Freeman Relishes Teaching Opportunities After First Notre Dame Victory

After a 24-17 win at home over Cal on Saturday, Notre Dame is 1-2 this season and 1-3 overall since Marcus Freeman was promoted to head coach last December. 

"I think I've knocked out all the firsts,” Freeman said. “The first loss in a bowl game. First loss on the road. First loss at home. We've knocked out all those firsts in the negative aspect. Got the first win, so let's talk about an opponent, let's talk about preparing for a game and what it takes to have success."

Before Notre Dame could look ahead to a 3-0 North Carolina team this weekend, the Irish returned to the practice field on Sunday to review and correct mistakes made against Cal. 

Perhaps more than anything, Freeman relished the chance to teach his team after a win. 

“It's always better to use those teaching opportunities after wins than it is after a loss,” Freeman said on Monday. “We watched it, we evaluated it, we had a good practice yesterday to get some corrections from Saturday.”

Against a competent Cal front seven, the Notre Dame offensive line played its best game of the season. 

The Golden Bears sacked quarterback Drew Pyne just twice all game, while Irish running backs Chris Tyree and Audric Estime carried the ball for a combined average of four yards per rush attempt, often running the ball up the middle. 

With that said, the offensive line still missed a number of blocking assignments that should have led to much bigger gains or prevented sacks. 

On the first drive of the game, for instance, Cal linebacker Jackson Sirmon blitzed through the middle of the Notre Dame offensive line untouched and sacked Pyne on third-and-six for a nine-yard loss.

“It's funny. You watch the film and there are teaching plays left and right. 'He's got to do this for us to make this one or two-yard gain into a five or six-yard gain or the six-yard gain into a 12-yard gain.' That's the beauty of it, man. They played much better and they have a lot of room to grow."

The unit was also flagged three times in the first half for false starts on third down.

“They're getting antsy,” Freeman said. “We just have to clean up those unforced errors. We have to clean up presnap penalties. That's something we made a big point of emphasis at halftime and we'll make it during this week. We cannot continue to do that."

On the other side of the ball, the Notre Dame defensive front did a much better job of pressuring the opposing quarterback. The defense finished with six sacks and six quarterback pressures. 

But on more than one occasion, mistakes made on those pressures actually enabled Plummer to escape the pocket and scramble for a first down. 

“We have to understand the integrity of our rush lanes,” Freeman said. “It's a double-edged sword. We want to get pressure. We want to be relentless after the quarterback, but we also don't want to see that quarterback scrambling for first down. Those are some things that we have to make sure we clean up defensively on the D-Line.”

In addition to playing with more discipline, the Irish defenders can clean up their technique. 

For instance, on a cornerback fire, Clarence Lewis shot off the line of scrimmage, broke into the offensive backfield, but ultimately missed on what would have been a big sack. 

While Freeman is happy with the pressure, he also understands that Notre Dame wasted an opportunity for a game-changing play. 

“It's a lot easier said than done when you're going 1,000 miles per hour, but if you look at C-Lew's play, there's a technique to it,” Freeman said. “You bend to take away the cut back for the run and then as the quarterback goes back, you go to his outside shoulder. All those things we can work technically to improve at.”

Lastly, Freeman addressed the final play of the Cal game. 

From the Notre Dame 35-yard line with five seconds remaining, Golden Bear quarterback Jack Plummer launched a prayer toward the end zone.

Four different Irish defenders jumped in the air with the hopes of coming down with the game-ending interception: DJ Brown, Brandon Joseph, Jack Kiser and Ramon Henderson. 

But instead of picking the ball off, those four defenders got in each other’s way and the ball stayed alive for several seconds longer than it should have. 

Prior to the play, defensive coordinator Al Golden prepared his team for a throw just short of the end zone, where the deepest Cal receivers would actually be used as blockers after the catch, similar to how Appalachian State’s defeated Troy on Saturday.

"Coaches have to make sure we teach the players that we might call that defense for that situation, not thinking they're going to throw the hail mary,” Freeman said. “If it turns into a hail mary, we have to make sure there are certain people responsible for certain offensive players. Your job is to box out the offensive player, and then there are a couple of guys for the jump ball.”

As a result of poor situational awareness, Cal wide receiver Jeremiah Hunter almost caught the game-tying touchdown from his butt, but the ball took a fortunate Irish bounce off his arms and hit the turf. 

"To teach from that moment after a victory is something I'd much rather do than if they would have caught that hail mary,” Freeman said. “We have to clean that up as coaches, which we addressed yesterday and then our players will have to go execute it."

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