Just by looking at Saturday’s box score, all is mostly well. Notre Dame beat Syracuse by 24 points, moved to 10-0 and put 7.4 yards per play against the Orange’s defense.
It wasn’t quite that easy or stress-free thanks to a few out-of-character moments, but none of those got in the way to the point where they created too much doubt in the outcome even as Syracuse lingered for two-plus quarters.
Here are some numbers and observations from watching the Irish’s 45-21 win a second time.
Syracuse’s Run-Game Success
Syracuse, which entered with one of the 10 worst rushing success rates in all of college football, snapped Notre Dame’s 15-game streak of not allowing a running back to top 70 yards.
The Orange did it twice, with Sean Tucker and Cooper Lutz each topping 100 yards.
Because college football. And Notre Dame snoozing through the first quarter with some uncharacteristic lapses.
Allowing a putrid rushing offense to put up 232 yards on 34 carries (excluding a sack) raises an eyebrow. A more thorough study revealed a couple concerns. Same time, it also showed some things that feel like one-offs.
Starting with the latter. All told, Syracuse had six runs of at least 10 yards. On the surface, that’s not a bad number for a defense. It’s not great to allow to Syracuse, though. The final one was a 12-yard carry deep into garbage time against backups. The longest one, an 80-yard burst from Lutz, was aided by cornerback TaRiq Bracy falling as the play came to him. He wasn’t juked. He also had the second- and third-string around him. Those two don’t raise much alarm.
