Notre Dame Shut Down Iowa State In The Camping World Bowl

While the majority of the Blue and Gold Illustrated staff predicted a Notre Dame victory against Iowa State, no one thought the Fighting Irish would hold the Cyclones to under 10 points.

But that's exactly what happened in Notre Dame's 33-9 win over Iowa State in the Camping World Bowl yesterday.

A specialty of Notre Dame defensive coordinator Clark Lea is to take away what an opponent does well offensively and make key adjustments early in the game.

So it’s no surprise that Lea clearly placed an emphasis on shutting down three of Iowa State’s most impactful offensive players: sophomore quarterback Brock Purdy, junior tight end Charlie Kolar and freshman running back Breece Hall.

All three struggled against the Fighting Irish defense, producing well below expectations.

Coming into the Camping World Bowl, Purdy was averaging 313 passing yards and just over two passing touchdowns per game while completing 66.3 percent of his passes. Against Notre Dame, he threw for 222 yards, no touchdowns and completed 56.6 percent of his passes.

“All year we have been stingy in the passing defense efficiency,” said Notre Dame head coach Brian Kelly. “And we felt like we were going to be in a good position, as long as we rerouted and did some good things. And we did. Clark did a good job with the linebackers, getting in passing lanes and making it difficult.”

Kolar, who was a named a second-team All-American, averaging 56.2 receiving yards per game and grabbing seven touchdowns throughout the season. Yet the Fighting Irish held him to three catches for 22 yards and he never sniffed the end zone. This was accomplished in large part thanks to freshman safety Kyle Hamilton, who covered him throughout much of the game.

Unlike the other two, Hall didn’t become a feature offensive player until six games into the season but, once he was given the opportunity he ran with it, averaging 137.9 yards from the line of scrimmage and scoring a total of 10 touchdowns in the final seven games of the regular season.

Hall got off to a hot start against the Irish, producing 71 total yards in the first 20 minutes of the game but, after that, Notre Dame adjusted. He was held to 30 yards the rest of the game.

The Cyclones may have finished the year 7-6, but they were defeated by four teams that finished in the top 25 of the final College Football Playoff rankings by seven points or less, including losses by two points or less to No. 4 Oklahoma and No. 7 Baylor.

That’s why Notre Dame’s 33-9 point victory over Iowa State, a team that rarely gets blown out, is more impressive than it may seem on the surface. The Cyclones’ last loss of 20 points or more was a 49-19 defeat at the hands of West Virginia to close out the 2016 season. That was head coach Matt Campbell's first season at the helm and the Cyclones went 3-9.

In order to produce such a dominating performance, the Fighting Irish had to put together a complete game.

“All three phases were outstanding today,” Kelly said. “When you hold an offense that put 40 points on a team that's playing in the playoffs in Oklahoma to no touchdowns, you can't hide from that. A team that is a prolific offense to not score a touchdown today, they had plenty of time to prepare. The defense is without some really good players as well. And [we] just did an outstanding job today. I thought our special teams were outstanding.”

While the 33 points Notre Dame scored is below its season average, the Fighting Irish had such a commanding lead in the second half that they were able to burn clock by running the ball with third-string running back C’bo Flemister.

Prior to the Camping World Bowl, Iowa State’s lowest scoring output of the season was 17 points, which the Cyclones had in losses to Iowa and Kansas State.

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