6 Thoughts after the Orange Bowl
We saw things we hadn’t seen from Notre Dame this season in the first half of the Orange Bowl.
Penn State’s offense had the Irish defense on their heels. Playing at a fast tempo, PSU was snapping the football at a pace where Notre Dame was struggling to get the call in. When they shifted, Notre Dame was struggling to get the right checks in quick enough. They marched down the field on 14 and 15 play drives that mostly consisted of running the football.
Penn State was snapping the ball fast and Notre Dame’s defense couldn’t play fast because they couldn’t catch up to the tempo. If it wasn’t for Drew Allar missing throws, it would have been 14 instead of 10-0.
Then as the Irish had to conduct a two-minute drill in an attempt to get points and not get run out of Hard Rock Stadium, it got worse. Notre Dame lost Rocco Spindler and Riley Leonard on the same play. That was after losing Anthonie Knapp when he got rolled up on. That meant they were finishing the drive with their backup quarterback, a left tackle who had barely played this season, and a right guard who was only cleared to practice in full a couple of weeks ago.
Their star tailback was also playing on a bad knee. The defense had already lost four starters and more from this season. The only vet left on the defensive line was a guy who has been hobbling around on a bad ankle.
I couldn’t blame anyone if they thought this was it. The dam was finally going to break. No one could withstand all of these losses.
Then Steve Angeli came in and did what he always does. He stepped on the field and started slinging it to Notre Dame’s receivers despite knowing that Abdul Carter and company were going to be on him in an instant.
Angeli did enough to get Mitch Jeter a shot at a field goal. He made his kick and a half that had been disastrous ended with Notre Dame down only one score.
We should have known. We should have known that Notre Dame wasn’t going to go down that easily.
Leonard was back for the start of the second half and Mike Denbrock had the offense humming on a drive that ended with them tying the game. After they scored that touchdown, Notre Dame suddenly was averaging more yards per play than Penn State.
A team that looked like they were getting their butts kicked came out with a vengeance. The defense followed that up with a three-and-out and it game on.
This team had every excuse not to win tonight. On top of the injuries, having less rest than their opponent and dealing with a tragedy that happened before their previous game, they were put in a spot that they haven’t had to deal with.
They had to throw the ball and deal with what might happen against that Penn State pass rush. They had two end zone interceptions taken off the board on borderline (at best) flags that were thrown against them. They had plays where defenders were being egregiously held with no flags thrown that allowed Penn State to re-tie the game.
When Leonard threw his second interception of the game in the fourth quarter, they were put in a situation where they needed to score a touchdown to tie the game on the next drive. If they didn’t, then that would have likely led to the end of their season.
Notre Dame won the game because they went out and embodied their head coach. He doesn’t make excuses about the travel that Notre Dame has to deal with all season. He didn’t complain about not having a chance at a first round bye in the CFP. He could have easily campaigned for a better seed like all of the CFP coaches he’s beaten did at some point in the season.
He definitely didn’t use Wednesday’s Orange Bowl press conference to talk about how some of his assistants are better than others or to complain about Notre Dame not being in a conference. That was the other guy, the one whose team lost the game.
Freeman has never made excuses about anything that has happened to his team this season. That’s part of the culture he has created and that culture is a big part of what helped Notre Dame win.
His team are fighters. They came to play 60 minutes and they weren’t ready to wave a white flag after 30, no matter how the first half looked.
This Notre Dame team has earned everything along the way and with this win, they earned a shot at playing for a national championship on January 20th. We’re all lucky to get to see this team compete one more time this season.
2. I wouldn’t have guessed that Notre Dame would win this game if Penn State rushed for 204 yards and the Irish rushed for 116. Kaytron Allen and Nick Singleton were as good as advertised. They both rushed for over 80 yards. In games Allen has done that at Penn State, they’ve gone 13-1.
Make it 13-2.
Their running game was good. Allar was exactly who I thought he was. He’s the same guy he’s always been in these bigger games. He averaged 5.9 yards per attempt and completed 52% of his passes. Those numbers should have been worse with two interceptions he threw being taken off the board.
The one interception that did count cost them the game. It was fitting that Christian Gray was the one to make the play after he had his other interception taken away and the fact that he was the victim of the worst non-call of the night when he was blatantly held by a Penn State wide receiver. (Great job by Jaylen Sneed getting a hit on Allar and forcing the ball out on that pick as well)
Pretty much all of Allar’s success came on great calls by offensive coordinator Andy Kotelnicki where he set things up perfectly. Allar missed a couple of ones that should have been easy completions that Kotelnicki drew up as well.
Allar is not that dude. He was 0 for 5 when targeting receivers with that one interception. No wide receiver caught a single pass in the game for them. When is the last time that happened with a game that didn’t involve a service academy?
Tight end Tyler Warren is that dude and he was a problem. He wasn’t enough of a problem to carry Penn State’s passing offense by himself.
3. There is zero chance Notre Dame was going to win this game without some explosives in the passing game. They generated those with one to Mitchell Evans on a big time contested catch, a perfect shot call to Aneyas Williams when he moved out wide, and Jaden Greathouse with a touchdown for the ages.
Not only did Greathouse score the tying touchdown in the fourth quarter on a 54-yard catch and run that included him breaking the ankles of not one, but two Penn State defensive backs. It might have looked like the first defender slipped and fell. That was Greathouse that did that to him with his filthy release off the line of scrimmage. It was worthy of being on an And1 Mixtape.
Then the second defender was caught in a bad situation and Greathouse shook him. The guy literally ended up on his butt.
It was fitting that Greathouse was also the guy who caught the ball that set up the winning field goal by Mitch Jeter as well. That was the same kind of call that Mike Denbrock made to try and close out the Louisville game. If the throw was there, then Leonard could take it. If it wasn’t, he could try and run for the first down.
The throw was there. Barely. It was a tight window and Leonard got it to Greathouse. That put him over 100-yards on the day, which is the only time a Notre Dame receiver has done that this season.
It’s difficult to be a receiver in this offense. Sure, everyone loves to win and I do believe that all of these guys have fully bought into the concept of team glory, but Greathouse has proven he is a very capable player. He caught two key passes in the previous two CFP games, but those were the only targets he’s seen.
On a night where Penn State got literally nothing from their wideouts, Greathouse balled out for Notre Dame.
4. Al Golden should win the Broyles Award and he’s earned all the praise he’s been given, but I have to make sure and give flowers to Denbrock for what he was able to pull off from that final first half drive until the end of the game. He made timely calls that hit big like the end around to Jayden Thomas. He also did a great job on 3rd down.
Notre Dame finished 11 of 17 (64.7%) on 3rd down and were 8 for 8 on anything less than four yards. He leaned heavily on Leonard’s legs in short yardage and also set up short completions that converted as well.
In the second half, Notre Dame converted 6 of 9 3rd downs. Penn State was 1 for 4.
Denbrock also did his Denbrock thing and found favorable matchups that turned into big plays. He had Williams run a slant and go against linebacker Kobe King out wide. King is an awesome run stuffer and was 2nd team All-Big Ten. He’s not as good in man coverage and got beat by Williams and then later by Eli Raridon.
Raridon’s play ended up in a penalty and it probably would have been a touchdown because King was beat again. It ended up setting up Notre Dame scoring right after, though.
In a game where the margin of victory was so slim, those two plays were huge. The players executed, but Denbrock delivered them.
5. I don’t think there are enough words to properly describe how impressive it was what Abdul Carter and Jeremiyah Love just did. Neither were anywhere close to being fully healthy, yet they proved exactly why they are special because of what they did while not being healthy.
Carter was a menace all game rushing the passer and did it with his one arm hanging down the whole time. He was in obvious pain and he still managed to be dominant. It’s why he’s going to be a top-five pick.
Love is just different. The fact that he hurdled another defender again on one good leg would have been crazy enough. This touchdown run was insane.
These types of players are on a separate plane of existence than most who put on pads. All you can do is marvel when watching the things they do. They shouldn’t be able to do it when they’re not anywhere close to 100%.
6. Penn State won 13 games and they didn’t beat a single top-10 team during the process. Notre Dame has won 14 and they’re now 3-0 against teams ranked in the F+ (combined FEI and SP+) top-10.
They’re 6-0 versus the F+ top-20. That’s more than any program this season. Ohio State has a chance to tie them if they beat Texas.
One head coach got to the CFP semifinals and he’s pretty much exactly where he started. James Franklin finally made it to the top-four and because he didn’t beat anyone of consequence to get there, he’ll still be considered “little game James”.
It’s the opposite with Marcus Freeman. No matter what happens when they play in the national championship, he’s now earned the title of being a big game coach. That’s a far cry from what people were saying about him prior to this season, but when a coach keeps proving it again and again, everyone has to acknowledge it.
His team won in the toughest place to play in the SEC (according to Nick freaking Saban). His team closed out the regular season against Notre Dame’s rival on the road to punch their ticket into the CFP. His team won the first ever CFP home game. His team beat the SEC Champion and gold standard program in college football. And his team just beat a top-10 opponent despite having numerous things go against them.
Win or lose the next game, that won’t take away from the respect Freeman has earned this season. But this is year three for him at Notre Dame. As most fans know, year three has been a special season for special coaches at Notre Dame. He’s coached like a special coach this season.
I don’t know how Notre Dame has done it with all of the injuries. Most teams would have never made it this far if they had that happen to them.
There is one more step to go for him and the program. At this point he’s proven it would be stupid to bet against him and his team.
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