Notre Dame Comes From Behind To Beat Toledo 32-29

For the second straight week, it was a nail-biting finish for Notre Dame football, as the Irish scored in the final minute of the game to escape a strong effort from Toledo by a score of 32-29 and move to 2-0. The win was Notre Dame’s 25th straight inside Notre Dame Stadium and 10th straight in a home opener.

It was a nearly identical start for Notre Dame offensively against the Rockets. For the second straight week, Jack Coan was a perfect 4-4 on completions on the opening drive of the game, again connecting with Michael Mayer three times including the 4-yard touchdown pass that gave the Irish a 7-0 lead just over 2 minutes into the game.

Toledo would respond immediately though, after Bradley Carter hit Devin Maddox in stride on a 66-yard wheel route on third down to set up a 31-yard field goal make that got the Rockets on the board. After poor coverage on the big third down play, Notre Dame stepped up in the red zone defensively to force the field goal. Kyle Hamilton nearly picked up his third interception of the season on a deflection and Jayson Ademilola had a crucial pass breakup on third down.

On Notre Dame’s second drive, the Irish quickly marched into Toledo territory before the Rockets’ cornerback Quinyon Mitchell raced untouched from the left side on a corner blitz and strip sacked Coan to give possession back to the Rockets. Then, Carter found Maddox again for a 25-yard strike over the middle to set Toledo back up in the red zone. But, Notre Dame’s defense proved staunch in the red zone for the second consecutive time and forced another field goal try, which Thomas Cluckey nailed from 32-yards out. After one quarter of play, Notre Dame led 7-6.

True freshman Tyler Buchner started the second quarter at quarterback for Notre Dame, and wasted no time in making his presence felt. On the first play of the drive from Notre Dame’s 4-yard line, Buchner took off for a 26-yard gain on a quarterback run option. The next play, Buchner gained 11 more yards on the ground on another quarterback keeper. Three plays later, Kyren Williams took off for a 43-yard touchdown down the ride sideline thanks to Toledo’s defense being overly concerned with Buchner’s run potential.

In Buchner’s debut drive, the freshman led the Irish 96 yards down field in 5 plays to extend the lead to 14-6, rushing for 37 yards himself and also completing his first career pass to Braden Lenzy for 15 yards. Notre Dame had gone three-and-out in its two previous drives to end the first quarter.

After the second quarter jump start from Buchner, things started to go downhill quickly for Notre Dame. The Irish turned it over on downs inside their own 50-yard line on the following offensive drive, and Toledo was able to add another short field goal to close the gap to 14-9.

The Irish defense halted the Rockets from scoring a touchdown in the red zone for the third time in a row, but a defensive holding penalty and a defensive pass interference penalty on back-to-back plays are what allowed Toledo to get all the way down to the Notre Dame 5-yard line in the first place. Not only that, but Toledo wide receiver Bryce Mitchell also dropped what would have been the go-ahead touchdown pass on the third down preceding the field goal attempt.

With under a minute to play in the first half, things went from bad to worse for Notre Dame as Toledo defensive back Chris McDonald Jr. picked off Jack Coan’s second down pass intended for Michael Mayer and took it 27-yards to the house for the cherry on top of a 10-point second quarter turnaround.

At halftime, Toledo led 16-14, 10 of the Rockets’ points coming via the two Irish turnovers. Notre Dame’s offensive line struggles continued, as the Irish rushing attack averaged just 2.8 yards per attempt outside of Williams’ 43-yard scoring run and Coan was sacked three times over the first 30 minutes. Sophomores Michael Carmody and Tosh Baker looked overpowered in their replacement of the injured freshman Blake Fisher at left tackle.

Both teams came up empty on their first two drives of the second half, though Notre Dame kicker Jonathan Doerer had the distance on a long 55-yard field goal try that landed wide left. At the end of the third quarter, the score remained 16-14 Toledo, though Notre Dame ended the quarter driving across midfield and the Rockets accumulated just 21 yards of offense in the quarter.

Thirteen plays, four first downs and 55 yards later, Notre Dame took the lead back after a Jonathan Doerer 48-yard field goal try split the uprights to make it 17-16 Notre Dame in the fourth. The Irish scoring drive was the longest of the game for either team, taking up six minutes and eleven seconds of game time to end the third quarter and start the fourth.

Immediately afterwards, the Irish defense forced a fourth straight punt and fifth three-and-out of the game for Toledo. On the very next offensive play for Notre Dame, Tyler Buchner was back in at quarterback for Notre Dame and connected with a wide-open Chris Tyree for a 55-yard catch and run touchdown that gave the Irish a 24-16 lead with just under 11 minutes to play.

Yet, Toledo refused to go away. On the Rockets first play from scrimmage after the Tyree touchdown, running back Bryant Koback raced past the Irish defense for a 67-yard gain that set the Rockets up at the Notre Dame 22.

Several plays later, Koback caught a shovel pass from Bradley Carter on third down and long and took it 8 yards into the end zone. After Notre Dame stopped the two-point conversion attempt, the scoreboard read 24-22 Irish with 7:48 left in the game.

Buchner and Coan split time at quarterback on the following Notre Dame drive, and the offense seemed to develop a rhythm. Coan found Mayer for a big third down conversion while Buchner rattled off 19 more rushing yards to get the Irish down to the Toledo 33-yard line.

Then, on second down and short, Kyren Williams gained first down yardage before getting stripped by Toledo defensive tackle Desjuan Johnson. The Rockets recovered the fumble and took over possession with 3:26 to go in the game.

Toledo moved the ball downfield at will on the ensuing drive. After two 15-yard completions from Carter to Isaiah Winstead, one of which came on 3rd down and 12, and a pass interference penalty against the Irish, Rockets backup quarterback Dequan Finn slithered untouched out of the backfield, down the left sideline and 26 yards into the end zone to give Toledo the lead and silence Notre Dame Stadium. With 1:35 left in the game, Toledo had all of the momentum and a 29-24 lead.

With their backs pressed firmly against the wall, Jack Coan and the Notre Dame offense responded in a big way. Coan found Kevin Austin deep down the right sideline on the first play of Notre Dame’s next drive for a 34-yard gain on what was an excellent catch through contact by Austin. Coan then connected with Mayer for six yards before back-to-back penalties on Toledo set the Irish up with a first down from the Rockets 18.

On first down, Coan found Mayer again over the middle for an 18-yard touchdown. Leading 30-29 after the Mayer score, the Irish went for the two-point conversion to try and extend their lead to a field goal’s distance.

On the two-point play, Coan took the snap and handed it off to Williams who pitched it back to receiver Avery Davis. Davis, the former Notre Dame quarterback commit, then made a beautiful cut to avoid a sack from the Toledo defender who was right in the backfield, saw his first option in Coan was covered, looked back the other way and lofted a perfect ball to Williams in the end zone to make it 32-29 Notre Dame. It was an extremely athletic and intelligent play by the veteran Davis. The Irish went 75 yards in three plays over a minuscule 26 seconds of game time to retake the lead after Toledo scored with 1:35 left in the fourth.

With a little over a minute of game time remaining for Toledo to tie or take the lead, Notre Dame’s defense sealed the deal after Myron Tagovailoa-Amosa strip sacked Carter Bradley and JD Bertrand recovered.

Again, it was an up and down game for Notre Dame on both sides of the ball. The offense was able to accrue 27 first downs, convert on 8-of-14 third down attempts and accumulate 449 total yards, but turned the ball over three times.

Strong play from true freshman quarterback Tyler Buchner was also a major bright spot offensively. Furthermore, though the Irish were able to put up 132 rushing yards, the Irish offensive line gave up 5 sacks for the game and looked shaky for the second straight week.

Defensively, Notre Dame forced seven punts for the game but again gave up multiple touchdowns in the fourth quarter and struggled to get the big stops down the stretch.

It wasn’t pretty, but it was a win, and Notre Dame still hasn’t lost inside Notre Dame Stadium since 2017.

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