We’re one quarter into Notre Dame’s game against Purdue, and things don’t seem to have gotten any better. The good news for the Irish is it’s a long game, and a lot still can happen. The bad news is they haven’t given their crowd much hope that that’s in the cards. Thus, they find themselves with a 3-0 deficit.
The first play from scrimmage set the stage for the rest of the quarter when Jack Coan was sacked by Jaylan Alexander. Not helped by a false start, the Irish never got back to the original line of scrimmage, and the Boilermakers ended up starting their first drive in Irish territory. A couple of third-down conversions helped get them into the red zone, though that didn’t happen until the Irish finally forced a fourth down. It still was enough for Mitchell Fineran to kick an easy 34-yard field goal for the game’s first points.
Both teams punted over the game’s next three drives in a display of sloppy football. There were costly penalties, stuffed runs, incomplete passes and even a fumble, though that wasn’t lost. Kyle Hamilton gave the Irish a bit of life when he came up with a stop on fourth down, as did Coan through the air and Tyler Buchner on the ground before the clock ran out on the quarter. Still, from a neutral fan’s perspective, this did not start off as a game worthy of attention on the last official Saturday afternoon of summer.