CHESTNUT HILL, Mass. - To Marcus Freeman, teams deciding to make it difficult for Notre Dame to run the football the way Boston College did here on Saturday isn’t an excuse for the Irish to underperform offensively.
“This isn't the first team to try to load the box,” Freeman said following the Irish’s 25-10 victory over the Eagles.
“We probably had a different plan coming into this.”
But, the Irish did manage to adjust.
“You learn quickly in the first two series that they weren't going to try to let you on the ball,” he said. “There was Zero coverage or Cover One with a low-hole guy. There was one option; we were going to have to throw it over the top and that's what CJ (Carr) and the offense was able to do on the majority of the times we attempted it.
“There were a couple that were close that we didn't connect with. We knew in order to get them to loosen up a little bit and find ways to run the ball with Zero coverage or Low Hole One, you're going to have to throw the ball over the top and I think the offense did a good job for the most part.”
Carr finished 18-for-25 for 299 yards and had two touchdown passes, a 40-yarder to Malachi Fields and a 44-yarder to Will Pauling. Those - and other - deep shots also softened a Boston College defense just enough for Jeremiyah Love to rip off a 94-yard touchdown run that sealed the win in the fourth quarter.
“BC came out with some different looks than they had shown on film in previous weeks,” Carr said afterward. “I thought we started slow, but did a really good job of adjusting to their pressures and their Zero coverage that they brought a few times. We hit some deep ones to loosen them up and then open the run game up a little more.”
As a quarterback - and one with an offensive line he trusts - Carr actually likes when defenses try to pressure him.
“I think we've done a really good job of protecting it upfront,” he said. “I don't think I've taken a bunch of shots on Zero because we have a good plan for it.
“We kind of hope a team brings zero because you can get some of the outcomes that we had tonight.”
“He's ultra-talented,” Freeman said of Carr. “He prepares in a way that I don't know if he can improve it. He prepares to a point that gives him a chance to have success.
“He's been good at making in-game adjustments, a great arm, great decision-making. He'll be the first one to tell you that the two touchdowns is great, but there's a couple other ones that he wants back, that he wants to make those four touchdowns instead of two. And that's why you love him because he's a competitor.
“He's competitive and he probably reflects a lot of people in the locker room where we look at the ones that we didn't make instead of just relishing in the ones that we did. He's got a high ceiling and he's going to continue to elevate…he's got more in there and I'm excited to just be a part of it as he continues to improve.”
Outside of the long Love run, the vaunted Notre Dame rushing attack was all but shut down. The Irish totaled 65 rushing yards on 28 carries, not including Love’s gamebreaker.
What really killed Notre Dame, though, was Jadarian Price’s fumble inside the Boston College 10-yard-line early in the second quarter, when the Irish appeared to begin exerting their dominance.
“We can't fumble the ball on the plus-five yard-line, right?” Freeman continued. “We were driving, ready to score points and then that would've been 14 points and we fumbled the ball.
“We've got to take care of the football and when we have chances to score touchdowns, we've got to score. We didn't do that enough. We did it enough to win, but not enough to our standard.”
Price lost a fumble at the 2-yard-line going in against NC State three weeks ago, but Freeman hasn’t lost any faith in him.
“He's earned a lot of confidence and credibility from this coaching staff because of the proof in what he's done for three years here,” Freeman said. “So we're going to play him a lot. We're going to give him the ball, we're going to let Jadarian be him.”
Freeman said the message of protecting the football will be reinforced, but don’t look for Price’s involvement in gameplans moving forward to be downgraded.
“We've got to attack it in practice. You can't be insane and not say anything about it. We've got to continue to work on it in practice and focus on ball security, but we're going to give him the ball and let him go.”
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