The tradition of handing out game balls to Notre Dame’s standout players took an unexpected pause Saturday, thanks to unranked Northern Illinois pushing the fifth-ranked Irish around way too often and convincingly on both lines of scrimmage in the sour Irish home opener.
A severely underthrown pass by ND quarterback Riley Leonard, picked off and returned to midfield with 5:55 left in the game, added to the drama. And Northern Illinois rode that momentum, picking up a first down on fourth-and-2 at the Irish 31 just after the 2-minute warning and finished off the 16-14 upset with a 35-yard field goal by Kanan Woodill.
Notre Dame (1-1) tried a 62-yarder of its own with five seconds left on the clock, but for the second time on Saturday the Huskies blocked a long try by Mitch Jeter, who had only two unsuccessful attempts in 25 tries in his South Carolina career.
And Northern Illinois, in turn, had its seventh-win ever over a Top 25 team in 41 tries and the first since taking down a ranked Toledo team in 2015.
So what went wrong?
Not only didn’t the Notre Dame deep passing game make the expected incremental step forward, Leonard took a step backward in his evolution as a true dual threat. He routinely missed open receivers in going 20-of-32 for 163 and no touchdowns with two interceptions.
The young offensive line in front of him, after allowing no sacks last week at Texas A&M, gave up two to the Huskies and consistently brought more heat than did the Aggies.
On defense, Notre Dame had no answer for Northern Illinois running back Antario Brown, in the run game or the pass game. The Savannah, Ga, product, who backed out of a verbal commitment four years ago to play in the SEC for South Carolina, ran for 99 yards on 20 carries and caught two passes for 126 yards and a TD.
The Huskies (2-0) outrushed the Irish 190-123, outgained them 388-286, won the turnover battle, 2-0, and were mentally and physically tougher,
Notre Dame will hit the road to redemption next Saturday with a trip to Purdue.
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