SOUTH BEND, Ind. -- Notre Dame rolled past Rice 52-0, emptied its bench by the third quarter and continued to pile up points.

Still, one part of the offense has yet to fully arrive. The running game.

Through two games, the Irish rank in the triple digits nationally in both rushing yards and yards per carry, leaving Notre Dame near the bottom of the Power Four in both categories. Running backs coach Ja’Juan Seider knows the questions are coming. His message to his room is simple: block out the noise.

“Listen, you can’t please nobody,” Seider said. “We can go play a perfect game and there’s still going to be question marks, right? … You gotta shut it off. You gotta be a horse. You have to put the blinders on.”

Notre Dame hasn’t consistently generated the explosive runs it wants, but Seider isn’t treating the slow start as a crisis.

“We’re fine. I really think we’re fine,” Seider said. “We’re heading in the right direction. We’re getting there. We’re not where we wanna be at and we’re not making excuses for that, but head down and work. But I know how to coach and they know how to play. We’ll get it done.”

While the running backs wait for those big plays to come, Notre Dame’s passing game has already opened up. Against Wisconsin, only three Irish wide receivers recorded a catch, combining for 121 yards. Against Rice, nine different wide receivers caught at least one pass.

The position group finished with 22 receptions for 351 yards, giving quarterback CJ Carr a much deeper list of options.

For senior Jordan Faison, the increased involvement means more than just spreading around the statistics.

“I’m grateful for those younger guys to go out there and get reps,” Faison said. “In the game, it’s a different atmosphere, so experience with that only allows them to grow and allows our entire room to grow as a whole.”

Jaden Greathouse said Notre Dame’s ability to distribute the football starts with adjusting to what each defense gives the Irish.

“We face a lot of different teams with a lot of different looks,” Greathouse said. “I think the coaching staff does a great job of scheming us up and giving us opportunities to get in space or to fit in between the zones and things like that. And hopefully, if they go out there and play man coverage, we do what we do.”

At the center of the production is Carr. Notre Dame has scored touchdowns on nine of its last 10 drives with No. 13 on the field, keeping the offense moving even without the explosive rushing plays it is still searching for.

Carr, however, is quick to redirect some of the credit to the offensive line.

“I feel like I didn’t even play a football game the way they’re protecting me out there,” Carr said. “I don’t think I got touched all day, so it was an unbelievable job out of that group.”

Now the Irish take that offense against Michigan State.