Sunday night was like a movie in Green Bay, Wisconsin.
Lambeau Field served as a perfect backdrop for Notre Dame’s 13th all-time Shamrock Series game, which resulted in a 41-13 victory over the Wisconsin Badgers.
Much was made of Notre Dame coming out and not routing Wisconsin from the start, but how much criticism is really deserved when you look at a team that covered the spread by a touchdown and allowed one touchdown all night long?
To me, Sunday night’s season-opening victory was right off the set of the 2000 movie, Remember the Titans.
No, there wasn’t any grander message in the 41-13 victory, but somewhere, former Titans coach Herman Boone had to have been smiling.
Notre Dame Novocains Wisconsin
In the movie the coaching staff is going over Coach Boone’s playbook that features only six plays. No, Notre Dame didn’t run the veer like the Titans did, but Boone’s quote came back to me when thinking about the game as a whole.
“It’s like Novocain: just give it time and it works!”
Maybe that wasn’t Notre Dame offensive coordinator Mike Denbrock’s playbook on Sunday night, but it did seem to be the overall game plan of the team.
Notre Dame’s Offense Comes Alive in Second Half
Notre Dame’s first-half offense was uninspiring, needing a turnover on a short field and an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty on Wisconsin to help get into the end zone its only time in the first 30 minutes.
It wasn’t pretty, and Sullivan Absher coming in at right guard out of the half also occurred, but it was as if the gameplan was for 60 minutes, not just to put on a show in an opening drive or two.
Notre Dame seemed to use short passes to try and open up the running game, and some of the body blows it delivered while struggling to run the ball in the first half likely didn’t hurt the cause either.
In the first 30 minutes Notre Dame totaled just 29 yards on the ground on 16 attempts – less than two yards per carry.
In the second half? 82 yards on 16 attempts. More than five yards per carry.
Nick Shepkowski’s Quick Thoughts
It’s almost like the Novocain, or Mike Denbrock’s game plan, took effect and worked over the course of 60 minutes.
Notre Dame doesn’t have a group of wide receivers that are going to come out and look like the 2019 LSU offense, and it doesn’t have Jeremiyah Love to threaten to score from literally anywhere on the field.
Instead, this team is built like a Lou Holtz squad. It’s going to try to beat you up physically, and like Lou used to say about Notre Dame opponents, “Tell them to bring their lunch because it’s going to be a full damn day’s work!”
That was evident Sunday night, and get used to it, because it will be how Notre Dame tries to go about this 2026 season.
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