Six defining plays from Notre Dame's narrow win over Cal

SOUTH BEND, Ind. — Notre Dame thought it ended the game twice before it actually did.

Head coach Marcus Freeman’s first victory in four tries had to come down to the very last play. Notre Dame didn't secure its 24-17 victory until the football hit the end zone turf with no time left on the clock to leave California’s Hail Mary unanswered.

The Hail Mary heave was nearly caught by Cal wide receiver Jeremiah Hunter on his back. His hands were the last of a few from which the ball bounced.

The game appeared to be all but over when Notre Dame cornerback Clarence Lewis intercepted quarterback Jack Plummer on the first play of Cal’s final drive. Instead, the officials determined upon review that linebacker JD Bertrand committed a targeting penalty with a hit to running back Jaydn Ott before the interception was made.

Six plays later, TaRiq Bracy returned what was originally called a fumble by Plummer for a 77-yard touchdown, but a review ruled Plummer was down and sacked by defensive end Justin Ademilola. That meant the Irish (1-2) would have to survive the Hail Mary attempt from Cal (2-1) after all.

It all made for quite the final 1:03 of play in Freeman’s first victory.

“It was a conversation between me and God, and it was a conversation between me and myself to focus on what matters,” Freeman said of Cal’s final drive. “I looked at JD, and I wanted to talk to JD, but there was a lot of things going ahead. But ultimately you have to focus on what it takes to execute.

“But there was some, ‘Lord, what is going on?’”

Before Notre Dame avoided a last-second touchdown, these six plays defined the Irish victory.

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The starting debut for quarterback Drew Pyne seemingly couldn’t go much worse than four three-and-outs to start the game for the Irish offense. He couldn’t connect with wide open targets and even received a profanity-laced chewing from offensive coordinator Tommy Rees on the phone from the press box that was caught on the NBC telecast.

Then on the first play of the second quarter, with the game stuck in a scoreless tie, Pyne made his worst mistake. He failed to corral the traditional snap from center Zeke Correll and whiffed on his first attempt to pick the football off the ground. That allowed Cal linebacker Oluwafemi Oladejo to dive into the backfield and recover the fumble.

This time, Pyne got an earful from Freeman.

“First you're like, ‘OK, he'll get it.’ Tapped him on the shoulder pad,” Freeman said, “and then I said, ‘OK, that's not working.’ I kind of went to the other end of the spectrum, kind of ripped his butt a little bit.”

The turnover set up Cal’s first score of the game, an 18-yard touchdown pass from Plummer to wide receiver J. Michael Sturdivant, only four plays later. Fortunately for Pyne and the Irish offense, the early struggles weren’t everlasting.

Notre Dame’s offense responded to Pyne’s fumble and a 7-0 deficit by taking advantage of a short field — running back Chris Tyree returned a kickoff that was backed up 15 yards by an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty to ND’s own 40-yard line — and another dumb penalty on Cal.

Kicker Blake Grupe missed a 45-yard field goal attempt, but Cal’s Kyle Smith was ruled offsides, which turned a fourth-and-5 into a first down.

The Irish finally capitalized with a sharply executed play call that made for an easy pitch and catch from Pyne to Tyree. The speedy Tyree ran right past linebacker Jackson Sirmon and into open turf with no safety over the top.

Pyne pump-faked to his right to keep one safety on that side of the field. That made the throw that much easier as Tyree turned around to catch the ball just before crossing the goal line.

Notre Dame tied the game at 7 with 8:54 remaining in the second quarter and brought some life to its sideline. The Irish offense finally had a reason to be confident, which seemed to carry over to the second half.

“I think it impacted the whole team,” Pyne said of the first scoring drive. “Before the game, we were talking about having energy on the sideline and bringing our own juice to the sideline. Whether it was offense cheering for the defense or vice versa, knowing that we could go down the field and score and score from 20 yards out, I’ll credit the O-line. Those guys were unbelievable.”

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Cal could only blame itself for Notre Dame’s first two touchdown drives. Not to be outdone by the earlier offsides penalty on a field goal attempt, linebacker Blake Antzoulatos gave the Irish a free first down with a targeting penalty.

Antzoulatos launched himself under the chin of Pyne on a third-and-4 play that ended in an incomplete pass. But rather than having to settle for a field goal, the Irish moved forward to the Cal 14-yard line.

Notre Dame took advantage this time by feeding running back Audric Estime four consecutive times on what Pyne said after the game was the same play each time. On the last run, Estime dove into the end zone for a one-yard touchdown.

For as much improvement as Notre Dame showed at times throughout Saturday, Cal’s own deficiencies had a lot to do with the Irish win.

Junior defensive lineman Jacob Lacey now has an easy answer for the best game of his college career. The 6-foot-2, 280-pound interior lineman put on a show with five tackles and two sacks. Lacey also stuffed a run near the goal line for no gain.

His most impactful play came on his second sack of Plummer. Immediately after Notre Dame tied the game at 17 early in the fourth quarter, Lacey started Cal’s drive in reverse with a sack for an eight-yard loss.

Lacey made left guard Brian Driscoll look silly with a spin. That put Lacey in Plummer's face pretty quickly. Plummer pumped and opted to protect the football with Lacey charging at him.

“Honestly, my mindset was to put on for my brothers around me,” Lacey said of the play. “I knew I had a chance to make a play based on what they were doing. I could kind of understand the things that they were calling. I knew a pass was coming, and I knew I had to make a play for my team. I honestly just kind of blanked out and did what I had to do.”

Cal didn’t even get back to the original line of scrimmage before punting away on a three-and-out. On the ensuing drive, Notre Dame took the lead.

Estime showed his versatility when Notre Dame needed a play to break the 17-17 tie in the fourth quarter. Pyne allowed him to do that by recognizing Cal’s coverage and checking Estime into a route which could exploit it, which Estime explained after the game.

The 6-0, 227-pound Estime ran an angle route from the backfield by starting to the left and cutting inside to the right to get past outside linebacker Myles Jernigan near the line of scrimmage. Cal tried to overload blitz the right side of Notre Dame’s offensive line, which forced Sirmon, an inside linebacker, to rotate that direction. His movement created an even bigger window for Pyne to deliver the football to Estime.

It wasn’t the greatest throw, and it was nearly deflected by defensive end Ethan Saunders, but Pyne made his decision quick enough to allow Estime to make a play.

“Audric made a great cut on an angle route off the linebacker,” Pyne said. “I threw it early, because they were bringing pressure. Audric made a great catch on a low ball. He just ran with it.

“That’s a credit to coach Rees and all those guys up there in the box. I’m just thankful that I have such great coaches to put me in a great position to succeed.”

Estime ran away from the defenders behind him and might have scored if he didn’t trip himself up near the 10. Following the 36-yard completion, Pyne finished off the drive with a six-yard touchdown pass to tight end Michael Mayer to give the Irish their 24-17 lead with 9:16 remaining.

Sharp execution and decision-making put Notre Dame in front.

Despite Notre Dame sacking Plummer six times Saturday, the Irish had trouble keeping track of him on dropbacks. Plummer only finished with 34 net yards rushing due to the sacks, but his positive carries added up to 81 yards.

In attempting to respond to Notre Dame’s 24-17 lead, Plummer kept Cal alive with a couple of big gains. He scrambled for 24 yards on second-and-10 and scurried for another 16 yards on fourth-and-8. If Notre Dame’s first wave of pass rushers couldn’t track him down, there seemed to be no one on the second level positioned to account for him.

But after Plummer’s 16-yard run put the Bears at ND’s 22, the drive stalled. On fourth-and-10 from that spot, defensive end Isaiah Foskey made sure Plummer didn’t get away. Foskey beat left tackle Ben Coleman around the edge and threw down Plummer as he tried to step into the pocket and away from Foskey.

Foskey left the game earlier dealing with an undisclosed injury, but he returned to make a play when the Irish needed him.

“We definitely have one of the toughest, if not the toughest, defensive line in the country,” Lacey said. “We're all get banged up, but we fight through everything. And it's not only that we fight through it, we still make plays through it.”

The lines on both sides of the ball delivered for Notre Dame in the second half, Freeman said, with the offensive line helping dictate the running game and the defensive line pressuring Plummer.

“We're going to depend and rely on our O-line and D-line,” Freeman said, “and I was really proud of the way they stepped up to the challenge in the second half.”

Box Score: Notre Dame 24, Cal 17

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