We’ve made it to week three of the Notre Dame football season, and Notre Dame plays North Carolina State on the road this Saturday. This week I’m going to look back at the 2017 meeting between the two teams.

Notre Dame and North Carolina State have met a total of three times, with Notre Dame winning once, and NC State winning twice. Notre Dame’s largest margin of victory was 35-14 in 2017, and NC State’s largest margin of victory was 28-6 in 2003. Notre Dame has an all-time record of 940-335-42 (.730), and NC State has an all-time record of 632-596-55 (.514). While NC State has 11 conference championships, Notre Dame has 11 national championships.

Today I’m going to share an excerpt from Jessica Smetana’s game recap as we look back at the game that broke NC State’s win streak.

The good, the bad, and the Irish: Sweet, Sweet Revenge

There are few things quite as satisfying as waking up on Sunday morning after a nice, well-fought victory for the Notre Dame Fighting Irish. The sun feels a little warmer. Mimosas taste a little bit fizzier. National sports media personalities are a little bit less annoying.

The N.C. State Wolfpack was by far the best team the Irish have faced this season (besides UGA) and the Irish handled the Wolfpack masterfully. NC State may have won the battle in 2016, but Notre Dame, it appears, has won the war. Nothing feels as good on a Sunday as sweet, sweet revenge.

Good

Josh Adams (again)

Look, I say this every week but it still isn’t getting old. Josh Adams is really, really good.

Josh Adams eclipses 1,000 yards on his 110th carry this season — fastest to reach 1,000 in school history...#BertschyBits#33Trucking

Notre Dame launched its Heisman campaign for Adams last week, which had me convinced that he was going to go down with a season ending freak injury during this game. Instead, we were treated to a 202 yard rushing week for Adams against a defense that hadn’t let up more than 80 yards to a single rusher all season.

It’s worth noting that Deon McIntosh’s 63 rushing yards finishes third behind Adams and Lamar Jackson (you know, the Heisman winner) for most rushing yards against the Wolfpack this season.

That’s a pretty solid outing for our run game and while we’re on the topic congrats to Brandon Wimbush for breaking Notre Dames record for most rushing touchdowns by a quarterback. He’s only six starts into the season and already breaking records!

Pick 6

NC State’s quarterback hadn’t thrown an interception all season. NC State’s quarterback threw a pick 6 directly to Julian Love on Saturday.

Nice.

Defense

So a fun thing to do is go to ESPN.com and click around on different statistics ‘til you find the ones that make your team look good. In a statistic called “defensive efficiency” has the Irish ranked 5th overall! But it doesn’t take some stat maneuvering to realize that our defense has completely flipped 180 degrees since 2016.

I can’t remember the last time I actually had confidence going into the fourth quarter that our defense could make a couple stops and run the clock out. TBH it was probably in 2015, but that seems like decades ago.

Bad

Blocked punt!

I was in a cab jam packed in traffic in New York City on the way to the local watering hole while the game started so you can only imagine my shock and surprise when I showed up at the bar, found a TV playing NBC (not an easy thing to do) and witnessed a very depressing special teams play.

Poor Tyler Newsome. NC State clearly has gotten the better of him these two years.

Punting against NC State. Like a recurring nightmare. Thank God they aren’t on the schedule next year.

INJURIES.

ABOUT LOST MY DAMN MIND WHEN WIMBUSH WALKED OUT LIMPING.

I really haven’t been the same sine 2014 when Notre Dame lost (actually beat) Florida State and then lost like 11 starters at once. I’m sure Wimbush is fine but I can’t be the only fan who was skeptical about him coming back into the game when the game felt just about over.

Irish

#33Trucking

Sooo.... this is the new #hashtag Heisman twitter campaign for Josh Adams. I’m not sure how I feel about it, mostly because it isn’t the catchiest hashtag I’ve ever heard. It definitely gives me #midwest #heartland #grit vibes though. #33Trucking makes me feel like I’m speeding down the off ramp at the Knute Rockne rest stop onto the Indiana Toll Road with a bag of beef jerky and a Monster energy listening to Bon Jovi deep cuts with the windows down.

It’s certainly better than most of the lame wedding hashtags that I’ve seen though. Maybe I’ll change my mind if someone sends me a hat.

Want to read more? Keep reading here.

Want to watch a game recap? Watch the ACC Digit Network highlights below:

Next week Notre Dame faces Central Michigan. Since there are no previous matchups to throwback to, I’ll look at a game from the Notre Dame-Michigan rivalry. Got any suggestions? Send them my way!

Cheers & GO IRISH!