No. 4 Notre Dame overcomes sluggish start to beat Wisconsin 41-13 at Lambeau Field

GREEN BAY, Wis. (AP) — Notre Dame coach Marcus Freeman knows Wisconsin coach Luke Fickell well enough to realize the Fighting Irish would face a bigger season-opening challenge than the recent results of these two teams suggested.

Freeman’s team eventually responded.CJ Carr threw two touchdown passes, Aneyas Williams ran for 90 yards and two more scores and No. 4 Notre Dame pulled away in the second half to beat Wisconsin 41-13 on Sunday night at Lambeau Field. Notre Dame led just 13-10 at halftime before dominating the final two periods.

“Human nature is maybe you look at somebody else’s record last year — and everybody has expectations on what you should be this year — to think this is how this game should go,” said Freeman, who played for Fickell at Ohio State and coached alongside him at Cincinnati. “I don’t know how they thought it would go, but I wanted to make sure at halftime they knew it was going to be a babble and going to be a struggle. I told them that all week. Sometimes you don’t believe it until you’re in it.”