Sloppy day for Notre Dame still nets 41-17 win over Central Michigan

It was a sloppy day for Notre Dame at home against the Central Michigan Chippewas, but through all of the mental mistakes and penalties, the Irish will go to bed tonight with a 41-17 win and a 4-0 record.

The Irish got explosive early and Sam Hartman found Tobias Merriweather for a 75 yard touchdown pass to make it 7-0. It wasn’t scary enough for the Chips as they took the next drive65 yards on 6 plays for their own touchdown to tie it up.

Notre Dame started to take over a bit after the CMU score, and put up two more touchdowns in unison with a couple of 3 and outs for the Irish defense. Audric Estime scored on a 17 yard run and Chris Tyree had a 76 yard touchdown reception to make it 21-7 Irish.

Notre Dame missed a 59 yard field goal and had a three and out which helped put CMU in good position to get back in the game — and that’s exactly what they did. Central put together a 9 play 83 yard drive to punch it in the endzone to make the game 21-14 seconds before halftime.

The Irish struck quick to start the second half with a 7 play 74 yard drive that ended with Sam Hartman sneaking one into the endzone. After that it was kicker time for both schools as CMU knocked in a field goal while the Irish matched with a pair of 3-pointers to make it 34-17 in the middle of the 4th quarter.

The Irish racked up a large number of penalties on the day, and many of them came at critical moments — on both offense and defense. There was a 72 yard Audric Estime touchdown that was called back due to a holding call on Holden Staes that he absolutely did — but didn’t have to.

Thanks to some big runs late from Estime, Holden Staes got a god stat with a 4 yard touchdown pass from Hartman to make the game 41-17.

Another big issue for the Irish was good old-fashioned tackling and filling the running lanes. It wasn’t a great day for Notre Dame football, but again, it’s a win that has them 4-0 going into next week against Ohio State.

Sam Hartman was 16-26 for 330 yards and 3 touchdowns before his day ended. Audric Estime ran for a career high 176 yards and one touchdown.

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