While Northwestern coach Josh Snyder wasn't quite sure what to expect from Notre Dame, he did know what to expect from his team. In the end, that made all the difference as the Tigers opened their season with a 32-6 win over the Crusaders.

Harry Hall led the charge offensively with 139 yards rushing on 20 carries and the senior-laden defense did its job for Northwestern."We didn't know exactly what we were going to get from Notre Dame, obviously, with just the two scrimmages that we got on film, you don't know," said Snyder. "I do know what we have. We have a group of kids that went through down times, turned it around and are hungry for success," .The Tigers defense didn't allow Notre Dame onto their side of the field until there was just over five-minutes remaining in the third quarter. The Crusaders were in negative yardage for first-half total offense and the only points they put up came against primarily second string players late in the game.While Northwestern put up 32 points, Snyder believes there is a lot of work to do in order to be sure that the team will reach the goals that they've set for themselves this season. Northwestern had 295 yards of total offense, but with they did have a few stumbles in the game."Our defense just played absolutely outstanding," said Snyder. "Offensively, just some lack of execution, we left a lot of plays on the field and put the ball on the ground four or five times. That's unacceptable for us. I don't know if it's first game jitters or whatever, but we've got a lot of work to do to clean those things up to be a good football team."Hall got the scoring started with a 34-yard scamper down the right side on the first drive of the season. A 28-yard field goal from Brandon Miller put them up 9-0 and a bad snap that got kicked around was recovered by Notre Dame in their own end zone for a safety as the Tigers had an 11-0 lead with just over two minutes to play in the first quarter.Notre Dame's defense stiffened in the second quarter, but with 3:51 left to play in the half, quarterback Frank Dangello faked a hand-off to Hall and sprinted around the edge of the line for a one-yard TD run. The conversion gave the Tigers an 18-0 lead at the half.Snyder made some offensive adjustments at the half in an attempt to open up the passing game and the plan worked perfectly. Taylor Breininger, who didn't catch a pass in the first-half, caught two passes for 46 yards in the second-half. Perhaps his biggest contribution was a huge block on a 43-yard TD run by Hall in the third."We were just trying to keep their defense off balance," said Breininger. "We were getting a good push up front from our line and Harry was doing a great job running the ball and we caught them in play action a couple of times and it worked out for us,"If his offensive play wasn't enough, Breininger also added an interception in the second-half to cut down a ND drive.Cam Richardson added a one-yard touchdown run in the fourth quarter to cap the scoring for the Tigers. The senior had 29 yards receiving and 13 yards rushing for Northwestern.The early aggressiveness from Northwestern had Notre Dame on their heels for most of the night, which was a key in helping the Tigers to play their type of offense."I think it's what we can do to put a defense in a bind. Frankie [Dangello] had a nice game running the ball. Outside, we've got two guys that can run pretty well and catch the football and when we run our offense, we can get a good look at the defense and take what's there. It's an offense where we've got to stay patient and hope the defense gets undisciplined and take advantage," said Snyder.