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Notre Dame finds their key to winning out in huge victory over Purdue as CJ Carr and Jeremiyah Love dominate

Originally posted on A to Z Sports | By Travis May | Last updated Sep 20, 2025 11:56 PM ET

The Notre Dame Fighting Irish may have started off the 2025 college football season 0-2, but there's definitely a path to win out the rest of the way.

It won't be easy, but as Notre Dame destroyed Purdue 56-30 on Saturday it seems the key to their bright immediate future revealed itself.

No, it's not their run game. Running backs Jeremiyah Love and Jadarian Price did dominate Purdue, but their skills are no secret. It's certainly not the pass rush, although the defense did finally generate some pressure. The key to Notre Dame winning out is going to be CJ Carr's development every single week–and he clearly took a huge step forward this week.

CJ Carr showing signs of greatness that could help Notre Dame win out

The ground game was amazing on Saturday against Purdue. Jeremiyah Love racked up 166 yards and two touchdowns. Jadarian Price tallied 74 yards an three scores himself. That amount of production could have easily overshadowed CJ Carr and the passing game in a 56-point outing, but some of the passes the first-year starter made were incredible.

When the game was still young, Carr didn't hesitate to uncork the deep ball. He found Malachi Fields on a post route for the opening score (as you can see in my post below), and he only got better from there. Carr finished the day completing 10 of 12 passes for 223 yards and two touchdowns–yes, averaging over 18 yards per pass attempt.

Malachi Fields finally finds the end zone for Notre Dame.

Clear top target has already been breaking out this year, but this puts an exclamation point on his already impressive start with the Irish! pic.twitter.com/RQOR9M0bIu
— Travis May (@FF_TravisM) September 20, 2025

Sure, the run game's success definitely didn't hurt Carr's ability to find his targets in the passing game, but he was just about perfect on every single play.

It wasn't just success found against stacked boxes trying to stop the run either. He completed passes of 15, 21, 26, 48, and 66 on the day, flashing success deep down the field, against pressure, facing tough coverage. One of the best examples of this came on Carr's late phenomenal deep touchdown to Jordan Faison on a play where Purdue dropped seven defenders into coverage (as you can see in my post below).

Faison ran a nice out and up, Carr read the play beautifully, released right at the top of his drop back, then tossed the ball right into the bread basket for his wide receiver.

CJ Carr with yet another beautiful pass.

If he keeps developing every week Notre Dame’s going to win out. pic.twitter.com/el5EJbrdEv
— Travis May (@FF_TravisM) September 20, 2025

Opposing defenses will have to find a way to slow down Notre Dame's ground attack if they want any shot beating the Fighting Irish the rest of the way–something Miami and Texas A&M somewhat succeeded in doing.

However, even if teams do find a way to stop future first round running back Jeremiyah Love and the rest of the strong Irish backfield, a developing and improved CJ Carr will be the key to Notre Dame winning every week anyway. Carr had flashed with some decent throws against both Miami and Texas A&M, but hadn't dropped quite so many dimes as he did this week.

Carr always possessed five star potential. Now that it's beginning to reveal itself and he gets more comfortable within the offense, the sky's the limit for Notre Dame's offense. Hopefully the defense follows suit.

We’ll be back with more Notre Dame Fighting Irish coverage here at A to Z Sports soon! Follow me (@FF_TravisM) and A to Z Sports (@AtoZSportsNFL) on X for all the latest football news!

This article first appeared on A to Z Sports and was syndicated with permission.

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