Week 1 of the college football season is often sloppy. Notre Dame and Louisville took that to an extreme in a three-play sequence late in the first half of their game on Monday.
It started when Alohi Gilman of the Fighting Irish forced (and recovered) a fumble.
While the runner was initially ruled down, the call was overturned. That was just the beginning.
Exactly one play later, Notre Dame quarterback Ian Book took off to scramble. Unfortunately for Book, he ran into a teammate and put the ball on the ground. Louisville came up with it.
The Cardinals would simply not be outdone in this bizarre game of “anything you can do, I can do better.” A bad snap on the first play of Louisville’s ensuing possession resulted in a third straight fumble. Like the other two, the defense (in this case, Notre Dame) came up with the ball.
That’s where the madness stopped.
The Fighting Irish cashed that fumble in with an 11-yard touchdown run from Book to take a 21-14 lead at halftime.
The first half of this game wasn’t crisp. That said, it certainly wasn’t boring.