SOUTH BEND, Ind. — The more football Indiana’s offense played against Notre Dame, the greater the sense of inevitability grew.
The 10th-seeded Hoosiers sputtered for much of Friday’s game in the College Football Playoff first round. Quarterback Kurtis Rourke turned in an uncharacteristically erratic night, the seventh-seeded Fighting Irish completely locked down IU’s running game, and there weren’t any easy answers to fix the problems.
it ended in a 27-17 Notre Dame victory, in a contest that wasn’t as close as that score indicates. IU (11-2) racked up 126 yards of offense and scored two touchdowns in the last five minutes of the game, when the Fighting Irish (11-2) showed more vanilla defensive looks with the game already in hand.
“I thought we actually did a pretty good job of protection for most of the game. They made it really challenging on you to get completions and get (Rourke) in rhythm,” Indiana offensive coordinator Mike Shanahan said after the game. “Credit to Notre Dame’s defensive backs. That’s a really good unit, one of the better units we faced all year long. And we weren’t able to win some of those 50/50 contested catches that we knew we were going to have to win a good amount of those in this game to have success.”
Rourke got off to a tough start, one that swung momentum firmly towards the Irish and proved difficult for Indiana to overcome. He went 1 for 6 on pass attempts in the first quarter, and threw a backbreaking interception in the red zone — just one play after completing a clutch throw downfield to Elijah Sarratt on third and long.
Notre Dame took over backed up against its own goal line, but then Jeremiyah Love burst through the IU defense for a 98-yard touchdown.
That 14-point swing forced Indiana to play from behind very quickly. The Hoosiers trailed in just two games all year: a road win over a 5-7 Michigan State team, and the loss at Ohio State.
“It was just man-to-man coverage. Just trying to get them just with a tempo play. And just threw it a little bit too far and the defender made a nice play,” Rourke said. “But didn’t need to make that throw in that situation.”
Rourke hasn’t typically started games slowly. He needed some time to settle in during IU’s game at Michigan State, his first game back after his thumb injury against Nebraska. But once he got his rhythm and game timing back after a quarter or so, he and Indiana absolutely dominated the Spartans.
Otherwise, the Oakville, Ontario, Canada native usually gets off to a fast start, even if it’s not on the opening possession. He couldn’t get much going in his first series against Michigan, but he got things rolling on the next drive which finished in the end zone.
Even in that Ohio State game, when the Hoosiers offense struggled for most of the game, the Ohio transfer still led them down the field on a strong opening touchdown drive.
But on Friday, the turnaround didn’t come until it was too late.
Rourke was more than willing to accept the blame for IU’s offensive performance.
“I just didn’t play in rhythm myself,” he said. “My eyes weren’t in the best spots sometimes, and it’s easier to play when you’re in rhythm. And I didn’t help myself that way. And Notre Dame definitely has some great players and schemed well. But I feel like I hurt the offense more than they stopped us.”
This wasn’t Rourke’s worst statistical performance of the season. Even before the garbage time resurgence, his numbers still eclipsed what he posted against Ohio State. And after the comeback attempt, the Canadian finished 20 for 33 for 215 yards, two touchdowns, and the interception — a more respectable stat line than Rourke earned for most of the game.
He remained under 100 passing yards on the night until the two touchdown drives in the game’s final five minutes. He appeared out of sync for most of the game, missing on throws he hit all throughout the regular season and struggling to execute the RPO plays.
Rourke isn’t solely responsible for Notre Dame’s defensive success against those RPOs. Indiana couldn’t get the running game going enough, and the Irish got increasingly better at spotting those looks.
Overall, it was a rough offensive performance on the bright stage, by a team — an offense — that had handled nearly every spotlight shined on it this season.
“There were probably some pretty ordinary things that we normally would execute that we didn’t get done very well. I can remember Miles Cross coming wide open on a corner route. We overthrow him. There were things like that,” head coach Curt Cignetti said. “But they put the pressure on us. They have good players. And they won the line of scrimmage. They won the one-on-one match-ups on the perimeter. They affected the quarterback and they swarmed to the ball.”
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