Notre Dame’s offense too much for Arkansas to handle, pummel Razorbacks 56-13

Notre Dame’s offense covered up any faults the defense could show Saturday, pummeling Arkansas on the road 56-13.

“As I told the group, I'm extremely proud of just the way they prepared,” Marcus Freeman said. “I was able to really kind of block out a lot of noise and going to work. And that's both sides of the ball, right? The ability to handle success is a challenge and the ability to handle criticism is always a challenge. I'm proud of both sides of the ball, really being able to do that, handle praise and handle criticism. 

CJ Carr dissected the Razorbacks throwing 22-30 for 354 yards and four touchdowns, and Jeremiyah Love added in four touchdowns himself to secure their second win.

You thought the Notre Dame defense was bad? 

The Razorbacks are worse. 

The Irish offense, which has shown the ability to be elite through three games, was on another level against the lowly Arkansas defense. 

In the first half, Notre Dame put up 42 points with 420 total points of offense. At that point it doesn’t matter what holes the Irish defense still has — it’ll be hard for any team to keep up with that. 

Carr orchestrated the offense to six touchdown drives on all six of their possessions in the first 30 minutes. The signal caller finished the half going 16-22 for 294 yards and four touchdown strikes. Carr’s first half marked the highest passing total through 30 minutes for an Irish quarterback since 2008. 

“For him, it's just he's got to compete against himself, right?,” Freeman said. “How does he get better? After three really good performances, he's getting better. I challenge him, how do you continuously get better in terms of your routine, your preparation and he prepares his tail off. That's a reflection of what you see. I mean, he's a talented individual, but he prepares his butt off, and he's playing with a lot of confidence right now.” 

Love also starred in the first half — scoring four touchdowns with 126 all-purpose yards — and he was active from the start. 

After the Irish defense was able to get off the field after only allowing a field goal —  despite allowing a pair of explosive plays — on Arkansas’ opening drive, the junior back went to work. 

Love exploded through the line for a gain of 16 to move the chains on a third and long, finishing the drive with a punishing one-yard run to give the Irish a 7-3 lead. 

He followed that up on the team’s next drive after Carr’s arm got the Irish offense down the field in a hurry. The quarterback hit Eli Raridon and Will Pauling for big gains to get into Arkansas territory, and later found Love out of the backfield, with Love spinning by a defender for his second touchdown. 

Arkansas’ offense was able to move the ball against the still spotty Irish defense, rushing for 122 yards in the first half. Most of those yards came in the Razorback’s third drive, with offensive lineman Shaq McRoy plunging a handoff into the endzone for a big-man score. 

The opposing touchdown did nothing to affect Carr and the offense, once again going 75 yards in just six plays for another touchdown. This time Carr found Will Pauling wide open at the door step of the endzone for the receiver’s first score at Notre Dame. 

The Irish offense finished the first half with 14 explosive plays, which marked the most by an opposing non-conference team on the road in over 20 years. 

Notre Dame’s defense showed some marginal improvement against the high-flying Arkansas offense. Coming into the game, the Razorbacks averaged a touch over 30 points in the first half, but they weren't as effective Saturday, putting up just 13. 

“I think it was the ability to not give up so many explosive plays, right?,” Freeman said.  There were a couple of explosive plays that Arkansas converted. They're a good offense, right? As they're coming into this game, they're top five in the country. I think it was the ability to say, OK, we can't give up the explosive. 

The Irish were able to force two quick three and outs, two field goals and a forced fumble to keep Arkansas and Taylen Green at bay. Boubacar Traore came up big in the second quarter, recording a sack and bringing down Green at the line on third down to hold the Razorbacks to just a field goal. 

Love added in two more touchdowns in the second quarter, one of those coming through the air as Carr lofted a pass across the field, finding Love who jogged down the field for a 34-yard score. The other was a vintage Love run, with the back sending a defender to the ground en route to the endzone and his fourth score of the half, giving Notre Dame a 35-13 lead. 

After Arkansas’ Raylen Sharpe’s fumble late in the second quarter — forced by Adon Shuler — the Irish only needed 15 seconds to find pay dirt. This time it was Jadarian Price, who caught a short pass from Carr and left every defender chasing him for a 35-yard touchdown. 

A 42-13 halftime lead led much of the Razorback faithful heading for the exits. 

They had good reason to as Arkansas couldn’t get anything going offensively, and were caught sleeping on special teams on the Irish’s opening series. After initially forcing a three and out, Jordan Faison took a fake punt and hit a wide open Malachi Fields through the air for a 40-yard gain. 

The drive ultimately stalled for the first time all day after a Carr intentional grounding penalty, but the Irish made up for it on the next drive as Price exploded into the endzone for a 16-yard touchdown, his second of the game. 

With a 49-13 lead as the fourth quarter began, the starters day was done after three quarters for the second week in a row. 

Notre Dame will return to South Bend next Saturday for a matchup with Boise State at 3:30 p.m.