By the Numbers: Notre Dame Football Outscores Wisconsin 28-3 After Halftime

Notre Dame opened the season with a 41-13 win over Wisconsin at Lambeau Field in a game that looked a lot closer than the final score suggested for a good portion of the night. The Irish overcame a sluggish start that saw them head into halftime up just three, 13-10, despite entering the contest as a three touchdown favorite. In the end, though, the Irish pulled away and covered the spread with room to spare.

CJ Carr went 19-of-29 for 239 yards and two touchdowns with no interceptions. A clean line, but he also did not complete a single pass that traveled more than 19 yards in the air. The Irish were 0-for-3 on throws of 20-plus yards, and 141 of their 239 receiving yards came after the catch – 59 percent of the passing offense was blockers and ball carriers, not the throw. That isn’t the kind of night that will keep Carr in the Heisman conversation very long.

Notre Dame won by 28 and deserved to. But this was a defense-and-fourth-quarter win disguised as a blowout. It was 13-10 at halftime. Wisconsin ran it 31 times for 67 yards and never sniffed the end zone on the ground – their lone touchdown came on a busted coverage. Aneyas Williams carried 20 times, and half his production came in the fourth quarter after the game was already decided. The passing game will almost certainly be an area of focus this week for offensive coordinator Mike Denbrock and the Irish offense.

Notre Dame’s second half rushing success also coincided with a change along the offensive line. Styles Prescod got the start at right guard, but was replaced in the second half by Sullivan Absher.

Here’s how the numbers tell the story of Notre Dame’s first win of 2026.

Key Stats

0 – Notre Dame completions on passes thrown 20 or more yards downfield. Three attempts, all deep left, all incomplete. The longest completed air distance all night was Micah Gilbert’s 18-yard catch in the second quarter.

141 – Receiving yards after the catch, out of 239 total. Carr’s actual air yardage on 19 completions: 98. Every explosive play the Irish generated was manufactured after the throw, not by it.

5 – Combined air yards on Notre Dame’s two touchdown passes. James Flanigan’s three-yard score traveled one yard past the line. Nolan James Jr.’s 28-yard touchdown was a four-yard throw and 24 yards of running.

67 – Wisconsin rushing yards on 31 carries (2.2 per attempt). Abu Sama got 15 carries for 49 yards. Colton Joseph netted three yards on 12 attempts. This is the number that won the game.

45 – Notre Dame rushing yards through three quarters, on 20 carries. That’s 2.3 per rush against a Wisconsin front that was on the field all night. The Irish then ran it 12 times for 66 in the fourth.

0-for-6 – Notre Dame’s third-down conversion rate in the first half. The second half: 3-for-3.

8:38 – Wisconsin’s third-quarter drive that produced three points. Fourteen plays, 47 yards, starting at the Wisconsin 35 and dying at the Notre Dame 18. The Badgers held the ball for 10:09 of that quarter. Notre Dame scored 14 points in 4:51.

0 – Wisconsin red-zone touchdowns. Two trips, two field goals. Notre Dame went 4-for-4 with three touchdowns.

14 – Points off turnovers for Notre Dame. Zero for Wisconsin. D.J. McKinney’s 55-yard pick-six and Kahanu Kia’s recovery of a muffed kickoff at the Wisconsin 13, which became a touchdown four plays later.

233 – Yards on Notre Dame’s final three offensive possessions, all touchdowns. Drives of 70, 75, and 88 yards. Twenty-nine plays, 15:03 of clock, three scores.

4 – Notre Dame penalties, all of them in the first half. Four for 41 yards, then nothing after halftime.

143 – All-purpose yards for Aneyas Williams. Ninety rushing, 11 receiving, 42 on two kickoff returns, and two rushing touchdowns in his first career start.

Milestones, Firsts, and Career Highs

Jordan Faison hit 100 career receptions. His 30-yard grab in the second quarter was the 100th catch of his career, a number only 23 Notre Dame players had reached before him. He sits 23rd in program history with 1,399 career receiving yards. Saturday’s line: four catches, 81 yards, eight targets.

Spencer Porath’s first Irish field goal was a 52-yarder. The kick was the third time in his career he’s connected from 50-plus and the first field goal he’s made in a Notre Dame uniform. Twenty-five kicks from that range have gone in for the program, and Porath is the 11th Irish kicker to account for one. He was 2-for-2 on the night.

D.J. McKinney’s first interception in an Irish uniform went 55 yards the other way. It was the fifth pick of his career and his second pick-six — the first came in 2024 at Colorado. It also kept a streak alive. Notre Dame has scored on an interception return in six consecutive seasons now, one better than the 2004-2008 run and the longest such stretch the program has put together this century. Ten of those pick-sixes have come since the start of 2024. Against Wisconsin specifically, this was the fourth in series history, and three of the four have happened in the last two meetings.

CJ Carr’s touchdown streak reached 13 games, a run that dates to the first start of his career. Saturday was the 10th time he’s thrown more than one in a game.

Aneyas Williams recorded his second career multi-rushing-touchdown game. Both have come in Notre Dame’s last two games – the other was at Stanford on 11/29/25.

A lot of players got their first snap or first stat line:

• Will Black, Styles Prescod, and Aneyas Williams all made their first career starts
• James Flanigan: career reception and career touchdown, on a two-catch, 10-yard, one-score night
• Nolan James Jr: career reception and career touchdown, with a career-high four catches for 67 yards
• Kedren Young: career reception
• Kahanu Kia: career fumble recovery
• Rodney Dunham and Brandon Logan: career appearance and career tackle
• Thomas Davis Jr., Preston Fryzel, and Ebenezer Ewetade: career appearance

Career highs elsewhere: Jayden Sanders with two pass breakups, Micah Gilbert with three receptions.

Positive Trends

The run defense was the best thing on the field. Wisconsin ran it 31 times and got 67 yards. Sama averaged 3.3. Nobody broke anything longer than eight yards. Notre Dame added six tackles for loss and two sacks, with Boubacar Traore posting a sack, two TFLs, and a quarterback hurry on just three tackles.

No red-zone touchdowns allowed. Wisconsin got inside the 20 twice and kicked twice. On a night when the Badgers moved the ball reasonably well between the 20s – 284 total yards, 16 first downs – that’s the difference between 13 total points and a much closer contest.

Notre Dame finished with a closing kick. The last three offensive possessions covered 70, 75, and 88 yards and all ended in the end zone. The 88-yard drive took 12 plays and 6:06 and ended a 41-13 game the way you want it to end.

Turnover margin, and what came of it. One interception, one fumble recovery, 14 points. Carr didn’t throw one, and his first-quarter strip-sack was recovered by Styles Prescod.

Drayk Bowen led the team with nine tackles, with Adon Shuler and Jaiden Ausberry at seven each.

Negative Trends

The first quarter was ugly. Notre Dame’s opening drive: false start, incomplete deep ball, three-yard run, a Wisconsin offside, a strip-sack on Carr for minus-eight, and a blocked punt. Three plays, minus-five yards. Wisconsin took over at the Notre Dame 37 and kicked a field goal.

The run game did nothing until the fourth quarter. Twenty carries for 45 yards through three quarters. Williams’ 20-carry, 90-yard night looks fine on the surface; 63 of those yards came on 10 fourth-quarter carries.

Two personal fouls in the second quarter, one of which handed Wisconsin its only touchdown. Armel Mukam’s 15-yarder turned a five-yard Sama run into a first down at the Notre Dame 28. One play later, Colton Joseph hit Malachi Coleman for 28 and the score was tied. Bryce Young’s personal foul on a punt return backed the Irish up to their own 12 later in the quarter.

Third downs in the first half: 0-for-6. Notre Dame scored 13 first-half points and needed a muffed kickoff and a 52-yard field goal to get there.

Punting. Three punts, 108 yards, a 36.0 average and 35.0 net – dragged down by the blocked 21-yarder. Jasper Scaife’s two clean punts averaged 43.5.

Team Notes

• Attendance at Lambeau Field: 75,939. Sunny, 72 degrees.
• The win pushes the all-time series to 10-6-2 in Notre Dame’s favor. On neutral fields, the Irish are 3-2 against the Badgers.
• Freeman and Luke Fickell had never coached opposite each other before Saturday. Four Notre Dame staffers worked for Fickell at Cincinnati: Freeman, Mike Denbrock, Gino Guidugli, and Mike Brown. Going the other direction, Chris Ash, Charlie Partridge, and Joe Rudolph all have Wisconsin on their résumés.
• The series has been close to dormant. This was just the second Notre Dame–Wisconsin game since 1964.
• Neutral-site openers have been kind to the Irish. They’re 8-1 in them, and the last seven straight have gone Notre Dame’s way dating to 1989.
• Thirteen Shamrock Series games have now been played, and this was the first used as a season opener — the previous 12 all landed somewhere in weeks 2 through 5. Lambeau became the ninth venue to host one. Freeman has yet to lose in the format, at 3-0.
• Against Big Ten opponents, the all-time ledger now reads 320-170-22.
• Saturday was one of 19 games the Irish have played in NFL stadiums since 2016, split between 11 regular-season contests and eight in the postseason. No FBS program has appeared in more distinct NFL venues since 2014 than Notre Dame’s 18.
• Captains for the coin toss: Jordan Faison, Adon Shuler, CJ Carr, Drayk Bowen. The Irish won the toss and elected to defer.

Final Word

Notre Dame won a season opener by 28 points against a Big Ten team, on a neutral field, with a defense that gave up 2.2 yards a carry and zero red-zone touchdowns. That’s a good night. The pick-six streak, the closing three touchdown drives, the fourth-quarter ground game – all positive signs worth feeling good about.

But the passing game only worked in one direction, and it wasn’t down the field. Zero completions past 19 air yards. Fifty-nine percent of the receiving production coming after the catch. Two touchdown passes that combined for five yards of actual air distance. Wisconsin, for what it’s worth, hit a 28-yard touchdown pass on a night it managed 284 yards.

Against Rice next week, none of that should matter. Against the teams on the back half of this schedule, it will. The question isn’t whether Carr can play – he was efficient, protected the ball, and took what was there. It’s whether Notre Dame ever asked for anything else, or whether it couldn’t get it.

That’s the thing to watch. Everything else about Saturday held up.