Notre Dame Football: Grading the Irish's Win over Purdue

Saturday night in West Lafayette proved to be Notre Dame's most complete game of the young season.

The Irish stomped Purdue to the tune of a 38-10 final score. However, there were still a number of unnecessary mistakes made by Brian Kelly's squad.

Following the game, Kelly stated that the team still has a long way to go but was pleased with the performance on the night.

Kelly can't hand out a report card for the game, but Bleacher Report certainly can.

Follow along as we hand out report card grades for Notre Dame's game vs. Purdue.

Quarterbacks

Grade: B+

To put it simply, Tommy Rees had the best game of his career on Saturday.

The sophomore signal-caller completed 24-of-40 pass attempts for 254 yards and three scores.

Aside from those figures, the most important statistic is the zero in his personal turnover column.

That's a welcome sigh of relief after Rees turned the football over multiple times in each of the first five games of the season.

As much as I'd like to give Rees an A for his performance, I can't.

He still made a few questionable throws and had one pass nearly intercepted.

The good news is that Rees will continue to improve week by week.

Running Backs

Grade: A

Both Irish running backs had terrific outings against an overmatched Purdue defense.

Cierre Wood capped a career evening with 191 yards on 20 carries to go along with a career-long 55-yard touchdown.

He ran with ease all night and was seemingly never challenged by the Boilermaker defenders.

Wood's partner in crime, Jonas Gray, finished the night six yards shy of the 100-yard mark.

Perhaps, the most impressive aspect about both players is how tough and physical each was with the football.

The two combined for 287 yards on the ground—the most for the Irish this season.

Receivers

Grade: A

Michael Floyd had another monster performance on Saturday night, a week after being relatively obscure against Pitt a week ago.

The All-American candidate hauled in 12 receptions for 137 yards, including a 35-yard touchdown catch on the team's first possession.

Also getting in on the action was fellow receiver T.J. Jones. The sophomore recorded five catches for 49 yards and a score.

Floyd was obviously targeted on a majority of Tommy Rees' throws, but that resulted in Theo Riddick becoming a non-factor.

Rees and the coaching staff are going to have to get Riddick involved at some point because teams are going to take Floyd away just as Pittsburgh did.

Offensive Line

Grade: A

The big men up front continued their excellent play against Purdue. The line didn't allow a sack, and gave Tommy Rees all day to throw the football.

Braxston Cave and Co. also controlled the line of scrimmage from start to finish, resulting in 287 rushing yards.

The only negatives from the line from Saturday's game were a holding call on Taylor Dever and a false start penalty on Chris Watt.

Defensive Line

Grade: A-

The Irish defensive line was without freshman Stephon Tuitt (violation of team policy) and lost starting end Ethan Johnson to a sprained ankle early in the first quarter.

Despite those losses, the line still had a nearly flawless game. The front three hounded Purdue quarterbacks Caleb TerBush and Robert Marve from the start.

The line was also a key in holding Purdue's 10th-ranked rushing offense to only 84 yards.

I'm throwing in a minus here because of a personal foul call on freshman phenom Aaron Lynch. He's slowly but surely learning how to keep his emotions in check on the field.

Linebackers

Grade: A

The missed tackles and attempted arm tackles committed by Irish linebackers in recent weeks were a thing of the past against Purdue.

The Irish 'backers were flying to the football, and many a time, made gang tackles.

Outside linebacker Danny Spond remained inactive on Saturday with a bum hamstring.

Secondary

Grade: B+

The Irish secondary got to work right away on Saturday night, as Gary Gray picked off Caleb TerBush on the game's first play.

Following that play, the unit played with Bob Diaco's "bend but don't break" philosophy.

TerBush and Marve were limited to only 192 passing yards and one score that came in mop-up duty late in the fourth quarter.

The unit still bends a little too much at times, and that is likely to bite the Irish at some point.

Special Teams

Grade: D

Notre Dame special teams continued their mind-numbing performances against Purdue.

The punt return team still looked bewildered, as did the return man himself, John Goodman.

He didn't gain positive yardage on any of his returns and let one punt sail over his head and roll inside the 20-yard line.

It doesn't end there.

David Ruffer had his first field goal attempt blocked and narrowly missed his second.

That's alarming, considering he was extremely accurate and consistent last season.

Special teams must be the top priority in practice this week.

Coaching

Grade: A

Brian Kelly had his football team focused and ready to play.

And it showed. 

The Irish were sharp for 60 minutes and thoroughly dominated Danny Hope's Purdue squad.

Prior to Saturday's game, Kelly talked about how the Irish need to match the intensity level of their opponents. 

Notre Dame did just that.

The only challenge left is seeing if the team can maintain that level of intensity throughout the remainder of the season.

Intangibles

Grade: A

Like I mentioned in the previous slide, the Irish played with a high level of intensity against Purdue.

The team had a certain swagger on the field that translates into one message—we're going to dominate.

With the victory over Purdue being the third in a row for Notre Dame, the team is on a roll.

That roll isn't likely to stop anytime soon.