This was a tough one to see coming. It’s not as if we haven’t seen it before for Notre Dame under Marcus Freeman, as the 2022 defeat to Marshall in the Irish home opener was a frequent discussion point in postgame press conferences in addition to likely being on the forefront of the minds of Irish fans throughout the afternoon.
But this Notre Dame team – in year three under Freeman – was supposed to be different. This team – that just one week prior had traveled to one of the toughest environments in college football and seemingly exorcized its demons with a gutsy win over Texas A&M – was supposed to be one that would reliably take care of business as college football’s elite programs do, one that had moved beyond the point of dropping home games as four-touchdown favorites.
On Saturday afternoon, though, it was the same old story, as No. 5 Notre Dame was stunned in a 16-14 defeat in South Bend at the hands of Northern Illinois.
“Obviously disappointing, disappointing in the performance. You know, it’s our job as coaches to make sure these guys are ready to go,” Freeman said postgame. “You go from the highest of highs to the lowest of lows in a tale of two weeks, but we’ve got to own this thing. As coaches and players, we’ve got to own it, and we’ve got to fix it.”
It’s not as if this was the type of game in which the final score wasn’t indicative of how it was played. For 60 minutes, the Huskies came into Notre Dame Stadium and did everything that’s part of the usual formula of winning games. They outgained the Irish by over 100 yards, they won the turnover and time of possession battles, they broke off more explosive plays and they rose to the occasion to convert in key third and fourth-down scenarios. And in the end, after Northern Illinois kicker Kanon Woodill drilled his third field goal of the afternoon with just 31 seconds to play, that was just enough to push them past the Irish and send the visiting Husky fans into euphoria.
Essentially, Northern Illinois did what Notre Dame was able to do last weekend against Texas A&M. Meanwhile, the Irish played the role of the Aggies this week: crucial turnovers, an inability to string together any semblance of consistent offense and costly defensive miscues that allowed for several huge plays. What had looked like a potential dream season for the Irish is all of a sudden on the ropes just two games in.
“We’ve got to go back and evaluate the way we prepared and figure out exactly the mishaps [that] occurred in the preparation,” Freeman said. “I’ve always said performance is a reflection of preparation. We’ve got to figure out where we failed in preparation.”
In the moments after the Irish received the opening kickoff, they seemed to be picking up right where they had left off the week before. Senior quarterback Riley Leonard worked the ball down the field with his arm and legs as Notre Dame capped off a masterful 13-play, 75-yard drive with a Leonard rushing touchdown to take a 7-0 lead.
That would be the only moment Irish fans had to cheer about in the first half, however. Just minutes later, the Huskies silenced the Notre Dame crowd with an 83-yard passing touchdown to level the score. And after putting on a clinic their first time out, the Irish offense mustered just three total yards on its following two possessions and would close out the first half with three punts, an interception and a blocked field goal as time expired in the first half. Meanwhile, the Huskies continued to gash the Irish defense with chunk plays, surprising after Notre Dame was able to so effectively limit the Aggies offense just one week prior.
After being on the receiving end of the 83-yard score, Northern Illinois running back Antario Brown continued to dominate, adding a 28-yard rush and 43-yard reception in the first quarter alone before finishing with over 200 scrimmage yards on the afternoon. The Irish defense was able to bend while avoiding breaking to hold the Huskies to a pair of field goals, but Notre Dame still went into the halftime locker room facing a 13-7 deficit.
Just seven days (and just 30 minutes of gametime) after morale and confidence around the Irish program was as high as it’s been in recent memory, Notre Dame was booed off the field by its own home fans.
And despite the team’s best efforts, the second half preceded eerily similar to the first.
“In the first [half], I was like, ‘Okay, we need to – I don't know exactly why we’re not executing the way we need to, but maybe that was the wake-up call we needed to go out and change this [in] the second half,’” Freeman said. “It started to go that way, and [the] defense started playing better in the second half. We just couldn’t capitalize off [of] it on offense. We could not.”
As was the case in the first quarter, Notre Dame came out of the gates firing in the third. The Irish defense forced Northern Illinois into a long missed field goal, and the offense once again began the half with a long touchdown drive, this one capped off by a 34-yard touchdown run from sophomore running back Jeremiyah Love that featured a SportsCenter-worthy hurdle that sent the Irish crowd into a frenzy. Love was a standout for the Irish, finishing the day with 79 rushing yards on 11 carries. Suddenly, Notre Dame was back in front, 14-13, and it felt like the Irish were poised to shake off the rough first half and get back on track.
But just like in the first half, that opening possession would represent Notre Dame’s only addition to the scoreboard. The Irish defense seemed to turn the corner, shutting down the Huskies on their ensuing three possessions, highlighted by crucial third and fourth-down pass coverage from graduate student safety Jordan Clark and sophomore safety Jaiden Ausberry to get the Northern Illinois offense off the field.
As Freeman lamented, though, the Irish were unable to capitalize and extend their lead to gain some breathing room. After two quick three-and-outs, they finally seemed to get something going late in the fourth quarter when a pair of completions to graduate wide receiver Beaux Collins netted them 17 yards and their first first down in over a quarter of action. On the very next play, though, Leonard missed on a downfield shot intended for graduate wideout Kris Mitchell that resulted in his second interception of the game.
“We couldn’t move the chains either. That's the other thing,” Freeman said about the Irish offense in the second half. “We can’t go three and out, and we can’t turn the ball over. Those are areas we’ve just got to get fixed.”
Unlike Notre Dame, the Huskies were able to capitalize on the miscue, working the clock all the way down to 31 seconds before sinking a go-ahead field goal with just 31 seconds left.
A long kickoff return and a 19-yard completion to Mitchell set the Irish up to give graduate kicker Mitch Jeter a chance at a 62-yard field goal attempt as time expired, but in a cruel twist of fate, Jeter’s kick was blocked again, repeating the events of the first half once more as Northern Illinois sealed the 16-14 win.
While Notre Dame fans may feel like the sky is falling, Freeman and several Irish players reinforced the theme postgame that the story of this Irish team has only started being written, and that this group will be defined by what happens over their next 10 games rather than what transpired on Saturday.
For now, the only thing the Irish can do is put this disappointment behind them, get back to the drawing board and do everything in their power over the next week to make sure that they earn a different result on the road against Purdue next Saturday to turn 1-1 into 2-1, before doing the same thing the next Saturday, and every Saturday that follows until there are no more games left to play.
And they have no intention of letting anything get in the way of doing just that.
“This is as low as it gets,” Freeman said. “We’ve been here before, right? We’ve been here before. Now it’s time to get it fixed. We’ve got to get it fixed and get back to playing football the way we know how to play, we’ve played before, and we can, and we will.”
