Mistake-Ridden Game Sinks Notre Dame in Top-10 Clash
Via Rob Gray-Imagn Images
PROVO, Utah -- No. 2 Notre Dame falls to the No. 8 BYU Cougars in an ugly, mistake-ridden game that puts the Irish in a must-win situation for the rest of the season.
The Fighting Irish played a tale of two halves in this game, as the Notre Dame defense struggled mightily in the first half surrendering 21 points to the Cougars.
The Irish were without key impact player Boubacar Traore for the entirety of the game after a bone-headed decision led to a targeting penalty and an ejection from the contest.
Due to this, the Irish defensive front was unable to create any pressure on Bear Bachmeier, who torched the Fighting Irish for 224 passing yards, along with two rushing scores.
Offensively, CJ Carr had one of the worst games of his career, missing two open receivers, Jordan Faison and James Flanigan, for easy access touchdowns, along with an extremely costly fumbled spike attempt before halftime that erased a Notre Dame scoring chance. He finished 27-49 for 261 yards.
The Irish also didn't capitalize on BYU's mistakes. A muffed punt by BYU and a weird decision to run a fake punt gave Notre Dame two opportunities to score touchdowns on drives that started in Cougars territory. The Irish settled for three points both times.
Jaden Greathouse was the Irish's leading receiver, and played his best game since the 2024-25 playoff run, hauling in eight catches for 125 yards.
Nolan James Jr. led the rushing attack for Notre Dame accumulating 77 yards and a touchdown run. Jonaz Walton added a touchdown of his own in the fourth quarter to give the Irish the lead.
Following Walton's touchdown, the Irish got a crucial interception from Michigan transfer Jayden Sanders. After the Sanders' pick, Mike Denbrock played it extremely conservative, which resulted in a three-and-out and the BYU offense to head back out there.
On that drive, the Irish were beat mostly when playing zone coverage and on an imperative 3rd & goal from the six yard line, Chris Ash sent an all-out blitz that didn't get home. The Irish suffered the consequence.
With the game in the balance, Carr led the Irish down the field and set up a game-deciding play, a 50/50 jump ball to Greathouse, that fell incomplete, as the Irish left Provo with a loss and their season in jeopardy.
A crushing loss and an agonizing familiar feeling that Notre Dame fans know all too well returns once again in a season that was supposed to be different.
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They need to release the audio from the Replay Operations Center that worked for the final play. We have already had 2 examples of this happening this year already. We need to know whether the Big 12 was incompetent or whether they told BYU the game wasn't done and purposely interfered with it. This game only confirmed to me that the Big 12 is a joke conference.