What Marcus Freeman Said Following Notre Dame's Stunning Loss to Texas A&M

Unfortunately for Notre Dame, right now there are a lot of questions following an 0-2 start but there aren't many answers. The Fighting Irish dropped a heart-breaker Saturday night in South Bend, falling 41-40 against Texas A&M after the Aggies scored a touchdown with just 13 seconds to play.

Notre Dame moves to 0-2 on the season, and seemingly 1,000 miles from where it ended last year. Marcus Freeman met the media following the loss. Here are the key takeaways from his press conference.

Marcus Freeman Says Defense Isn't Doing Enough

It's not good enough. Not good enough in the run and pass, not good enough getting
pressure on the quarterback. We had some unexpected injuries but it doesn't matter. You're on the field we've got to put you in position to make plays.

We didn't play well enough -- I thought the second half we came out and played better. We started the second half better, but I put them in a bad situation. We didn't convert the fourth-and-one offensively. They got the ball, I think at the minus 49 and ended up getting a field goal. But then the last three, that series and the two series after that, you give up another field goal, and then TD at the end of the
game. So it's a lot of work. It's not good enough. I haven't watched it. I can't tell you specifically who, what scheme. I'm not blaming anybody. We gotta do better it's not good enough.

Nick's Take: The defense played much better in the second half than the first as a whole, but for the second game in a row, when it came to making a play to end Texas A&M's last scoring threat, it failed to do so. Just like against Miami two weeks ago.

What Now for 0-2 Notre Dame?

You gotta go to work and practice and get better. We're 0-2. So what do you control? You
control getting better and getting ready for the next one. I can't sit here and dwell on being 0-2 as much as I need to dwell on how do we find ways to improve. That's what I need to dwell on is how do we get better. How do we evaluate what we're doing, why things are and aren't working and how do we attack them and get better? So we're 0-2, lost to two good opponents. We're guaranteed 12, that's what we always say. We've got the next one coming up soon.

Nick's Take: It's two games but it feels like Saturday night killed Notre Dame's season. Sure, it can make the College Football Playoff still, but any chance of a home game in the first round is done, and there are so many other things that need to get right that it feels absurd to even worry about at this point.

Notre Dame's Pass Defense Woes

Probably multiple, different things. Early in the game, probably playing -- we were playing a
little bit more zone and not getting enough pressure on the guy and some guys were running free, made some big plays. Kind of attacked Mark on the one, (indiscernible) games. And he's got to learn. That's it. We've got you out there for a reason. Go out there again. And if they throw a
double move on you, go make the play. You've got to learn sometimes by losing.

But I don't know specifically like why all the pass yardage was happening. I know there were some big plays. That's the number one reason -- it is the explosive plays. Why were there explosive plays? I'm sure it's about pressure, I'm sure it's about the coverage. There's probably a lot of reasons. I'll let you know when I see you guys on Monday. But it wasn't good enough with the standard.

Nick's Take: It'd be different if it felt like there was a broken play here or there that sprung things. Through two games this team feels a ton like the 2013 Notre Dame team did. Fresh off a national championship, it couldn't get stops early in the year and gave up 41 points in an early season loss to a rather middling Michigan team. Notre Dame has a ton to fix in a short amount of time or another 8-5 type year could be brewing.

Any Chance of Changing Defensive Playcaller?

No, no. It's not the call. It's the execution, and I've always believed that. I think sometimes
calling things -- I've been a play caller -- at times can be overrated as much as it's the execution of that play call. So that's what we've got to evaluate. Maybe we'll look and say we probably shouldn't have called this in that situation. There's things you always look at. At the end of the day, why aren't we able to execute in a way that we believe we need to and should? That's the question we've got to get answered.

Nick's Take: So two games into the Chris Ash era and things sound a ton like they did when Brian Van Gorder was calling Notre Dame's defense in 2015 and 2016. There are let downs and there are epic failures and two games into Ash's time, it's been an epic failure for what was hyped as an elite Notre Dame defense.

On the Use of the Wildcat vs. Texas A&M

We're just trying to look for a way in versus challenging all things to get some rush yardage. It wasn't just short yardage, it was mainly short yardage, but you can get the ball into J Love's hand and let him go to work and do some things. We'll see if we expand the package, we continue to use it. I always believe in fix the things that you're not having success in and you enhance the things you're doing well. We did that well, for the most part, so I'm sure we'll find ways to enhance it.

Nick's Take: I rolled my eyes and got tired of seeing it on Saturday night too, but the trouble Notre Dame is having getting going in the run game, Jeremiyah Love better start working on his throwing because I don't think the Wildcat use is going away anytime soon, and you're going to need to throw off of it at some point.