CFB: Notre Dame Fighting Irish Week 3 Preview

Notre Dame starting pretty flat, usually at home, in games against G5 opposition the week after an emotionally draining win in a big game is nothing new. Repeatedly stalling on offense, giving up big plays on defense, and making mistakes on special teams is a recipe for keeping any underdog opponent in a game.

However, being unable to avert the continued slide in the second half is a recipe for the kind of disaster the Irish suffered against Northern Illinois last Saturday afternoon. And worse for Head Coach Marcus Freeman, it wasn’t the first such failure in the season’s opening home game. 

His predecessor built his reputation around ‘winning the games you’re supposed to win’, a hallmark of the second half of his tenure in South Bend, but often could not get his team over the line in the biggest games. Freeman has managed the latter, but his inability to manage the more mundane challenges may cast a longer-term shadow over his time at Notre Dame.  

All credit, however, to the Northern Illinois Huskies and their HC, Thomas Hammock. The better team on the day won, and they outgained the Irish, on the ground and through the air, won the time of possession battle, and forced ND into two blocked Field Goals and two interceptions. RB Antario Brown had the game of his career on national television.  225 yards from scrimmage including an 83-yard TD pass, and 5 YPC as a very effective runner.

Notre Dame’s defense too often looked soft against the run, but it tightened up significantly in the second half and repeatedly got the Huskies off the field. As in the home defeats to Marshall and Stanford in Freeman’s first season, it was the offense that ultimately let the team down when needed most. 

QB Riley Leonard picked up an injury in the first half, that wasn’t disclosed until after the game, and which hampered OC Mike Denbrock in running the full playbook. His decision, on 2nd and 1 inside the final six minutes, to eschew a Jeremiyah Love run and ask a QB, whose longest pass of the season to date is 20 yards, to throw deep, is obviously the most debated moment in the game. Leonard though had two other teammates wide open and that was not the only such occasion during the 60 minutes. 

All in all, it was a very poor day at the office, and one that raises a host of questions that the Irish coaching staff will have to answer very quickly. They will have to start by defining what they expect from the quarterback position and who is best placed to deliver that.