The Notre Dame Fighting Irish beat the Penn State Nittany Lions 27-24 in the Capital One Orange Bowl in Miami on Thursday.
Notre Dame’s victory sends the Irish to the national championship game — the Orange Bowl was a College Football Playoff semifinal.
These five performances are why the Irish are moving on.
5 Stars – Mitch Jeter
Kicker Mitch Jeter will get all the love for the game-winning field goal, but he had a key field goal to get the Irish on the board in the first half, as well.
4 Stars – Riley Leonard
It’s amazing Riley Leonard is even being rated this way — two bad interceptions (to be fair, one was caused by pressure) could’ve had him in the doghouse. But he ran for a touchdown, completed key passes at important times, and saw a wide-open Jaden Greathouse for a huge TD. He also gutted it out after missing a series for concussion evaluation.
3 Stars – Jeremiyah Love
His numbers weren’t great, but running back Jeremiyah Love gutted out a difficult 2-yard touchdown run and had a few other key runs in the Irish’s victory. All while playing hurt.
2 Stars – Notre Dame’s defense
The performance wasn’t perfect — there were two bad pass-interference calls and a lot of struggles against the run, plus inconsistent defense against all-everything tight end Tyler Warren — but the Notre Dame defense got the key turnover it needed and managed to stifle Penn State’s ability to pass to wide receivers.
1 Star – Steve Angeli
Backup quarterback Steve Angeli came in and drove the Irish into field-goal range right before the half while Leonard was out — and that drive got the Irish offense jump-started.
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This article originally appeared on Fighting Irish Wire: 5-stars: The best and worst of Notre Dame’s performance vs. Penn State
