Notre Dame won on Senior Day and it wasn’t close. An interception by the forgotten Nick Coleman on Florida State’s first series brought the ball deep into Seminole territory. From there, the Irish would score and the route was on inside a frigid Notre Dame Stadium.

Run Game Stepped Up (and On FSU)

The Irish really needed a strong performance from their offensive line and it got it with much more to boot. The offensive line responded with a bullying of Florida State for a season-high 365 yards while offering competent protection of Brandon Wimbush through the passing game.

On Senior Day, the Irish got a heck of a performance from Dexter Williams who scampered for 202 yards on 20 carries with a pair of touchdown runs. The night was summed up best by a 12-play drive that bled into the beginning of the 4th quarter with Notre Dame running the ball on each snap for 97 yards and the nail-in-the-coffin touchdown.

Wimbush Did His Job Well 

This wasn’t an easy spot for Brandon Wimbush to come in for the injured Ian Book but he rode the wave of early momentum and threw about 6 really beautiful passes, including a trio of touchdowns.

Wimbush did cool off a bit finishing with 130 yards on 12/25 while throwing 2 interceptions. However, he was potent with his legs as usual (68 yards) and played quite serviceable while the game was in doubt.

The Defense was Sleepy

In a way, it was actually a very 2018 performance for the Notre Dame defense. Florida State felt like it was getting some mojo going on the ground or connecting on some passes at times. And yet, they held the Seminoles to 4.1 YPP and largely kept the opponent in check.

FSU didn’t help themselves with numerous drops, though.

It was the type of game where Notre Dame really could’ve screwed down and made this a super ugly game but some penalties and nice plays from FSU continued drives just enough to be annoying.

Some Timely Plays

For most of this game, Notre Dame didn’t have a large edge in yards and yet the scoreboard read something different. The difference was that Notre Dame made some very timely plays while Florida State simply could not keep driving long enough to make it close, including failing on 4th down on 3 separate occasions.

Notre Dame was scorching hot on 3rd down in the first half which was a huge part of building an early lead.

10 Wins!

Hey, the Irish finally have back-to-back 10-win seasons for the first time since 1993.