It took a touchdown with 2:45 remaining in Saturday night’s game for No. 4 Notre Dame to seal its win over Northwestern, 31–21. For the Irish, a brutal November is now one quarter of the way complete.
Going up against Alabama-LSU, Notre Dame-Northwestern was never going to be the more thrilling of the evening matchups, but this one erred toward lackluster. It wasn’t particularly messy, nor was it especially exciting or even suspenseful. Notre Dame played fine, putting up big offensive numbers but never quite getting enough of a cushion over Northwestern, which couldn’t quite put up the defensive effort needed to keep the Irish contained.