Jonaz Walton Runs for 141 Yards as No. 3 Notre Dame Rolls Past Boston College 41-7

The trap game never got a chance to spring. A week after knocking off top-ranked Miami, Notre Dame spent its Saturday afternoon making sure nobody in South Bend had to think about 1993. No. 3 Notre Dame scored 24 points in the second quarter, ran for 276 yards and held Boston College to 136 total yards in a 41-7 win at a sold-out, overcast Notre Dame Stadium.

True freshman Jonaz Walton carried 15 times for 141 yards and a touchdown. CJ Carr completed 20 of 28 passes for 217 yards and two scores, and Micah Gilbert caught five balls for 86 yards and the game's first touchdown. The Irish improved to 9-1 and 5-0 at home, and Notre Dame Athletics noted it was the program's 11th straight win over the Eagles. Boston College fell to 4-6 and 2-4 in the ACC.

The 136 yards were the fewest Notre Dame has allowed Boston College in 29 meetings, according to the school.

A slow start, then a flood

Boston College got the ball first, moved it 29 yards and punted. Notre Dame answered with a nine-play, 66-yard drive that leaned on Nolan James Jr., who carried four straight times to get the Irish across midfield. From the Boston College 26, Carr threw deep down the right side to Gilbert, who caught it at the 4 and carried it in for a 7-0 lead at 6:25 of the first quarter.

Notre Dame's next drive stalled after a false start and a delay of game, and Boston College's defense held for a while.

Then the second quarter happened. Notre Dame started a 12-play, 80-yard march late in the first, and Carr found Jaden Greathouse for 25 yards and Gilbert for 7 on third-and-5 to move the chains at the 12. James finished it with a 10-yard touchdown run at 8:53. Boston College went three-and-out, and the Irish went right back down the field. Walton broke a 28-yard run on third-and-2, Jordan Faison ran 28 yards to the 2, and Walton punched it in from a yard out at 2:32. It was 21-0.

The strip sack that ended it

If there was a single snap that turned a comfortable lead into a rout, it came 41 seconds later. Boston College took over at its own 25 and went backward in a hurry. Elijah Hughes and Bryce Young split a 7-yard sack of Mason McKenzie, and on third-and-20, Boubacar Traore came free and dragged McKenzie down at the 1. The ball came loose, and linebacker Jaylen Sneed fell on it in the end zone for a touchdown at 1:51. Notre Dame led 28-0.

Boston College did get a gift right after. Faison fumbled at the end of a short punt return, and Nedrick Boldin Jr. recovered at the Notre Dame 31. The Eagles could not cash it. They gained 5 yards in four plays, and a fourth-and-5 throw fell incomplete at the 26.

Carr then ran a tidy two-minute drill, going 52 yards in seven plays and 58 seconds with a 21-yard strike to Greathouse in the middle of it. Spencer Porath hit a 40-yard field goal as time expired, and the Irish took a 31-0 lead to the locker room. Boston College had 46 yards in the first half, nine of them on the ground, per WNDU.

Boston College's lone answer

The Eagles finally got on the board, and they needed help to do it. On the first snap of the second half, KP Price intercepted Carr at the Notre Dame 27, on a pass Notre Dame said was tipped. A personal foul on linebacker Kyngstonn Viliamu-Asa moved the ball to the 11, Bo MacCormack III ran for 8, and MacCormack scored from 3 yards out at 13:40 of the third quarter. It was 31-7.

Notre Dame answered in 3:10. Gilbert caught passes of 18 and 20 yards, and Carr hit Faison for a 13-yard touchdown that was first ruled incomplete and then overturned on review. That made it 38-7 at 10:24.

The rest was mostly clock. Notre Dame turned the ball over on downs at the Boston College 20 when linebacker Anthony Palano stopped Walton on fourth-and-2. Boston College turned it over on downs near midfield after Luke Talich sacked McKenzie. Walton then ripped off a 50-yard run to the Boston College 13 on second-and-20, and Porath added a 37-yard field goal at 12:02 of the fourth for the final margin. Ethan Long intercepted McKenzie at the Notre Dame 10 on a fourth-down heave, and the Eagles' last drive, with Femi Babalola at quarterback, ended on downs at the Notre Dame 36.

Walton, Gilbert and a defense with no leaks

Walton was the story of the afternoon. James handled the early work and finished with 73 yards and a touchdown on 14 carries, but Walton was the one who made Boston College pay for every missed tackle, averaging 9.4 yards a carry with runs of 50, 28, 13 and 12. Notre Dame finished at 6.9 yards per rush.

Carr was efficient rather than spectacular, which is all the Irish needed. The interception to open the second half was a rare blemish for a quarterback who has thrown very few of them, and he spread 20 completions across 10 different receivers. Gilbert led them all, and Faison added five catches for 41 yards and the touchdown on top of his 28-yard run. Carr arrived at this game as a Heisman betting favorite, and nothing on Saturday will move that.

Defensively, Viliamu-Asa led Notre Dame with seven tackles. Traore had the sack and forced fumble, Talich added a sack, and Notre Dame finished with four sacks in the ESPN box score. McKenzie, Boston College's leading rusher on the season entering the day, was held to 10 yards on 14 carries and completed 8 of 21 passes for 51 yards with the interception. Mekhi Dodd led the Eagles with 45 rushing yards on six carries, and MacCormack caught three passes for 20 yards to go with his touchdown.

Palano did everything he could for Boston College, finishing with 11 tackles, and Price had both the interception and a sack.

The numbers behind the blowout

Notre Dame outgained Boston College 500 to 136 and won the first-down battle 24 to 9. The Irish converted 9 of 14 third downs, while the Eagles went 2 for 14 on third down and 0 for 4 on fourth. Notre Dame held the ball for 35:32.

Turnovers were even at two apiece. The difference was what each side did with them. Boston College turned Carr's interception into its only touchdown, but got nothing from Faison's fumbled punt return. Notre Dame turned McKenzie's fumble into six points without needing an offensive snap.

The Irish were not clean. They were flagged nine times for 66 yards, including a false start and a delay of game on one first-quarter drive that ended in a punt.

The full line is in the ESPN box score (opens in a new tab), and Notre Dame's own game recap (opens in a new tab) is posted on the school site.

What it means

Before kickoff, Marcus Freeman made clear he was not treating this as a formality. Speaking about the risk of a letdown after the Miami win, Freeman said, as quoted by Yahoo Sports, "It's easy to say that's not going to be us, but it's a real thing." His team played like it believed him.

That 31-24 win over Miami is the reason this one carried stakes. Notre Dame entered at No. 3 in the AP poll and No. 5 in the College Football Playoff rankings, and an Irish team with one loss has little room for a stumble. A 34-point win over an ACC opponent does nothing to hurt that case.

Notre Dame hosts SMU on Nov. 21 in its Senior Day game, a night kickoff on NBC and Peacock. SMU comes in at 7-3 after a 49-7 loss to Wake Forest on Saturday.

Boston College, now 4-6, hosts Syracuse on Nov. 21 at noon on ACC Network.

Closing take

This was not a game that will make anyone's highlight reel, and that is a compliment to Notre Dame. The Irish did not need a Carr masterpiece or a goal line stand. They needed to show up a week after the biggest win of their season, push around a struggling opponent and move on. They did all of it, and Walton gave the offense a second running back who can break a game open. SMU will be a different test. On this evidence, Notre Dame is ready for it.

Sources: ESPN box score, play-by-play and team stats; Notre Dame Athletics; Yahoo Sports; WNDU; ABC7; The Irish Tribune; A to Z Sports; Finger Lakes 1.

Photo: Notre Dame Athletics.