Notre Dame vs Purdue: No. 3 Irish win 49-10 as CJ Carr accounts for four touchdowns

No. 3 Notre Dame beat Purdue 49-10 at Ross-Ade Stadium in West Lafayette on Saturday. Quarterback CJ Carr threw three touchdown passes and ran for a fourth, and linebacker Drayk Bowen scored his first career touchdown on a 15-yard fumble return, according to the Associated Press recap on ESPN. The Fighting Irish are 4-0 and have won 14 straight. Purdue fell to 1-3 with its third loss in a row.

That is the result behind the "Notre Dame vs Purdue" searches this afternoon. The short version: the game was over by halftime, and the second half says more about what Notre Dame still has to clean up than the final score does.

How it went

The turning point came early. Purdue tried a fake punt on its second possession near midfield and was stopped just short of a first down. Coach Barry Odom said afterward his team came up "six inches short," AP reported. Four plays later Carr hit Micah Gilbert for the opening touchdown.

Notre Dame scored four more times before halftime: a 22-yard run by Aneyas Williams, a 1-yard Carr keeper, Bowen's scoop-and-score after a Bryce Young strip sack of Ryan Browne, and a 3-yard Carr pass to Nolan James Jr. with 29 seconds left. Notre Dame led 35-0 at the break. Carr added a 2-yard touchdown pass to Cooper Flanagan early in the fourth quarter before leaving the game, and backup Noah Grubbs threw a 4-yard score to Matt Jeffery.

By quarter, per the CBS Sports scoreboard, Notre Dame scored 7, 28, 0 and 14. Purdue scored 0, 0, 3 and 7.

The numbers

	Notre Dame	Purdue
Total yards	444	218
Rushing yards	177	40
Yards per carry	5.5	1.3
Passing yards	267	178
Yards per pass	10.3	4.8
Third downs	3 of 8	8 of 18
Turnovers	1	1
Possession	24:44	35:16

Carr finished 14 of 22 for 237 yards, three touchdowns and his first interception of the season, according to the ESPN box score. Williams ran 14 times for 80 yards, and the 177 rushing yards were a season high for the Irish, AP noted. For Purdue, Browne went 18 of 28 for 111 yards, and the Boilermakers ran 31 times for 40 yards.

What the final score hides

Purdue held the ball for more than 35 minutes and converted eight third downs, yet averaged 4.8 yards a pass and 1.3 a carry. It had the ball a lot and went nowhere with it. Notre Dame needed only 24 minutes of possession to put up 444 yards, which is the real measure of the gap between these teams.

The second half is the caveat. After halftime Notre Dame won only 14-10, and AP's recap said coach Marcus Freeman will have plenty to correct from a far less efficient second half. That matters more than usual for a No. 3 team, because poll voters and the playoff committee will be comparing it with other unbeaten contenders.

For bettors, the closing DraftKings line published by ESPN had Notre Dame as a 27.5-point favorite with a total of 57.5. The 39-point margin cleared the spread comfortably. The total is the quirk: the game sat at 49-3, and under the number, until Purdue backup Evans Chuba threw a 14-yard touchdown pass to Bisi Owens with six seconds left. That extra point made it 59 total points and pushed the game over.

The rivalry and what's next

Notre Dame has now won 11 straight in the series and has outscored Purdue 171-47 over the last three meetings, AP reported. The Irish will start October unbeaten for the first time since 2021.

Notre Dame travels to North Carolina next Saturday. North Carolina lost 28-20 at Clemson on September 19. Purdue visits Illinois for the Cannon Trophy game, and Illinois is coming off a 42-19 loss at Ohio State. Follow the rest of today's games on our college football scoreboard and next week's slate on the college football schedule.

Sources: Associated Press recap via ESPN, ESPN box score, CBS Sports. Betting lines are DraftKings closing numbers as published by ESPN, shown for information only.