Notre Dame Buries Rice 52-0 Behind Four CJ Carr Touchdowns
Notre Dame was on the board 14 seconds into the game, and the offense had nothing to do with it. Boubacar Traore returned a fumble 24 yards for the score, and Rice never found a way to get that back. The Irish won 52-0.
The rest of the first half was CJ Carr's. He threw 25 yards to Jordan Faison to make it 14-0, then 11 yards to Faison again for 21-0 late in the first quarter. Nolan James Jr. scored twice from a yard out in the second quarter, and Carr hit Micah Gilbert from 39 yards for 42-0 before the break. Cooper Flanagan caught a two-yarder early in the third (Carr's fourth touchdown pass), and Spencer Porath's 36-yard field goal closed the scoring with 4:21 left in that quarter. Nobody scored in the fourth.
The box score is hard to look at if you are a Rice fan. The Owls lost three fumbles, finished with 132 total yards (64 passing, 68 rushing), and never got on the board. Notre Dame had 478, with 360 passing yards (Carr was 16 of 20 for 253 of them) and 118 on the ground. Take away the fumble return and it is still 45-0, so the turnovers were not the whole story. They were just the start.
Notre Dame moves to 2-0 and Rice drops to 1-1.
For fantasy, Carr's 34.1 points is a season high and the best number in this game, and he has six touchdown passes through two weeks. Faison also found the end zone twice, and James scored two as well. If you were hunting for Irish offense, there was plenty to go around.