NDohio
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Chris Wilson's post game report:
1) The early stages of Marcus Freeman’s tenure have been particularly vibes-based, considering last year’s Offseason Championship Banners and the sense coming into Saturday that it could and perhaps most likely would be a coronation. “If not now, when?” and the idea of being due is sadly not how this sport works even if it feels like it should. No one loves analyzing narrative arcs and ethereal ripples more than I do but there seemed to be a sense after the first three games that the Irish had solved college football because Freeman, Sam Hartman and this team were so easy to root for, therefore they would just keep winning comfortably and life would be easy. No matter how fun the recruits you receive verbal commitments from during the week are¹, it doesn’t mask concerns about the lack of true blue-chip safety talent or answer lingering questions about the pass rush and wide receiver.
All that said, it was so close to being a coronation, and by a lot of metrics Notre Dame outplayed the Buckeyes, making this even more painful because it was right there. It breaks one’s brain to consider the many different ways it could have ended in a positive fashion if a single play out of a dozen or so was flipped. Heck, they still came within inches of a goal line stop to secure victory despite being a man down, which would have been a tragicomic achievement. The 10 players on the field mistake will stick with Freeman until he notches a truly landmark win, and even then, it’ll unfortunately linger every time there is a late-game coaching wobble. People love to say things like “simply inexcusable” and that’s usually heat-of-the-moment hyperbole but not in this case.
There is a universe out there where the Irish cap off a perfect day with a 14-10 win and we’re talking about how the Freeman Era has truly arrived. Alas, it is not ours. This is a much more painful plane of existence and there’s no way to sugarcoat the disappointment of that result nor downplay the raising of the stakes for the rest of the way. While the first traces of cracks are starting to appear, there is still so much goodwill for Freeman, but the next few weeks are a massive test for his handle of the team. If you can stomach it, let’s talk about how we got into this position.
2) Stuff that went wrong: The offensive game plan had some interesting wrinkles (the fake-handoff, the double-fake receiver screen, the amount of two-back sets) but overall was conservative and didn’t really give Sam Hartman many opportunities to make big plays. Where were the shots? I was feeling this even before finding out the Irish only did play-action on three of the 26 dropbacks despite all that running?! What are we doing here, folks? Very strange. It wasn’t a strategy that made sense for a guy with Hartman’s abilities unless we get deeper into the season and we find out this Buckeye defense is an all-timer but I do not know about that.
Specifically, the fourth down play calls were too cute (glad the Buckeyes tried to match, with a wide receiver sweep on one of their failed conversions), particularly when Audric Estime exists, we know Mitchell Evans can handle the sneaks and there is a Gi’Bran Payne wildcat package that worked at the goal line. The final real offensive drive started so promisingly but they got adventurous two plays in a row and let Ohio State off the hook with too much time and a timeout. Do not throw that second down ball anywhere near J.T. Tuimoloau.
Al Golden is either the unluckiest guy in the world or has a poor feel for game situations. Some of the decisions are clearly wrong (why are you blitzing Benjamin Morrison?) but then you have a ball getting deflected up in the air that could easily be picked off that ends up as a first down, even before accounting for the rotten fumble bounces this season. This has been an occasional theme with Golden where the overall numbers look totally fine — 17 points, under 6 yards per play, 38% success rate allowed (only 33rd percentile for Buckeyes) — but there isn’t a big splash play to really affect the game (similar to last year in Columbus and the Stanford loss). Is this a lack of true NFL guys, the scheme or the most likely answer of both? That coverage on the 3rd and 19 is going to haunt me.
3) Some positives because this was one play from being a win due to the following performances: Benjamin Morrison is so good, holy shit. If he had reeled in that falling down circus pick in the corner at the end it would have been a replay they showed forever but an incredible game going against guys he’ll see on Sundays in a couple years. Javontae Jean-Baptiste and Howard Cross played nearly every snap and were great -- my heart breaks for Jean-Baptiste who had the game of his life against his old team. Jaylen Sneed is so explosive and once he's a little more comfortable doing normal linebacker things in addition to being an absolute terror of a pass rusher we’re going to have a really good one. The pair of fourth down stops were exhilarating.
How many players in their first year of eligibility had huge impacts on offense? Jaden Greathouse is the guy, Rico Flores shook a Buckeye out of his shoes for what should have been the game-winning score, Jeremiyah Love is so fast and cool, Jadarian Price yes absolutely, I thought Gi’Bran Payne might be the back to fall out of the rotation once business picked up but it was the opposite. And what a game by Mitchell Evans, who has made the most of every single opportunity. Overall offensive line played very well, particularly in the second half when the Irish started leaning on them. They almost did enough to make it special. Sigh.
Both of the decisions to go for it on fourth down were correct, and the choice to kick made sense. The fourth down calls being sketchy failures and the kick going wide doesn’t mean the game management process was wrong. We get in situations where there are clear things to point to that the coaches messed up and it snowballs into “They did everything wrong!!” and that was not the case on Saturday despite so much overthinking in so many areas.
That result sucked but it does not change the fact that in the macro this program, when you look at the young guns playing so well already and the verbally committed recruits in the pipeline, seems to be getting better. I would one hundred percent rather be saying this after a win and I extend all love and prayers to Irish fans in Ohio who have to deal with this for eternity but the arrow still appears to be pointing up. If there are seismic shifts between now and the new year, we will reassess this position. I am not saying you should feel good about that game in any way, just take three seconds to imagine the sliding door where that’s a 14-10 win and how you would feel about the state of things before the pain of that possibility causes psychic damage.
If you made it this far and need some more commiseration, a heads up that Jessica Smetana and I recorded an episode hitting many of these themes you can listen to on Apple, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.
4) Ryan Day, be less weird my dude. An old man who’s been actively disowned by segments of your opponent’s fan base said some stuff in an interview with a guy who doesn’t wear sleeves? Relax. Horrific officiating, again. If there were an actual organizing body governing college football they would have abolished conference-based referees and created a national pool with oversight but what can you do I suppose. Intensely jealous of everyone who got some tailgating in, I am sorry you didn’t get a perfect day and it ended like that. Thought the broadcast crew was fine. The fact NBC’s primetime game this week is Sparty vs. Iowa is hilarious.
While I would prefer Notre Dame win every game by 40 points for my mental and emotional health, in situations like these I will concede I get some perverse enjoyment out of monitoring the dark sociological experiment known as “Notre Dame fans process a loss without the ability to blame Brian Kelly and Tommy Rees,” which made dealing with these kinds of situations so easy for so many years. I will not broach the subject of what that game looks like with Ian Book considering the way the run game was cooking at times.
5) Winning Is Hard Recap: No one wants to be here and these are way more fun to do after wins so I was going to skip entirely but I would be remiss to not mention that Minnesota had a 31-10 fourth quarter lead against Northwestern (a team who hadn’t defeated a Power 5 opponent on American soil since 2021) and lost. There was plenty of other nonsense but wanted to sneak another note that's both monitoring a future opponent and making fun of Boston College: Louisville's Jack Plummer averaged nearly 20 yards per attempt against the Eagles on 18 of 21 passing.
6) There is no silver lining or close game medal or moral victory from that final score. It was there, it should have been taken and it wasn’t. It’s going to hurt for a really long time and there’s no argument to the contrary. But the season is going to keep going whether Notre Dame is ready for it to do so or not. Mike Elko, Riley Leonard and the fine folks down in Durham do not care that the team is gutted and its fans are sad. Jeff Brohm, Jamari Thrash and what will be a feisty crowd in Louisville have the same consideration. I highly doubt Caleb Williams will take it easy because we all woke up Sunday morning feeling like part of our souls had leaked out of our bodies before remembering why. If you want mercy or things to make sense at any point, you’re following the wrong sport.
Notre Dame is still a very good football team capable of going 11-1. I don’t know if that gets them into the playoff and don’t even really want to think about that now but I know for sure winning the next seven guarantees a lot*: Spoiling Duke’s first “GameDay,” ruining the Cardinals’ Super Bowl, keeping the home win streak alive against Southern Cal, denting Caleb Williams’ Heisman campaign, beating Pat Narduzzi, making it three of four against Clemson before a five-year break in the series, extending the Senior Day win streak and getting revenge on Stanford. Plenty remains on the table.
* We haven’t quoted Al around here in a while so it’s a good time for a core tenet of this operation: “Pain or damage don't end the world, or despair, or fucking beatings. The world ends when you're dead. Until then, you got more punishment in store. Stand it like a man…and give some back.” I hope the next few weeks really emphasize the final three words.
We had the Blue Devils circled as a potential trap/hangover game all offseason and with the bright lights and bells and whistles there are no excuses for this team to overlook them, presenting another immediate test for Freeman in his second year. I’m glad he’s getting a crash course in dealing with different situations this early in his tenure but I do wish some of the lessons did not cause us so much pain personally.
Thanks for reading and if you didn’t and never see this message I very much respect a post-loss media blackout. Going to be a long week, so take care of yourselves and each other.
