Notre Dame Stays Perfect With A 31-21 November Win Over Northwestern

The Notre Dame Fighting Irish start this November off on the right foot with a SCORE win over the Northwestern Wildcats. It was a frustrating first half for the Irish as penalties and the inability to get much going on the ground saw the Irish look really sluggish on offense, and it carried over to the defense.

Notre Dame fumbled away the first possession, but came out alive as Northwestern missed a field goal. The Irish responded with a TD drive that had Dexter Williams pound it in from the 1 yard line. The Wildcats answered with a 78 yard drive that ended with their own 1 yard TD run with a QB sneak from Clayton Thorson.

They went into the half tied 7-7.

Notre Dame came out on fire and built up a 24-7 lead into the 4th quarter after touchdown drives that ended with Ian Book touchdown passes to Miles Boykin and Michael Young.

It looked like the Irish were in the drivers seat after the Justin Yoon field goal gave them that 24-7 lead, but then it came crashing down.

NorthwEstern hit a strike and ended a 70 yard drive in the endzone. Notre Dame couldn’t move the ball much on the next drive and Tyler Newsome had a punt blocked to set the Wildcats up deep in Irish territory. The Cats dug down and punched it in on 4th down to put the game in peril with a 24-21 score.

Notre Dame had a ton of game pressure on the next drive, but a long Dexter Williams run and a steady hand from Ian Book saw a 10 play 89 yard drive that ended with a 23 yard touchdown run from Ian Book on 3rd down.

The Irish held the Wildcats on the ensuing drive with a 4th down stop, but couldn’t get a first down and had to punt it away with 11 seconds left. Northwestern ran the clock out.

We will have much more on this win soon, but the Irish are 9-0 and have a win in November.