Notre Dame rolled into West Lafayette as a 27.5-point favorite. With convincing wins over Wisconsin, Rice, and Michigan, and Purdue's defense struggling, Notre Dame was expected to win big and improve their record to 4-0. The Irish did not disappoint.
The game started off slow, with both teams going (mostly) 3-and-out on their first drives. Notre Dame got their first TD with 4:07 remaining in the quarter on a CJ Carr pass to Michael Gilbert, who is emerging as the big-play-threat WR in the offense.
The Irish poured it on in the second quarter. ND TD-drives of 86 yards and 85 yards started the second quarter and showed that Purdue had little answer to the ND offense. Aneyas Williams scored on a 22-yd TD run and was not penalized by the "No Fun League" officials, while CJ Carr channeled his inner-Riley Leonard for a QB draw on the second TD. A forced fumble by KVA resulted in a 15-yard scoop-and-score for Daryk Bowen, and the rout was on. ND got the ball back with 1:48 on the clock on Purdue's 49-yard-line and needed less than a minute to get the final TD of the half, bringing the score to 35-0 at the intermission.
Most of the Purdue fans left Ross-Ade Stadium at halftime, though they still had more fans than did USC when they played Fresno St in the Colosseum. The second half was mostly garbage-time play, and though the starters were not pulled by either team until early in the 4th quarter, ND clearly took their foot off the gas. ND put up 14 points to Purdue's 10, leaving the final score at 49-10.
