SOUTH BEND, Ind. — We’ve seen this movie before, usually with a face-saving ending.
Toledo in 2021. Ball State in 2018. Purdue in 2012. Game 2 letdowns/escapes to big underdogs at Notre Dame Stadium that not only didn’t end up wrecking what turned out to be special seasons in recent years, but may have helped those teams dig deeper.
Deeper to become, respectively, a team that missed the College Football Playoff by one ratings spot, the first Irish team to make the four-team playoff, and one that played in the national title game with the program’s first No. 1 ranking in three decades as well as its most recent.
Saturday’s 16-14 implosion to four-touchdown underdog Northern Illinois (2-0) smells different. And not just because of the decidedly unhappy ending.
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The most jarring aspect of it besides the fact a Mid-American Conference team that finished just above the break-even point last season (7-6) bullied the fifth-ranked Irish much of the time on both lines of scrimmage is that this Notre Dame team should have been beyond this kind of cratering at this stage of the Irish football renaissance.
Not necessarily immune to disappointments and setbacks. But bulletproof when it comes to this level of underachieving.
With a head coach, in Marcus Freeman, in his uncanny historically defining third season leading the program, with two of the best coordinators on the planet under contract and paid to stay that way, with the wind at the program’s back when it comes to facilities and an administration that’s not springing self-imposed speed bumps and landmines.
With an athletic director, in Pete Bevacqua, who will not only tolerate the rapidly changing college sports model, but works relentlessly to get ahead of the curve on it.
Survive a horror show and advance, and there’s less urgency in dissecting what went wrong. Flushing it, building on it even makes sense.
Abruptly end last Saturday night’s post-Texas A&M takedown/College Football Playoff coronation, and the autopsy becomes as pragmatic as it does cathartic.
“You go from the highest of highs to the lowest of lows in a tale of two weeks,” Freeman said postgame, “but we've got to own this thing. As coaches and players, we've got to own it, and we've got to fix it.
“Everybody's going to try to point a finger at somebody — some side of the ball, one play, one person. It's the entire program that underachieved the day. The entire program has to own it and improve from it.”
So how does Notre Dame move forward with 10 regular-season games left and a perceptual mountain to scale to reinstate a CFP trajectory? By focusing on the little picture that the outside world is baiting them not to.
In other words, just a whiff of social media can be toxic.
“I think everybody’s going to be looking at me,” quarterback Riley Leonard offered. “So, how I approached today, how I approach tomorrow, how I approach this afternoon is going to be indicative.
“And, hopefully, people will follow how I approach things. Obviously, all the eyes are on me, so I’ve got to lead by example right now.”
Whatever a redemptive road can look like, this is where it starts. Doubling down on the quarterback who emerged out of a four-deep QB room as the No. 1 option and owning the coaching deficiencies, the preparation deficiencies that led to an underwhelming pass-efficiency mark (92.8) on Saturday.
That’s roughly 63 points lower than Northern Illinois counterpart Ethan Hamptpon and translates to 20 completions in 32 attempts for 169 yards for the Duke transfer, with no touchdowns and two interceptions.
The more inexplicable of the two came with 5:55 left, with Notre Dame driving and with the lead (14-13). On second-and-1 from the Irish 49, Leonard woefully underthrew wide receiver Kris Mitchell, with NIU cornerback Amariyun Knighten picking it off and returning it 33 yards.
“It was clearly a bad read,” Leonard said. “That same high safety was attached to the inside post. Thought he would attach again. Bad eyes. Bad feet. Bad ball. It resulted in a pick. Can’t happen. Completely my fault. I've got to fix it, and it starts at practice.
“I’ve got to have better practices all week, got to be more disciplined with my eyes. I’ve got to clean up my game all around if we’re going to win football games.”
The emboldened Northern Illinois offense didn’t even flinch when it faced a fourth-and-2, minutes later at the Irish 31. Instead of trying a 48-yard field goal, the Huskies went for it, converted and then got close enough for a 35-yarder with 31 seconds left.
Notre Dame tried to answer with what would have been a 62-yard field goal of its own to end the game. But defensive tackle Cade Haberman blocked it, just as he did a Mitch Jeter 48-yard attempt to end the first half.
The Huskies looked like they might return that one for a score. Safety Santana Banner had advanced it 47 yards before Jeter and third-string offensive lineman Ty Chan took Banner down.
Overall Notre Dame got outrushed 190-123, converted just three of 10 third-down opportunities and amassed the fewest total yards against a current member of the Group of 5 (286) since piling up three fewer against Navy in 1997, Bob Davie’s first year as head coach.
ND survived that day, 21-17.
The defense had a better day than the Irish offense, but not markedly so. Defensive coordinator Al Golden had no answers for Huskies senior running back Antario Brown, who gashed the Irish for 99 yards on 20 carries and two pass receptions for 126 yards and a touchdown.
“That's not the Notre Dame defense we've built over the past three or four years,” Freeman said. “That's not a performance that we're proud of. But we've just got to get it fixed.”
But why wasn’t it?
“They just outplayed us,” All-America safety Xavier Watts said. “We just missed tackles, some missed assignments. They popped a couple explosive plays on us that hurt us. They kind of just outplayed us in that aspect.”
Freeman pledged to do a full-fledged audit to get to the bottom of how that could happen.
“Preparation is so much more than practice,” he said. “It's obviously the game plans and the choices that we make as players too, coaches and players.
“All these choices that only sometimes we, as individuals, know. ‘Hey, did I do everything in my power this week to prepare the way I needed to?’ That's a long look that each individual in this program has to make in the mirror too.”
Even if it might be in shards.
This shouldn’t be a crossroads stretch not only for this season, but setting the stage for where this program is headed. But here the Irish are one week after being the nation’s feel-good thread.
There’s opportunity, though, and that can’t be dismissed any more than the real urgency playing the team next Saturday picked to finish 18th in the Big Ten, Purdue, like the ND players’ hair is on fire.
Freeman has been authentic enough, consistent enough, transparent enough that he didn’t lose the locker room on Saturday along with the game. And that matters big time.
“This isn’t the end of our season, and we know that,” All-America nose guard Howard Cross III said. “Yeah, this sucks. We know that. Everybody knows that. All of our fans know that.
“But I’m going to tell you all what I told everybody: ‘Use that. Use what everybody’s telling you. You’re going to be hearing all week that we suck. All right, use that, because in all due respect, in seven days, we’re on the field again. So, are we going to be all right? I guess it’s over in game 2? Or are we just going to keep rolling.’
“And I think that’s what we’re going to do. Let’s keep rolling.”
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