Marcus Freeman Talks Notre Dame Loss To Stanford, Tobias Merriweather, Home Woes, Injuries

NOTRE DAME, Ind. - Notre Dame got a stark reality check Saturday night. Just when Marcus Freeman and his Fighting Irish were starting to have the look of a team that could steamroll over a doughy October schedule, Stanford spoiled the fun and stunned the home team with a 16-14 win inside Notre Dame Stadium.

The Stanford win ended its 11-game losing streak to FBS opponents. It also halted Notre Dame’s 3-game winning streak reduced the Irish offense to ineptitude for most of the night.

What Was The Plan Offensively?

Notre Dame exploded to average 536 total yards in its previous two games against North Carolina and BYU prior to being held to a paltry 301 yards against a Stanford team that ranked 109th nationally in total defense. The offensive output is Notre Dame’s second-lowest of the season, after the 253 yards it mustered in the season-opener against Ohio State.

The Irish ran for just 151 yards against a team that was allowing 207 per game. Running backs Loan Diggs, Audric Estime and Chris Tyree had nine, eight and eight carries on the night, respectively, while Drew Pyne was 13 of 27 for 151 passing yards. His 151 yards are his second-fewest this season and his 48% clip was the first time he was held below even 70% in a game as a starter.

"It's the same thing the past couple of weeks,” Freeman said when asked about the offensive game plan. "You want to run the ball and you want to take some advantage of some play action passes and the zones that they're giving you. And we weren't running the ball effectively. We also weren't passing the ball. We weren't throwing the ball as effective as we wanted to. So you have a game plan. The game plan is to run the ball and try to capitalize off of the aggressiveness of their defense and try to take some shots. And we just weren't executing, obviously, at the level we wanted to.”

Is The Offense Too Michael Mayer Reliant?

Tight end Michael Mayer had 11 catches for 118 yards in his last game against BYU to bring his season reception total to a team-leading 33, which was as many as Notre Dame’s next two reception leaders combined entering the night. Drew Pyne targeted Mayer 10 times Saturday against Stanford, many of them when Mayer was blanketed and bracketed in double coverage.

Mayer finished his night with five of Pyne’s 13 completions and too many times, Pyne seemed locked onto Mayer at the expense of other open targets on the field.

"We’ll have to go and we’ll have to see,” Freeman said when asked if the offense is too Mayer reliant. "Now, there (were) a couple times I’m like, go to Michael Mayer, he’s open. But no, I don’t think it’s that we’re too reliant on Michael Mayer. It’s just that we’re just not executing. I know you guys are going to look for a different answer, but there isn’t any. I can’t come up with a magic answer for what’s....it’s the lack of execution. And the only way to fix a lack of execution is to go back and study it and say, okay, what aren’t we doing right? And then you watch the film and you go say, okay, how are we practicing? What do we (have) to do to make sure that we are giving ourselves a chance to execute on Saturdays.”

The Tobias Touch

Freshman wide receiver Tobias Merriweather has had a strong contingent of fans and media clamoring for his inclusion in the offense, especially considering the lack of production from other Irish receivers. The Tobias trumpeters finally had their wish granted when Merriweather’s first career catch turned into a 41-yard touchdown on a deep post from Pyne.

It was Merriweather’s second target of the night. Pyne just overthrew the 6-4 receiver near the goal line in the first half. They were his only two targets of the night.

"Both of those two calls were specifically for Tobias,” Freeman explained. "We missed the first one, overthrew it a little bit. He was open, and was able to connect on the second one. We were looking for a specific coverage, we saw it and we called it, you know. That's what Tobias Merriweather can do. But he's got to continue to expand that confidence in terms of what the coaches feel like they can call with him in there. And he is. I think today will be a big confidence booster in him and his coaches.”

Did Notre Dame Overlook Stanford?

Freeman talked about the rivalry aspect of the matchup earlier this week. His team was shooting for its fourth consecutive win over a team it has now played in 25 of the last 26 years. There’s no way around the fact that the Fighting Irish were flat against the Cardinal, but did the Irish overlook their rival from Northern California?

“No,” Freeman responded flatly. “No. No. That’s not why we lost. It wasn’t a lack of overlooking anybody. It was a lack of preparation and a lack of execution. That’s not overlooking an opponent. I thought they practiced their tails off. If you overlook an opponent, I don’t think you’re preparing the way you need to prepare. But we’ve got to look and see what exactly, (we) did or we didn’t do in practice that led to the lack of execution in the game.

“(Notre Dame players) respect this rivalry. They understand, you ask every last one of them, they understand how important this game is and how important the preparation is. So, as I told them, it wasn’t a lack of effort in the game, it wasn’t a lack of effort in preparation, but it’s not correlating over to the results that you want, so we’ve got to look at what we’re doing and how we’re doing it and figure out a better way to do it.”

Is Home Not Sweet Home?

There’s an unfortunate trend that has followed the Irish so far this season. They have played better away from home against Ohio State, North Carolina and BYU than they have played in their three home games against Marshall, Cal and now Stanford. Is there a common thread to the home play versus the away play?

“No,” Freeman said. “And for me to sit up here and say yes, that would be making an excuse for why we’re losing. Why we’re not playing well. That’s not an excuse. We’re not blaming Notre Dame Stadium; you better look at yourself. If I come up here and blame Notre Dame Stadium, how foolish is that as the leader of this program? I’ve got to make sure we look at ourselves and say, okay what aren’t we doing. I’m not blaming Notre Dame Stadium for our lack of winning (and) playing good football.”

Injury Updates

Jayson Ademilola left the game in the first half and watched most of the rest of the game out of uniform on the sidelines, while TaRiq Bracy was not able to go after injuring his hamstring against BYU.

“Jayson was out,” said Freeman. “He had a rib -- said he sad a rib contusion. I don't know if he had a helmet to the rib or something. It hurts not having TaRiq out there. Jaden Mickey was his backup at nickel. It hurts not having him, and then Ramon (Henderson). But those guys battle, they battled, you know. Some guys stepped up, you know. We'll be all right. We'll be all right.”

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