The second quarter of the Camping World Bowl showed both offenses moving a little more, which is why the Irish have a 20-6 lead at halftime.
Brock Purdy threw a 29-yard pass Breece Hall, setting up Iowa State’s first score: a 41-yard field goal from Connor Assalley. Not to be outdone, Ian Book immediately followed Braden Lenzy’s 29-yard kick return with a 32-yard completion to Chase Claypool. That eventually led to a 51-yard field-goal attempt for Jonathan Doerer, which was a low line-drive kick but successful nonetheless.
Notre Dame’s defense remains a factor, and the offense is feeding off of that. Trailing, 13-3, the Cyclones elected to go for it on a fourth-and-1 at their own 45-yard line, but Breece Hall was stuffed at the line of scrimmage. Book hit Claypool for a 44-yard pass on the second play of the possession that initially was ruled a touchdown. Though that call was overturned on a replay review, it only took two more plays for Jafar Armstrong to run it into the end zone for six.
Purdy then showed why he’ll be one of the top quarterback prospects in the NFL draft by completing a pair of 28-yard passes, the latter a 50-50 ball that Sean Shaw Jr. came up with at the Notre Dame 3. Faced with adversity and helped by a false-start penalty on first down, the Irish defense successfully defended three consecutive Purdy passes, holding Iowa State to another field goal. Purdy is learning why Notre Dame has made life difficult for quarterbacks all year.
With rain beginning to fall in Orlando, it remains to be seen how the weather will affect the rest of this game, if at all. At the very least, we’ve seen it fall on the camera quite a bit. That’s always fun to see at a football game.