Notre Dame fans weren’t pleased with Saturday’s 37-26 win in Chapel Hill, but Marcus Freeman wasn’t thrilled either.
It started with mental lapses in the passing game. Notre Dame didn’t create enough pressure at times and the secondary made multiple mistakes.
The 11-point win could be just what Notre Dame needed as the schedule starts to ramp up later this month and Freeman plans on challenging his program this week leading into Saturday’s game against Stanford.
“We didn't play well in the pass game,” stated Freeman. “We got to fix some of those things, especially the things that you rep in practice and can't go into the game and make those mistakes. We got to play with better fundamentals in man coverage.
“Defense will get back to work. The coaches and the players are hungry to get back out there and get back to work and prepare the right way.”
Notre Dame also struggled on special teams, which has been rare under Freeman and special teams coordinator Marty Biagi.
Freshman punter Jasper Scaife didn’t have a clean game punting the ball or as a holder, while the kickoff coverage unit gave up a touchdown to open the second half.
Still, Freeman made sure to highlight the positive impact his special teams unit had on the game.
“Special teams, kickoff return touchdowns, unacceptable, we all know that,” Freeman said. “It's correctable mistakes, we'll get it fixed. I thought they did do some really good things, obviously blocked the PAT. I thought they really affected their punt unit with the holding call. We can't run to the punter, we know that.
“I really thought they did a good job of affecting their punt unit. Any time you have an opportunity to recover an onside kick, it's huge and so there's a lot of good, a lot of things to improve on as we get ready for this next opportunity.”
The adversity Notre Dame faced in Chapel Hill was a positive given that the Irish left with a win.
Notre Dame had to fight at times and showed the will to put the game away, as the score probably should have been 44-26.
Freeman knows games like Saturday happen, and he plans on using the experience to benefit the team. He was reminded of how his head coach at Ohio State, Jim Tressel, handled a similar situation.
“I think we beat Ohio University maybe 10-3 or something like that and Coach Tress would always say he wanted that,” explained Freeman. “It's so that at some point, when you're in a tough one-score game, your guys have been there before. They understand that there's no need to panic, right? We've been down, we've been in close ball games and it's going to come down to execution.
“I think there's a mental side being able to go through and point out different times throughout the season where we've had adversity and overcame it is important.”
And yes, it’s also a positive that Freeman can use a win as a teaching moment.
“There's nothing like humbling you than failure and I'm talking not the outcome of the game but failure within the game,” said Freeman. “It's an easy way to put it on film and make sure our guys go to practice with the right mentality of correcting those mistakes.”
Quarterbacks have struggled to beat Notre Dame’s secondary over the last few years, but Billy Edwards Jr. certainly tried.
The senior signal-caller finished Saturday with 208 passing yards, three touchdowns and two interceptions.
It was hardly a concerning performance for Chris Ash’s defense, but few quarterbacks complete 60 percent of their passes while throwing three touchdowns.
For the Irish defense, the corrections start with improving its man coverage and, specifically, eye discipline.
“No. 1 is eye control,” Freeman explained. “That's a fundamental of man coverage. It's easy to sit here and all of a sudden, how hard is it to look at your man? When you're out there, it's the human nature of, ‘OK, I'm playing my man, but also I want to peek at the quarterback. Is he looking my way?’ That's just a habit we've got to continuously improve on.”
Freeman also made it clear that the struggles in man and zone coverage are correctable.
The defense has done it before, so it’s not a personnel or play-calling issue, which may have plagued the Irish a year ago.
“Some of the zone cover stuff they hit us in was sometimes was just Notre Dame beating Notre Dame,” said Freeman. “We didn't communicate the right check, or somebody didn't get exactly where they needed to be. All correctable things.”
That’s ultimately why Saturday’s game can be valuable for Notre Dame.
The Irish didn’t play their best football, but they still found a way to win. Now Freeman has an entire game of mistakes to put on film and challenge his team to fix heading into the home stretch.
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