Both Notre Dame and North Carolina have loads of talent. One of them has lived up to expectations, and the other has not. That was reflected by how Saturday’s game at Notre Dame Stadium turned out. The Irish won, 44-34, in their highest-scoring game of the season.
The Irish (7-1) were somewhat on their heels as the Tar Heels (4-4) were driving as the fourth quarter began. However, an incomplete pass by Sam Howell on third down set up a punt that downed the Irish at their own 9-yard line. Despite the long field to start, only one play was needed as Kyren Williams, who was back in action after suffering a third-quarter injury, took a handoff, made a nice move to the left, then executed a perfect stiff arm to run 91 yards for a touchdown. Mike Tirico told the NBC audience that it was the Irish’s play of the year, and it was hard to argue against it.
DJ Brown intercepted Howell on the first play of his next drive and returned the ball 15 yards into the red zone. After Avery Davis ran for 12 yards, another Irish touchdown appeared imminent. The Irish tried to punch it in on the ground, but the Tar Heels’ defense held. Jonathan Doerer kicked a 20-yard field goal to put the Irish up by two full scores.
Perhaps inspired by his defense’s effort, Howell went back to work. By mixing runs and passes, he was able to get the offense into field-goal range. However, he wasn’t satisfied with that, and he evaded a bunch of Irish defenders while running 31 yards for a touchdown. An Irish victory no longer appeared so certain.
Needing a response, the Irish’s offense did everything it could to get one. Jack Coan completed a pair of passes for first downs, and Williams had a couple of nice runs, one of which went for 20 yards. Eventually, the Irish had a third-and-long on which they drew a pass interference to give them first-and-goal. They once again failed to find the end zone in this situation, but they milked the clock down to the point where Doerer made a 21-yard field goal with 1:37 left.
Out of timeouts and needing more than one score, the Tar Heels marched down the field quickly. They made their way into the red zone and spiked the ball with 23 seconds left. On the next play, Howell was met by Jordan Botelho and threw the ball out of the box and was called for intentional grounding. He completed one more pass short of the goal line, and that was all she wrote in South Bend.
That game had a lot of action, and the Irish came out on top. Who would have it any other way?