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    • Notre Dame approaches College Football Playoff with Army win
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    Notre Dame approaches College Football Playoff with Army win

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    NEW YORK – Needing to play a perfect game to score one of the biggest wins in modern program history, Army racked up a season-low 233 yards, gave up rushing touchdowns from 58 and 68 yards, had a punt blocked that resulted in another touchdown and lost the turnover margin.

    Needless to say, it was Notre Dame’s night at Yankee Stadium.

    The No. 6 Fighting Irish held the No. 17 Black Knights in check and moved closer to the College Football Playoff with a 49-14 win, the team’s ninth straight win after a stunning loss to Northern Illinois in September.

    Two of these wins were lopsided results against Bowl Subdivision service academies. In October, Notre Dame defeated then-undefeated Navy 51-14.

    This stretch has put the Irish in enviable shape for the playoffs as top contenders from the SEC, Big Ten and Big 12 continue to fall off the map. On Saturday alone, No. 5 Indiana, No. 9 Mississippi, No. 15 Brigham Young and No. 18 Colorado suffered league losses that put each team’s playoff hopes in serious doubt or eliminated entirely.

    With style, a high-powered offense and a suffocating defense, Notre Dame looked like a team worthy of the playoff. Army trailed by less than six minutes all season and began an FBS-best 13-game winning streak on Saturday.

    On the 100th anniversary of the Four Horsemen game against Army that helped establish the program as a national brand, the Irish leaned on quarterback Riley Leonard and running back Jeremiyah Love to establish dominance at the line of scrimmage.

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    Leonard completed 10 of 13 attempts for 148 yards and two touchdowns with another 30 yards on the ground before being fouled out in the third quarter with the Irish ahead 35-7. Love had 130 rushing yards and two scores, including that long touchdown run to open the second half, at 18.6 yards per carry. Love broke former Notre Dame’s Autry Denson’s school record with at least one score in 11 straight games to start a season.

    Defensively, the Black Knights averaged a season-worst 3.6 yards per carry and tied their season low with 207 rushing yards. Army had three drives in the second half that ended in a turnover on downs.

    While it’s a convincing result against a ranked opponent, the win underlines an unanswered question about these Fighting Irish: what does beating Army and Navy, Louisville, Georgia Tech and other good-but-not-great opponents on this year’s schedule tell us Real? about their chances in a play-off setting?

    Notre Dame closes the regular season next Saturday in Southern California. The Irish have won five of six in the series but have dropped three of the past four in Los Angeles.

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