Luck Isn’t Necessary This Time : Notre Dame: After comeback victories in their first two games, No. 1 Fighting Irish roll over Purdue, 37-11.

Top-ranked Notre Dame, which had rallied for victories over Michigan and Michigan State, didn’t need the luck of the Irish to beat Purdue Saturday.

“It felt really good to play four solid quarters of football for once,” Notre Dame quarterback Rick Mirer said after the Fighting Irish beat the Boilermakers, 37-11. Mirer guided four touchdown drives and scored once on a 12-yard run.

After rallying late to beat Michigan, 28-24, and Michigan State, 20-19, in their first two games, the Irish rolled to a 27-3 halftime lead, holding Purdue to one yard rushing, en route to their third straight victory against an opponent from the Big Ten.

“Give those guys an inch and they’ll take a mile,” Purdue Coach Fred Akers said. “And they took a couple of miles today.”

The Irish gained 502 yards, 374 coming on the ground, as Raghib (Rocket) Ismail had the longest rush of his career, a 64-yard touchdown run. Mirer completed 11 of 17 passes for 130 yards.

Notre Dame turned two fumbles by Eric Hunter, both caused by linebacker Scott Kowalkowski, into touchdowns. Hunter completed 21 of 37 passes for 354 yards, including a 37-yard touchdown pass to Curtis McManus with 3:23 remaining.

“We wanted to try to throw the ball, and then once the secondary dropped back, we would run and mix it up a bit,” Hunter said. “But we just weren’t effective on the run.”

Purdue had 24 yards rushing and failed to convert on all 10 third-down attempts.

Notre Dame, which had failed to score in the second and third quarters against Michigan and Michigan State, scored 21 in the second quarter against Purdue and added 10 in the third. Mirer, Ismail and Rodney Culver ran for touchdowns in the decisive second quarter.

The Boilermakers reached the Notre Dame 19 with 11 minutes left in the first half, but Hunter fumbled and Chris Zorich recovered at the Irish 36. Ismail dashed 64 yards to score on the next play.