Indiana vs. Notre Dame game balls
Where to begin?
In another dominating wire-to-wire victory, Notre Dame dispatched of Indiana 27-17 Friday night to advance to the CFP quarterfinal round against Georgia in the Sugar Bowl on Jan. 1.
Thorough would be an understatement to describe the one-sided Irish victory.
Notre Dame hit the nation’s No. 1-ranked rushing defense with 193 rushing yards. Which was 123 yards more the Indiana’s per-game average, and 56 yards more than the Hoosiers had given up in a game this season.
Defensively, Notre Dame held Indiana to its second-lowest yardage (178) and scoring (17) performances this season.
The game provided plenty of options for game balls. But three of the usual Notre Dame suspects got the nod.
S Xavier Watts
Perhaps miffed because he only received second-team All-American honors last week from the Football Writers Association of America, after a first-team AA performance, the Irish graduate played one of his best games of the season with 10 tackles (5 solo), 0.5 tackles for loss and grabbed his 6th interception.
Watts made the biggest play of the game in the first quarter when he intercepted Indiana quarterback Kurtis Rourke at the Irish 2-yard line. The play flipped possession and momentum. And on Notre Dame’s first ensuing offensive play, sophomore tailback Jeremiyah Love went 98 yards for a touchdown and a 7-0 Irish lead that was never threatened.
The 10 tackles for Watts were a career high — he has 19 stops in the last two games — and the interception was his third in the last four games.
Watts’ 6 pick-offs this season tie for the second-most in the country.
QB Riley Leonard
The Irish senior continued his late-season surge with 23-of-32 passing for 201 yards with 1 touchdown and 1 interception through the air, and 30 rushing yards with another touchdown on the ground.
The first-quarter interception could’ve frazzled Leonard, given the setting and the importance of the playoff environment.
Instead, he calmly led Notre Dame on two touchdown drives and a field-goal drive on the next four possessions to stake the Irish to a 17-3 halftime lead.
It marked the second-straight game — and the seventh this season — that Leonard rushed for a touchdown and threw for a score in the same game.
Leonard’s rushing touchdown was his 15 this year, which set a new single-season record for an Irish quarterback. And his touchdown pass was his 11th in the last six games after he threw for only 6 scores in his first seven games.
RB Jeremiyah Love
Despite being dinged up a bit with a slight knee injury, the sophomore tailback managed 108 rushing yards on only 8 carries for a 13.5-yard average and his fourth 100-yard rushing game in the last five outings.
Love’s touchdown run came on a 98-yard sideline scamper in the first quarter that gave the Irish a 7-0 lead and set a dominating tone for the rest of the game.
Loves performance pushed him over 1,000 rushing yards for the season, and pushed his rushing average to 7.4 yards per carry, which ties for second in the country.
Also of note, Love has now scored at least 1 rushing touchdown in all 13 games this season, a Notre Dame record.
Love also added 2 receptions for 18 yards against Indiana and now has almost two weeks to rest his knee.
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