Notre Dame Wins A Big Opener Over Michigan 24-17

The Notre Dame Fighting Irish and Michigan Wolverines came into this game with two different narratives for the season. For most, Michigan’s defense/quarterback combo was superior to Notre Dame’s defense/quarterback combo. Therefore...

It couldn’t have gone better for the Irish as they took the first drive 75 yards on 7 plays for the first touchdown of the game. The touchdown came on a 13 yard run by Jafar Armstrong. Armstrong — the first of his career.

After the Irish forced a Michigan punt, Notre Dame turned another 7 play drive into a touchdown. This time it was a 96 yard drive that saw Michigan defensive back, Josh Metellus was ejected for targeting Alize Mack with a viscous hit. Mack actually caught the ball, and shortly after found Chris Finke for a 43 yard bomb and a score to make it 14-0 in the first quarter.

While the Irish offense was scoring, the Irish defense was busy shutting Michigan and Shea Patterson down. Notre Dame was able to add another score with a 4 yard TD run by Armstrong to make it 21-3, but the ensuing kickoff was returned by Ambry Thomas 99 yards for a touchdown.

The teams went into the half with different momentums, but the Irish still held a 21-10 lead.

The second half saw more of what the Notre Dame defense was all about as they kept shutting Michigan down. Notre Dame added a field goal from Jusin Yoon in the 3rd quarter to make it a 24-10 lead.

The 4th quarter was all about holding on for dear life with a two touchdown lead and Shea Patterson sitting on the sideline.

That changed when Michigan mounted a TD drive with Patterson back on the field, and Karan Higdon took it in the end zone on a short run.

The ensuing kick was fair caught and Notre Dame went 3 and out in 18 seconds (Michigan used all theee timeouts). Notre Dame punted to the 25, Michigan started their comeback try.

Michigan fumbled. It was beautiful.

More to come on One Foot Down shortly.