Notre Dame Reaches College Football Playoff Quarterfinals After Overtaking Indiana

No. 7 Notre Dame shut down No. 10 Indiana’s high-powered offense and ended the Hoosiers’ dream season with a 27-17 victory in the College Football Playoff debut at 12 teams.

The victory sends the Irish to the quarterfinals of the Sugar Bowl playoffs against No. 2 Georgia. Notre Dame dominated for much of the game. Indiana scored 14 points in the final 90 seconds after the Irish took a 24-point lead.

Hosting the first round of the playoffs in South Bend as the higher seed, the Fighting Irish dominated the Hoosiers with 193 rushing yards to take advantage of frigid temperatures that slowed both passing games.

With a stunning start – a 98-yard touchdown run by Jeremiah Love in the first quarter that shattered the previous playoff record for longest carry – the Irish proved they could run on Indiana’s defense, which is entered the playoffs as the only team in the Bowl. The subdivision would have allowed less than 1,000 ground yards.

Notre Dame finished with two scores on 5.5 yards per carry. Love had 108 yards on 13.5 yards per carry, while Jadarian Price and Aneyas Williams combined for 56 yards on 15 carries.

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Indiana’s pass rush bothered quarterback Riley Leonard, who struggled to push the ball downfield outside of a 44-yard gain to Jordan Faison that set up the final score. Our Lady. Leonard finished 23 of 32 for 201 yards with two combined scores.

Indiana’s Kurtis Rourke went 20 of 33 for 215 yards with two touchdowns and an interception. The Hoosiers entered Friday night averaging 9.7 yards per attempt with an FBS-best quarterback efficiency rating of 179.1.

Overall, Indiana finished with 278 yards on 61 plays, with much of that acreage due to the game already being decided.

The Irish have now won 11 in a row since an inexplicable loss to Northern Illinois in September. This year’s team is the fifth in program history to win 12 games, joining 2018, 2012, 1989 and 1988.

The loss ends what had been a remarkable season for Indiana and new coach Curt Cignetti. After never winning more than nine games in a season in program history, the Hoosiers went 11-1 in the regular season to earn consensus national coach of the year honors by Cignetti.

But while Indiana scored at least 30 points 10 times, the offense came up empty in games against Michigan, Ohio State and the Irish. The Hoosiers averaged 3.9 yards per game in those three games, compared to 7.2 yards per game against every other team on their schedule.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Notre Dame beats Indiana in first round of College Football Playoff