Irish shake off slow start, roll past Wisconsin 41-13 at Lambeau Field
GREEN BAY, Wis. – For one half Sunday night, Notre Dame's season opener looked more like a fight than the expected cruise. The second half looked like what the No. 4 Irish expected all along.
Notre Dame scored 28 points after halftime and held Wisconsin to one field goal over the final two quarters in a 41-13 win at Lambeau Field. The crowd of 75,939 was split roughly evenly between Badgers red and Irish navy. The Irish then celebrated with Lambeau Leaps into the student section.
It was not a clean start. Notre Dame's first drive opened with a false start and ended with Carr being sacked and fumbling. The Irish recovered, but Wisconsin blocked the ensuing punt, and Gavin Lahm kicked a 27-yard field goal for a 3-0 lead.
Notre Dame answered with a 52-yard field goal from Spencer Porath, a transfer from Purdue making his Irish debut. On the next kickoff, Wisconsin's Harrison Bortolotti muffed the return, and Notre Dame's Kahanu Kia recovered at the Badgers' 13. A personal foul moved the ball to the 6. Two plays later, Carr found tight end James Flanigan for a 3-yard touchdown. Flanigan is a Green Bay native whose father and grandfather both played for the Packers.
Wisconsin tied it 10-10 when quarterback Colton Joseph hit Malachi Coleman for a 28-yard touchdown. Porath's 26-yard field goal put Notre Dame back in front 13-10 with 8:53 left in the half, but the Irish didn't score again before the break.
The Irish ran for only 29 yards on 1.8 yards per carry in the first half. At halftime, Freeman told his players to drop their preconceived ideas about how the game would go. Wisconsin was coming off a 4-8 season, but it was going to be a battle, and he had been telling them that all week.
"Sometimes, you don't believe it till you're in it," Freeman said.
They believed it after halftime. Notre Dame opened the third quarter with a nine-play, 70-yard drive that Aneyas Williams finished with a 3-yard run. Nolan James Jr. kept the drive alive with a 7-yard run and a 28-yard catch.
Then the defense delivered the biggest play of the night. Cornerback DJ McKinney, who transferred from Colorado this offseason, intercepted Joseph and returned it 55 yards for a touchdown and a 27-10 lead.
Lahm added a second field goal late in the third quarter, but that was all Wisconsin could manage. Williams scored again on a 5-yard run in the fourth quarter, and James capped the night with a 28-yard touchdown catch from Carr in the final two minutes.
Carr said that near the end of the first half, he could tell, "We're going to be just fine."
Carr finished 19 of 29 for 239 yards and two touchdowns. In the second half he was 10 of 13 for 133 yards, and Freeman praised how well he got the offense out of bad down-and-distance situations at the line.
The biggest question going in was how the Irish would replace first-round NFL picks Jeremiyah Love and Jadarian Price. The early answer was by committee. Williams ran 20 times for 90 yards and two scores. James added 19 rushing yards and 67 receiving yards. Notre Dame finished with 111 rushing yards after halftime adjustments by the staff and the line.
Joseph finished 19 of 30 for 217 yards and a touchdown, and the Irish sacked him twice.
There were concerns, too. Safety Brauntae Johnson and defensive lineman Jason Onye both missed the second half with injuries, and Freeman had no update after the game.
With the win, Notre Dame moved to 13-0 all-time in Shamrock Series games.
Key Stats:
Carr: 19 of 29, 239 yards, 2 TD
Williams: 20 carries, 90 yards, 2 TD
James: 7 carries, 19 yards; 4 catches, 67 yards, 1 TD
Porath: 2 of 2 on field goals (52, 26)
McKinney: 55-yard interception return for a TD
