Notre Dame Football: 3 takeaways from ugly win over Louisville in Week 7

Notre Dame football was able to overwhelm Louisville in the trenches, in route to a low-scoring and ugly affair in South Bend.

In the last meeting between these two teams, there was a clear emphasis on the ground game. Neither quarterback in last year’s contest threw for 200 yards and both teams ran for a combined 89 rushes and 450-plus yards in a 35-17 win for the Irish in 2019.

Both teams would continue the strategy of running the football, as both teams ran the ball more than they had passed. Book threw the ball just 19 times as Notre Dame did just enough to win a rather underwhelming contest.

Looking to get a two possession lead, Notre Dame would  very questionably attempt a fake field goal on fourth-and-goal from the 13. As expected, the Irish would not convert and keep this game at a six-point contest.

Malik Cunningham would drive the Cardinals down the field to give them a shot, but a 52-yard field goal went short for Louisville, in an attempt to cut the deficit in half. Notre Dame would go up 6-0.

Louisville would come out of the second half with a ton of energy and momentum. Cunningham would make some big plays, including a fourth-and-3 conversion and a 29-yard pass to Jaylin Hawkins. Cunningham would throw a touchdown to end the drive and give Louisville the lead.

Louisville would attempt an onside kick and would recover, but would be called back for an illegal block, prior to the recovery.

Instead, it would be Ian Book with a fantastic run to give the Irish the lead.

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Notre Dame won this game exactly how they wanted to with dominating time of possession and draining Louisville up front. Constant run plays with Kyren Williams kept drives going and that was demoralizing for the Cardinals.

Coming into the game, Cunningham had an issue with turning the ball over. The junior had five interceptions heading into the contest. He didn’t have much of an issue with that in the first half as he only threw the ball 10 times and he had one pass of over 15 yards.

Even with his accuracy, Cunningham could never beat Notre Dame downfield and on many occasions and stalled when the Cardinals needed a big play.

Notre Dame’s discipline was on full display and their ability to limit penalties was another huge factor. Notre Dame was penalized just twice, as Louisville had the flag on the ground on eight separate occasions for 65 yards.

Notre Dame made big third down conversions on their final drive and was just enough to hold on to an ugly 12-7 win over Louisville.