Three Things We Saw in Notre Dame’s loss to Northern Illinois

Let no one say we dreamed too small

There I was, walking out of Kyle Field with my hopes as high as they could be. The Notre Dame Fighting Irish had just won possibly their hardest game of the year and boasted the easiest path to the College Football Playoff in the country. It all got easier from here, starting with a ho-hum season opener against Northern Illinois and then…

The most depressing thing about this game was the way it shattered to pieces so much of what we thought Notre Dame’s week one win told us about this team. I saw Marcus Freeman hyping his guys up as they came out in College Station, watched his players play unfazed amid tremendous pressure, saw him crow “I told you” when his defense closed the game out, and thought he had developed a mature and consistent winning culture within his program, one with a different competitive mentality and physical readiness than years past. Instead it turned out he had developed a program that could embody that culture for one game. Then, for the second of three seasons, his team forgot who they were and suffered a hideous upset loss in its home opener to an opponent that, in a seeming surprise to the Irish players and coaching staff, was actually attempting to win the game and had prepared a well-thought-out and executable strategy to do so.

Many commented last week that Brian Kelly did not often win games like the one Freeman won at Texas A&M; while this is true, Kelly also would not have lost this game (at least not by the end of his tenure). Because Notre Dame alumni, trustees et. al. are capable of wondering whether this is a tradeoff they must continue to make, Freeman’s seat should be the hottest it’s ever been right now, and he faces an uphill climb to cool it off. How he allowed this to happen having experienced an equally brutal gut punch in the third game of his career is beyond me, but here we are. Let’s dive into three reasons why, then get out of here and never think about this accursed game again.

Whither the Defensive Line?

We will talk a lot about the Irish offense in this game as they were the primary culprits in this loss, but it is worth pausing for a bit to reflect on the manner in which the Irish defensive line allowed itself to be pushed around all afternoon on Saturday. The Huskies rushed for 190 yards in this game led by Antario Brown, who now joins the Tate Forcier/Alexander Tiech/Steven Gilmore pantheon of names I should never have had to remember in my life but now will never forget. The Irish also completely failed in pass rush, generating only 5 pressures on Ethan Hampton (the Huskies, you will no doubt be thrilled to know, generated 17 on Riley Leonard including two sacks).

Matt Cashore-Imagn Images

I could have sworn this defensive front was anchored by a pair of future NFL starters in the middle and two talented seniors on the edges, with plenty of quality depth behind them. So why did I see NIU getting a push all afternoon, able to run out the clock on the Irish as they traveled only 33 yards over six minutes? Yes, we must give credit to the Huskies for the heart and physicality they played with and the creativity of their offensive gameplan and yes, the defense was not the primary problem for the Irish in this game. But they did allow a spunky and deceptive underdog to seize momentum early and keep itself in the game by ripping off a chunk here or there and burning clock. Inexcusable in a game where the Irish defense should have been more than capable of taking back control of the game and putting the offense in plus territory.

Riley Leonard: Not Enough

Ok, let’s talk about it – last week in this space I said that Riley Leonard gave the Irish “just enough” to win against Texas A&M, which was true. But in this game he was not only not able to give them any more more, but actually gave them less as he did the one thing he didn’t do in College Station, and which he absolutely could not do with the Irish on upset alert.

When we went through this nightmare two years ago, we could at least point to the fact that Tyler Buchner was a sophomore in his second start when he threw the interception that sealed Notre Dame’s fate against Marshall. Leonard has no such excuses. One could (and we will, in a minute) quibble with the play-calling that put the ball in the air in this situation, but on the other hand you have to be able to count on a senior quarterback and captain with two years’ experience as a starter to not throw a dead duck into double coverage on 2nd-and-1 with the lead in the fourth quarter. This mistake alone might not have justified calls for Leonard’s benching, but it wasn’t an isolated incident – Leonard was bad almost all game, missing easy throws and completely unable to threaten the Huskies downfield (to be fair, one of his many misses was a dart that was simply dropped by Jaden Greathouse).

Marcus Freeman has already stated that Leonard will be starting Saturday against Purdue, but both men should at least be on notice of this fact: a Notre Dame offense led by Steve Angeli – or hell, CJ Carr or Kenny Minchey – could and should have won this game and covered the spread.

Mike Denbrock: Not Enough

With that out of the way, let’s also get into the offensive scheme the Irish took into this game. Did you like that hurdling touchdown run by Jeremiyah Love? I sure did. It was cool. Do you know how many more times Love got the ball in this game after that run, which happened with 2:43 remaining in the third quarter? I’ll give you a hint: you take his number and divide it by four.

Matt Cashore-Imagn Images

Love rushed for 79 yards in this game, which sounds underwhelming until you realize he got there on only 11 carries. Ok, maybe the Irish got the ball a lot to the equally dangerous Jadarian Price? Wrong – Price gained 24 yards on only four carries. While I understand the desire to force development in a weak part of your team’s game through increased reps, that is a secondary priority to winning the game in front of you and the former should be attended to only after the latter has been assured. However, Mike Denbrock and co. seem to have embraced the opposite mindset.

For example: on 2nd-and-1 with a one-point lead in the fourth quarter, when you are moving the ball and in a position to ice the game with a touchdown drive, you might think you would hand the ball to one of your two running backs who are averaging over six yards per carry, behind your offensive line which is clear doing better in run blocking than pass protection. You might think getting the first down, extending this drive and progressing in good time toward a score is a good goal for this particular play. But that would make you a simpleminded football hick, not seeing the whole picture like the big brains on the Irish sideline. We have passing game to develop here, and that QB who hasn’t even totaled one good game’s worth of production so far this season has a C on his chest. Chuck it! (Weis pun very much intended).

In years past, a loss this bad would have vaporized any lofty expectations the Irish had for the season. Fortunately we are in a new era now, and an Irish team that is able to experience a sudden re-conversion to playing quality football still has a chance to play for a lot this year if it can win out. Does that Irish team exist? Is there a town called Damascus, IN between South Bend and West Lafayette where we can arrange for the team bus to stop? Find out answers on next week’s episode of the Real Fighting Irish of Notre Dame.