Notre Dame Football: 3 takeaways from ugly win over Toledo

If you’re a Notre Dame football fan and you didn’t feel like springing for a Peacock subscription to watch the game on the streaming service on Saturday, you probably feel pretty smart.

Paying to watch Notre Dame struggle against Toledo and nearly lose at home is almost as bad as buying a pay-per-view boxing match and having it end in a TKO 30 seconds in. It was just a waste of money and the Notre Dame fans who did pay for the stream are probably second-guessing why they made the decision to do so.

Notre Dame was down 16-14 at halftime and then came out in the second half and looked sluggish again. The Irish did kick a field goal to finally take a 17-16 lead and then scored a touchdown on a Tyler Buchner dump-off to Chris Tyree to make it 24-16, but Toledo just wouldn’t go away.

The Rockets scored back-to-back touchdowns to make it 29-24 and the Irish were on the ropes before Jack Coan bounced back to lead the game-winning touchdown drive.

What’d we learn from this ugly near-upset loss by Notre Dame?

3. Notre Dame needs to get Kyren Williams going

Two games, two sub-80-yard rushing performances by Kyren Williams. And this isn’t necessarily his fault; he just couldn’t get going against Toledo.

Williams got off to a strong start on his first six carries, averaging nearly 10 yards per touch, but on his next 10 carries, he was sitting around the 2.0 yards per touch mark.

Through two games, there’s some concern that Williams is having a sophomore slump type of season and the offensive line isn’t opening the holes that it has in the past few years. Things need to be addressed in the running game if the Irish want to make a run at the playoff.