It’s funny how one play can shake up an entire game. That’s essentially what happened with CJ Daniels’ one-handed touchdown grab with 18 seconds to go in the first half.
It was a ball that Carson Beck shouldn’t have thrown and it was ready to be picked off. Unfortunately Adon Shuler saw it that way and waited for the ball to come down to him rather than attacking it in the air.
Daniels made a ridiculous catch. Miami went into the half with a seven point lead and were getting the football back to start the third quarter. They marched down and scored to make it 21-7.
It was a hole that Notre Dame almost managed to climb out of, but couldn’t quite finish the job.
The Irish dominated the “Middle 8” last season. It was the other way around tonight and it swung the game. It made it so Notre Dame had to play close to mistake free football the rest of the second half and they couldn’t pull that off.
Notre Dame is 0-1 and has a lot of things to figure out before they play Texas A&M in a couple of weeks.
- I think it’s more than fair to say that Notre Dame got outcoached in this matchup. That’s not something that happened more than a couple of times last season, but it happened tonight.
Mike Denbrock had to call the game a certain way because of his new quarterback, but there is no way he walks away from tonight without regrets.
Notre Dame didn’t run the ball enough. People might say it was because the offensive line was getting whooped, but the line never got an opportunity to get into a rhythm running the football. They were moving people during Notre Dame’s lone touchdown drive of the first half.
Jadarian Price ran for 45 yards on that drive, but never ran the ball again. Jeremiyah Love went through long stretches of the game without touching the football. It's on the coaching staff that that happened.
It wasn’t the best debut for Chris Ash either and when Beck had a stretch of 12 straight completions, Ash didn’t have answers to combat that.
4.7 yards per play allowed to a Miami offense that is projected top-3 in the country isn’t a bad by any means, but he didn’t find a way to create havoc and a 7.3% havoc rate compared to an 18.9% havoc rate for Miami is yet another reason why Notre Dame lost the game.
Miami made more plays. I don’t think Notre Dame’s staff did enough to help their playmakers in this game on both sides of the ball.
- It’s fair that Ash is going to be compared to Al Golden. It’s the reality of the situation he inherited.
One thing Golden was exceptional at was being creative with his pressure package and knowing when the right time was to bring pressure from different personnel. We’re one game in and I didn’t get that sense at all with anything Ash called in this game.
Marcus Freeman knows all about having an inauspicious first game as Notre Dame’s defensive coordinator. It wasn’t exactly a masterpiece in game one for him against Florida State in 2021. He had to fill the shoes of Clark Lea and there were comparisons there as well.
Things settled in for Freeman and he adjusted well to Notre Dame’s personnel. Ash has a better hand to work with than Freeman had that season so the pressure is going to be on for his group to make a bigger impact in the weeks to come.
- If there is one thing coming out of this game on offense that is extremely encouraging, it’s the performance from CJ Carr.
Though he did make a couple of critical mistakes (the first intentional grounding penalty and the bad read on the RPO that led to an interception), I thought the good far outweighed the bad. He showed toughness, athleticism, and an ability to make plays outside of the pocket that are the kind of things that should make every Irish fan excited about his future.
His resilience in this game was very impressive. There were a lot of new quarterbacks during the opening week of college football who didn’t look nearly as promising as Carr did in his first start. There were quite a few returning quarterbacks who didn’t look as promising either.
- The defense had some bright spots as well. Boubacar Traore showed exactly why he can be special as a pass rusher. Jalen Stroman was very good in this game and led the Irish in tackles. Jason Onye made a couple of big plays in the second half that weren’t recorded as havoc, but were just as good.
This game was creeping into blowout territory after the offense came out with a three-and-out after Miami scored to open the second half. They showed a lot of resilience to force three three-and-outs on the next four drives for Miami and held strong after both of the turnovers from the offense.
- Resilience from this team is not something I worry about. Notre Dame losing to a top-10 opponent on the road while losing the turnover battle isn’t an indication that the sky is falling. There are things people can worry about, but having the same kind of culture as last season where the players never quit is something that hasn’t changed.
Losing that would be much more demoralizing than losing a football game. Notre Dame still has it, which is why everyone needs to take a breath on making any sweeping judgements about this season.
Texas and Alabama also lost on the road to tough opponents in week one. No one feels good after a loss, but I think Notre Dame can feel a bit better about their team than those two programs after this game.
- This wasn’t how I envisioned this game going for Notre Dame. Not everything is going to fit the perfect script, though. That’s now how a football season works.
Ryan Day had the ending picked out for Ohio State last year. I’m sure he wished he skipped the part where he lost to Michigan (again).
I think it’s a good thing that Notre Dame is going to have a bye next week and will get a chance to regroup after this game. As Freeman has said, you learn more from losing than you do from winning and there should be a lot to learn about his football team from this game.
The goals don’t change for them now that they lost the first game. The margin for error during the regular season does change, but that’s at least something they are used to.
I think Notre Dame will look a lot different at home in a couple of weeks than they did tonight against Miami. They’ll need to if they want to beat Texas A&M and still hold on to the same goals.
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