ND FOOTBALL: Notre Dame outlasts UNC in offensive shootout

Oct. 31—SOUTH BEND — North Carolina came into Saturday's game ranked in the top 20 nationally in both total offense and scoring offense. The Tar Heels and quarterback Sam Howell looked the part of an offensive juggernaut against a Fighting Irish defense playing without safety Kyle Hamilton in the secondary. UNC dropped 34 points and 564 total yards of offense in the contest.

That type of offensive output is usually good enough to win most games, but in the one played at Notre Dame Stadium on the eve of Halloween, Irish running back Kyren Williams and the rest of the Notre Dame offense slashed through UNC's defense for most of the night as well.

Williams had 199 yards rushing and a touchdown to compliment the near perfect offensive performance from the home team — 44 points and 523 total yards — in the 44-34 victory over the Tar Heels.

"Offensively, we did a lot of good things," Notre Dame head coach Brian Kelly said. "We had a lot of great balance on the offense with running the football and throwing it. Defensively, that's a really tough team to defend. It wasn't our best night defensively. We have to coach a little bit better in terms of communication and with some other things that happened out there. ... But I love this team's grit, and I love the fact that they continue to get better each week."

Coming into the game, it seemed Notre Dame's new up-tempo style of play on offense, combined with a bad UNC defense, could become a perfect storm for the Irish on Saturday night, and that's exactly how things played out.

The Irish and Tar Heels went back-and-forth for the duration of the game, but Notre Dame gained the first lead of the contest after a well-orchestrated seven-play, 41-yard drive that was setup by a 52-yard punt return by Williams.

After driving inside the 10, backup quarterback Tyler Buchner tossed a screen pass out to wide receiver Avery Davis for a seven-yard touchdown connection to put the Irish up 7-0 with just over three minutes in the first quarter.

UNC would quickly answer with an eight-play, 81-yard drive that saw Tennessee transfer running back Ty Chandler reach for the pylon and score from three yards out to tie the game at seven early in the second quarter.

It was the first of four touchdown drives that went 75 yards or more for UNC during the game. Howell did a solid job of keeping the Irish defense off balance after fielding success both on the ground and through the air. Howell ended the night with 341 yards passing and a touchdown, while also rushing for 101 yards and a score.

"Sam Howell. What a warrior he is," Kelly said. "I talked to him after the game, and he's just a class act. We hit him a lot, and he laid it on the line. ... He's pretty special. Three-hundred and forty-one yards passing and another 100 yards rushing. A pretty amazing performance from him."

After both Howell and Coan led each offense on field goal-scoring drives to tie it at 10 a piece with just over three minutes until half, Notre Dame had one more scoring drive left in it before the break.

The Irish drove 75 yards in just two minutes to regain the lead following a 21-yard strike from Coan to wide receiver Kevin Austin Jr. in the corner of the end zone. That score allowed the Irish to head into the locker room up 17-13.

In the second half, the offensive fireworks grew even larger with a combined 48 points scored between both offenses.

The Irish and Tar Heels each orchestrated a touchdown drive within the first two minutes and 37 seconds of the second half. An eye-opening 53-yard touchdown run by Chandler for UNC was later overshadowed by a 21-yard TD scamper from Coan that helped the Irish regain the lead.

"He's right now thinking he touched 19 (miles per hour) on the GPS," joked Kelly of Coan's speed on the run. "He's feeling pretty good about himself right now."

"Not until the very end," added Coan when asked when he knew he'd score. "I don't take anything for granted when I run, and I couldn't believe I was still going. It was a lot of fun."

The rushing touchdowns continued, but this time it was freshman Logan Diggs scoring from one yard away — his first career score — to put Notre Dame ahead by 11 late in the third quarter.

The Tar Heels would cut that lead to four after Howell found wide receiver Antoine Green quarantined down the left sideline for what would be a 33-yard touchdown.

UNC's defense needed just one stop to put the ball back in the hands of Howell and give the Tar Heels an opportunity to get back on top. Unfortunately for North Carolina head coach Mack Brown and his defensive unit, one of the best running backs in the country had some more magic left in him across the line of scrimmage.

On the first play of the ensuing Irish drive at their own nine-yard line, Williams took a hand-off and encountered heavy traffic in the trenches. The junior somehow managed to cut back to green grass on the left side, then hurled a nasty stiff arm toward UNC linebacker Tomon Fox before going off to the races. Led by blocks from Davis and tight end Michael Mayer downfield, Williams made it 91 yards to the end zone to put the Irish back up 11.

The spectacular run highlighted what would be a career-high performance on the ground for the tailback.

"I knew I was going to score as soon as I stiff-armed (Fox)," Williams said. "At first, that run was very cloudy. Something threw me off to where I just looked backside and saw nothing but green. I knew once I got to that corner, I had to get gone. There was no denying me getting into the end zone."

From that point, the closest the Tar Heels would get was 41-34 with 7:23 remaining. The following drive by Notre Dame saw the offense bleed five minutes and 46 seconds off the clock to setup the game-icing field goal with 1:37 remaining.

Jonathan Doerer was 3-for-3 on the night, but his biggest came from 21 yards out to put the Irish up two possessions to permanently end North Carolina's hopes for victory.

Notre Dame (7-1) earned their third win in a row and continue to look more and more efficient on offense. They'll have a prime chance to keep up that high rate of scoring efficiency against struggling Navy (2-6) in South Bend at 3:30 p.m. next Saturday.

Evan Lepak can be reached at evan.lepak@goshennews.com or 574-533-2151, ext. 240326. Follow him on Twitter @EvanMPLepak.