SOUTH BEND, Ind. — In what turned into a war of attrition Saturday, especially on Notre Dame’s side and in its injury tent, the 16th-ranked Irish showed more guts, guile and game-changing plays in its showdown with No. 15 Louisville.
And enough head-scratchers in its 31-24 victory to keep head coach Marcus Freeman busy next week during the first of two bye weeks for ND (4-1).
The bottom line is Notre Dame did enough against a Cardinal team that throttled the Irish (33-20) last season to make whatever fixes and conclusions Freeman arrives at part of a relevant big picture.
It’s clear it’s a team that does not yet profile as a College Football Playoff shoo-on, but it showed some signs against Louisville (3-1) of being able to move in that direction next month, starting with Stanford at home on Oct. 12.
In the meantime, Inside ND Sports awarded two game balls, per usual. Not so usual is giving both of them to defensive players. Here are two of several deserving candidates.
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Defense: Leonard Moore, Cornerback
Five days after junior cornerback Jaden Mickey exited the Irish roster to redshirt and eventually transfer, freshman cornerback Leonard Moore played way more than Mickey’s usual rotational snaps.
Because sophomore starter Christian Gray was a late scratch. Moore started and finished, and in between forced a big Louisville fumble early — its first turnover of the season — and a team-high seven tackles while playing every one of the 76 snaps the Irish defense was on the field on Saturday.
Defense: Jordan Clark, Nickel/Cornerback
The grad senior nickel also had to adapt, playing both his natural position, then shifting to boundary cornerback when All-American Ben Morrison had to leave the game with an injury for a key stretch in the second half.
Clark finished with five tackles, a tackle for loss, a pass breakup and was in coverage on Louisville’s final fourth-down pass attempt that fell incomplete with 47 seconds left in the game.
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