Well, that’s much more like it. Notre Dame suddenly is treating Purdue like the Notre Dame Stadium guest it is, which is not great. Whatever switch needed to be flipped has indeed been flipped, and the Irish look like a good team once again. They hold a 10-3 lead going into halftime.
A real momentum swing happened on a fourth-and-3 from the Boilermakers’ 39-yard line when Jack Coan fired a complete pass to Kyren Williams, who prompted two defenders to collide and allow him to run to the end zone untouched for a 39-yard touchdown and the Irish’s first lead of the day.
After the Boilermakers went three and out, the Irish took over in good field position and decided to go for it on fourth down again. It appeared to fail, but Jalen Graham was called for a hold before the pass, and that kept the Irish’s offense on the field. A pass interference on the next play set the Irish up in the red zone, but they couldn’t reach first-and-goal. Jonathan Doerer promptly drilled a 28-yard field goal, his shortest of the season so far.
Faced with their worst starting field position of the day, the Boilermakers tried a receiver pass with Milton Wright on their next drive. However, NaNa Osafo-Mensah snuffed that out with a sack. A couple of plays later, the Irish started their next drive in Boilermakers territory. Doerer eventually came on to attempt a 45-yard field goal, but the kick sailed as wide left as it could get.
Neither team mounted a serious threat for the rest of the quarter, so that’s where things stand. The question now is whether the second-half Irish look more like the first-quarter or second-quarter Irish. Whichever one that is will determine if they keep their home winning streak alive.