’re getting our identity in check,” said sophomore cornerback Leonard Moore, who returned from an ankle injury that held him out for two games and had 2 interceptions of Madsen. “We’re going out there playing fast and playing violent.”

Notre Dame also held a Broncos (3-2) team that was averaging 221 rushing yards per game to 100 yards on 2.9 yards per carry. Conversely, Notre Dame’s highly touted rushing attack spearheaded by tailback tandem Jeremiyah Love and Jadarian Price ran for 200 yards on 6.5 yards per carry. Love did most of the heavy lifting with 103 yards on 16 rushing attempts. Price had 83 yards on 8 carries, including a 49-yard breakaway touchdown — as he does.

“When you have the two best running backs in the country, it’s hard to be wrong in the run game,” Carr said.

Overall, despite ineffectiveness in plus territory early on, including a fourth and goal stuff of Love woefully short of the end zone, Notre Dame found a form of complementary football that worked and resulted in the team holding a winning record for the first time this season. That’s progress ahead of a home stand that continues with NC State on Oct. 11 and USC on Oct. 18 before a bye on Oct. 25.

“We’ll get back to work tomorrow, but enjoy this because you get 12 guaranteed opportunities and it’s hard to get one,” Freeman said. “It’s hard to earn a victory. Sometimes we take that for granted.”