Notre Dame Football: Report Card Grades for Purdue Game

Notre Dame picked up their third straight win to improve to 3-2 on the season after defeating Purdue in Lafayette, Ind. Notre Dame blasted Purdue 38-10 Saturday night.

Notre Dame jumped on Purdue just seconds in to the game when Tommy Rees connected with Michael Floyd for a 35-yard touchdown in the first minute of the game. A Jonas Gray touchdown late in the first quarter proved to be too much for Purdue to match and the Irish cruised to a victory over the next three quarters.

Notre Dame jumped out to a 21-0 lead before the Boilermakers were able to dent the scoreboard with a field goal. Purdue's lone touchdown came in the game's final minute with the game long decided.

Here is a quick report card on the Fighting Irish's offense, defense, special teams and coaching, as well as some overall analysis from the win.

McGuire is the national college football writer for Examiner.com. Follow his college football discussion on Google+ and Twitter. Become a fan of him on Facebook.

Offense

Notre Dame's pass and running offense moved the ball consistently from start to finish against the Boilermakers and never seemed to have too many problems. Most importantly, they avoided turning the ball over.

When all was said and done, Notre Dame had 36 first downs and 551 yards of total offense in over 32 minutes of possession time.

Quarterback Tommy Rees was 24-of-39 for 262 yards and three touchdowns. Running back Cierre Wood rushed for 192 yards and a touchdown. Jonas Gray nearly had a 100-yard rushing performance as well, rushing for 93 yards and a touchdown.

Michael Floyd led all receivers with 137 yards on 12 catches and recorded a touchdown reception.

Defense

Notre Dame's defense was not strenuously tested against a weak Purdue offense, but they did everything they needed to do.

Good defenses keep their weaker opponents from ever feeling as though they can regain the momentum in a game, and Purdue was never able to sustain much life against Notre Dame's defense Saturday night.

Purdue was held to 85 rushing yards, and the passing game put up 174 yards while playing catch-up almost right from the start of the game.

Special Teams

Notre Dame did have a few issues on special teams. David Ruffer missed two of three field-goal attempts but was perfect on extra-point attempts.

Punter Ben Kurk was not used much but managed to put in a nice punting average.

In the return game, Notre Dame did not have much to work with, with Purdue not having many kickoffs in the game, and most of the punts were high enough for the coverage to get downfield to force a fair catch routinely.

George Atkinson III and Eilar Hardy each had average kick returns but were nothing particularly special.

On this night, Notre Dame's special teams did not hurt them, nor were they a positive difference maker.

Coaching

Brian Kelly may not admit it, but he knew he had the superior team heading into this game. Even if Notre Dame was unprepared for this game, the Fighting Irish likely would have returned home with a victory.

Notre Dame came out on a mission to establish supremacy on the field, and it did not take long for that to happen. A balanced offensive attack put up some good yardage, and the defense never allowed Purdue to catch up.

On both sides of the ball, this was a complete victory to take back to South Bend.

Overall

This was a perfect example of a complete team effort. The offense put up big numbers with a very balanced attack through the air and on the ground, and the defense never allowed Purdue to get back into the game after the Irish jumped on top early.

The offense and defense each received high marks, and the coaching proved to be well prepared for the game despite having a superior talent edge at just about every position on the field.

Notre Dame could have afforded to make a couple of mistakes against Purdue, but they did what good teams are supposed to do by stepping on their opponent early and never letting up. Had Notre Dame fallen into a lull, they would have risked getting in to a trap situation.

Notre Dame now gets ready for three home games against rivals USC and Navy after hosting Air Force next week. If Notre Dame can come out of those games with three wins, the anticipation for the game against Stanford in the regular season finale will really build some momentum, but there is a lot of football still to be played.

Let's see if the Irish can keep this momentum going for a couple weeks.

Kevin McGuire is the national college football writer for Examiner.com. Follow his college football discussion on Google+ and Twitter. Become a fan of him on Facebook.