SOUTH BEND, Ind. — Mike Mayer caught six passes for 115 yards, including a 20-yard touchdown, Isaiah Foskey blocked two punts to set up a touchdown and a field goal and Notre Dame beat UNLV 44-21 on Saturday, just the second victory in four home games this season for the Fighting Irish.
“We needed this. We needed this for our confidence,” Notre Dame coach Marcus Freeman said. “We are a good team that doesn’t always play that way. It’s our job as coaches to get our team to perform this way.”
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Notre Dame (4-3) hadn’t scored a first-quarter touchdown in its first six games, being outscored 27-6, but scored two Saturday and added a three Blake Grupe field goals to open a 23-7 lead. It was a familiar story for the Rebels (4-4), who lost their third straight and have been outscored 96-40 in the first quarter.
UNLV coach Marcus Arroyo said the Rebels need to play better.
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“Blocked punts and turnovers and lack of execution are going to be hard to overcome on the road against a good team. I think our guys understand that,” he said.
The Irish added a touchdown in the second quarter on a 1-yard Mitchell Evans run and squandered two more scoring chances, including going for it on fourth-and-3 from the 7-yard line when Drew Pyne’s pass to Mayer was incomplete. Pyne also had a deflected pass intercepted at the UNLV 19-yard line by Nohl Williams late in the second quarter.
Pyne, who entered last week’s game against Stanford completing 72.5% of his passes before going 13 of 27 against the Cardinal, struggled again Saturday. He was 14 of 28 for 205 yards and threw two touchdown passes — the one to Mayer and a 4-yarder to Braden Lenzy. Pyne also scrambled for a 21-yard run to set up Evans’ touchdown. Grupe kicked field goals of 43, 27 and 46 yards.
Logan Diggs rushed for 130 yards on 28 yards and Chris Tyree and Audric Estime added scoring runs.
Courtney Reese led the Rebels with 142 rushing yards on 11 carries, including runs of 74 and 47 yards to set up UNLV’s first two touchdowns. Jordan Younge-Humphrey added two short touchdowns runs.
The Rebels have struggled offensively since quarterback Doug Brumfield suffered a concussion in the first quarter two weeks ago. They also were without leading rusher Aidan Robbins, who injured his knee against Air Force last week.
Cameron Friel started at quarterback and was 9 of 18 for 73 yards. Harrison Bailey was 8 of 15 for 80 yards.
The Irish outgained the Rebels 428 yards to 299 yards.
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Reese set up UNLV’s lone first-half score on a 74-yard when he broke free through the line and was caught from behind by linebacker J.D. Bertrand at the 1-yard line. Jordan Young-Humphrey scored from the 2 on an option play to cut the lead to 20-7.
But any momentum the Rebels had ended when Foskey blocked a punt by Marshall Nichols and linebacker Jordan Botelho recovered at the UNLV 20-yard line. Pyne completed the 20-yard touchdown pass to Mayer two plays later.
After a three-and-out by the Rebels, Foskey blocked another punt, and Houston Griffith recovered at the UNLV 14-yard line. The Irish settled for a 27-yard field goal.
Freeman said the Irish didn’t see anything to exploit with UNLV’s punt protection.
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“We just got home. It wasn’t that they had something particular that we’re going to exploit. Every week we feel like we can take advantage of our punt team,” Freeman said. “Those are game-changers.”
Foskey had three sacks, including on fourth-and-9 from the Notre Dame 49-yard line early in the third quarter. Foskey said the blocked punts were key to the win.
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“I felt like it was very important,” he said. “We had a lot of momentum and gave the ball back to the offense in the plus-territory, which is great for the whole team.”
UNLV: The Rebels have struggled without Brumfield. It was their third straight lopsided loss following a 40-7 blowout at San Jose State and a 42-7 defeat to Air Force. Reese’s 74-yard run was more yards rushing than the Rebels had in the entire game against San Jose State (52 yards) and Air Force (61).
Notre Dame: After struggling in its first three home games against teams with less talent, sandwiching embarrassing losses to Marshall and Stanford around a come-from-behind win over California, the Irish put together their first dominant performance. It was their first victory by more than two touchdowns since winning at Stanford 45-14 in the regular-season finale last year.
UNLV: Nov. 5 at San Diego State.
Notre Dame: Saturday at Syracuse.
