Instant Reaction | Notre Dame 41 FSU 38

Notre Dame won.

I thought I would get that out of the way first because it probably shouldn’t be forgotten. It probably will be.

The things that will be remembered from this game could come back to haunt Notre Dame regardless of the result tonight.

They blew an 18-point lead in the 4th quarter. They couldn’t run the football at all. The moment looked too big for Marcus Freeman in his first game as defensive coordinator. They lost their left tackle to an injury. Michael Mayer had a couple of critical drops.

They let a team that they should have beat comfortably back into the game. They look like they have a lot to work on to even be a top-10 team let alone one that can compete to be a playoff contender.

It could have been an epic collapse. There’s that word again. Could.

Fortunately for all of those involved it wasn’t. The defense did what they needed to do in overtime and Jon Doerer bailed them out with a clutch kick.

They got a win, earned by the play of Jack Coan and some big plays from Notre Dame’s playmakers on both sides of the ball. That will make the flight home feel a lot better than it would have been if they lost.

It’s not going to make tomorrow feel any better. The film is going to be a necessary dissection of their failures for the players and especially the coaches.

For a lot of it, the game felt like Louisville in 2019. Then it wasn’t.

It wasn’t 2016 at Texas, but it kind of felt like it. And that means this team better get a lot better very quickly.

- I didn’t see Notre Dame coming out and slinging the ball all over the field on their opening drive, but sure enough they came out in empty and were chucking it on 3rd and 4th and short. Perhaps this was the wide open offense more people were hoping to see?

The good with the offense is that Coan did deliver as a passer (10.5 yards per attempt) and they were explosive.

They got the big production from Mayer. They got some great stuff after the catch from Kyren Williams. Kevin Austin did look like “that dude” everyone wanted him to be. They also had big plays from Braden Lenzy and Joe Wilkins.

Sprinkle those in with the production from Notre Dame’s big three and there were eight receptions of 20-yards or more. That’s over 20% of what they had over the entire season in 2020.

If that was married with even a competent running game, then Notre Dame’s offense would really be cooking with something special.

The running game was not that. Taking out the sacks, the ground game averaged 2.6 yards per carry. They had six yards rushing in the second half. That’s not a typo.

If this was last year’s offense, Notre Dame is walking out with a two-score win with the offense chewing up eight minutes of clock with run after run. They couldn’t do that.

The offensive line is going to have to be much better in all aspects and they’ll have to do it without Fisher for what sounds like at least a couple of weeks.

- If Notre Dame doesn’t feel confident playing in 12 personnel, something we didn’t see much of in this game, then they have to be more creative with what they’re doing in the running game.

It’s harder to do when the quarterback isn’t a running threat. When they run zone read, no one is going to care about Coan. Even if he sneaks out for the occasional first down, they’ll sell out to stop Williams or Tyree the majority of the time.

- Welcome to Notre Dame, Marcus Freeman. That was certainly a debut that will be remembered and not fondly by Irish fans.

This game is precisely why I want to hear coordinators speak each week. Everyone wants to know why he decided to go three down after they Notre Dame went up 18.

Was it because of the big play they gave up early in the 3rd quarter? I understand not wanting to play as much cover 1 after Houston Griffith was beat deep on the slot fade.

It still doesn’t make sense when FSU kept showing their cards that they were happy to run it and keep gaining big chunks on the ground. I can see maybe playing that way when FSU is in their own territory, but I don’t see why they didn’t switch to four down when things were going the wrong direction.

Even if there’s the excuse that tempo got them and they couldn’t make a change during the drive, it obviously wasn’t one drive.

It also wasn’t a lot different looks. It was static. When you’re asking Drew White to play off the ball and take on guards again and again, that’s not going to lead to success.

The big plays given up are something I almost expected. It’s game one and with less tackling in camp than usual, there are bound to be mistakes with a new scheme.

There’s just a lot that didn’t make sense about his approach in the fourth quarter and I would love to hear what he has to say about it because everyone seemed to know that he needed to change things but him.

- Want to know why there were so many missed tackles in the second half for Notre Dame’s defense? FSU ran 48 plays after halftime. The players were running on fumes at the end of the game, which also makes the strategy of letting them drive for 15 straight plays seem even more puzzling.

The Notre Dame defense had a 26.9% Havoc rate in the first half. That dropped to 14.8% when the game was over.

- I guess I’ll find out more when I re-watch it, but I thought ND’s defensive tackles were whooping FSU’s guards in the first half. Yet another reason why playing three down so much was bizarre.

I promise that’s the last time I’ll mention the three down decision, but it can’t really be brushed over.

- Here’s two things to feel great about with the Notre Dame defense: Isaiah Foskey’s consistent pressure and Kyle freaking Hamilton.

What a stud. What a stud. What a stud.

- I felt like I had a lot more to write about in this game that got pushed aside because of how that 4th quarter went for Notre Dame. That’s how it goes and I know I’ll be reminded of it when watching it again.

There are some glaring issues that need to be addressed heading into this next week for the Irish. They also have to deal with some injuries and the depth of the roster is going to be tested already.

At least they walk out of all of that with a win. For tonight, that will do.

Tomorrow is a different story.