Notre Dame Must Learn To Finish If It's Going To Take The Next Step

We learned quite a lot about Notre Dame during its 17-14 loss to Ohio State, and the range of that knowledge is quite broad. We learned plenty of positives from the game, and any dismissing of the positives from the game is short-sighted and emotional. We also learned that Notre Dame is still an almost program, meaning it's a program that can almost win these huge spotlight games.

Notre Dame had its chances against the 6th-ranked Buckeyes, who are considered a top tier program along with Georgia and Alabama. A victory over Ohio State would have given the Irish the kind of marquee victory the program has lacked for decades.

We learned that Notre Dame has a roster with the talent to go toe-to-toe with a team like Ohio State in the trenches and on the perimeter. Notre Dame's offensive line out-played the Buckeye front for much of the game, and Notre Dame's elite cornerback tandem of Benjamin Morrison and Cam Hart held Ohio State's elite receiving corps of Marvin Harrison Jr. and Emeka Egbuka to just four catches for 37 yards in their individual matchups.

We learned Notre Dame's running back room is truly loaded, with the Irish backs racking up 176 yards to just 117 for the talented Buckeye runners.

We learned there are parts of the team where Notre Dame showed it must continue to get better .... a lot better. My confidence in those areas getting addressed are sky high thanks to what Marcus Freeman and Chad Bowden have shown as recruiters in a very short period of time.

But we learned that Notre Dame is not where it needs to be yet, and we learned the biggest issue for the program right now comes down to one word.

Finish.

For all the good Notre Dame did on Saturday, in the end it didn't really matter, because they couldn't finish when they needed to. I'm not just talking about the end of the game sequence, which I will get to. For 60 minutes Notre Dame showed it is a darn good football team with a lot of talent, but that entire time it also showed it's not a program that is not able to finish in the biggest moments in the biggest game of the season.

It started out of the gate.

Notre Dame's first offensive drive went 71 yards on 14 plays, but it ended with no points after quarterback Sam Hartman was stopped short on a sprint to the sideline on a 4th-and-1.

Notre Dame once again got into Ohio State territory on its next drive, but again they came up empty on the scoreboard after Spencer Shrader missed his fourth field goal of the season.

Notre Dame took its first possession of the second half into Ohio State territory, but a 4th-and-1 quarterback sneak fell short. For as good as the Notre Dame line played in the game, on that crucial play it couldn't get the movement needed to move the chains. There was a lot about the game plan of Gerad Parker that I liked, but this is one of those plays I hope he wishes he could take back, choosing to sneak the ball with Hartman instead of riding the broad shoulders - and 230-pound frame - of Audric Estime.

Four possessions, three got into Ohio State territory, zero points.

Notre Dame's next two possessions ended with touchdowns and the team took a 14-10 lead in the fourth quarter. The Irish defense answered the second touchdown by stopping Ohio State on 4th-and-1, giving the offense the football with just 4:12 left in the game.

It seemed as though Notre Dame's time wandering in the desert of football obscurity - from an on-field product standpoint - was over. The Irish offense needed just a few first downs and the game was over.

it started off very well, with Hartman hitting Rico Flores Jr. for a 12-yard gain to start the drive, and Estime followed up with an 11-yard gain. A couple more runs like that from the nation's leading rusher and the game is over, the Irish would win, the drought would be over.

But the Irish offense couldn't finish.

Estime came off the field after his 11-yard gain and the Irish tried handing the ball off to freshman Jeremiyah Love, but Hartman seemed to turn the wrong way initially, resulting in a 5-yard loss. A screen pass to Jadarian Price was broken up, and the Irish ran for just three yards on 3rd-and-15.

Estime wasn't on the field for any of the final three plays. Parker did a masterful job mixing in his talented young backs throughout the game, which meant Estime had just 13 carries coming into the final drive. You mix in those talented young backs to keep Estime fresh, so when the game is on the line you can ride your workhorse to victory, but Notre Dame didn't do that here, and it proved costly.

Even with that failure to run out the clock, the defense needed to hold Ohio State to 64 yards or less on the final drive, with just 1:26 left on the clock. Ohio State faced a 3rd-and-10, a 4th-and-7 and a 3rd-and-19 on the final five. Make one stop in either of those situations and the game is over.

For all the good the Notre Dame defense did in the game, when the game was in its final moments, the moments where champions truly emerge, the Irish faltered. They blew chance after chance on the final drive, and the Buckeyes punched the ball into the end zone with just one second left in the game.

The failures were on the field and on the sideline.

Facing a 4th-and-7, and with Ohio State having very little rhythm on the drive, Notre Dame chose to call a timeout. Instead of forcing first-year starting quarterback Kyle McCord into a rushed 4th-and-7 situation on a drive where he had yet to look overly comfortable, Notre Dame allowed him and the offense to regroup and talk through what would come next.

McCord hit wideout Julian Fleming on a crossing route for just enough yards to move the chains. On the very next play, safety DJ Brown stepped in front of an Ohio State pass catcher for what would have been a game-clinching interception, but instead it sailed through his hands.

After an intentional grounding penalty just five players later, Ohio State faced a 3rd-and-19 situation. Defensive coordinator Al Golden had mixed up a lot of pressure looks on the series, which is a big reason why the Buckeyes faced multiple 3rd-and-longs and a 4th-and-7 on the drive. Instead of sticking with what got them there, Golden had his players back off. Notre Dame rushed just three defenders and dropped eight, a look at that had not worked all night.

They played it safe, and it cost them.

Ohio State completed a seam throw to get down to the 1-yard line, and after Ohio State spiked the ball on the next play the Irish called a timeout .... their final timeout.

Notre Dame needed two stops and the game is over, and they win.

Coming out of the timeout, Notre Dame had just 10 players on the field. It's an inexcusable mistake from a coaching and player standpoint, one that should have been rectified. Even if Freeman had saved the 4th-and-7 timeout, Notre Dame would not have been able to use a second consecutive timeout.

The Irish were fortunate and broke up the 1st-and-goal throw. At that moment, the Irish should have hustled the missing defender onto the field as the referees attempted to spot the ball. Thirty-five seconds of real time went by before the ball was snapped on the fateful game-winning play, and at no point did anyone from the sideline attempt to run on the field.

In the final huge moment of the game, Notre Dame failed to get enough players on the field, and Ohio State still barely got into the end zone.

Coach Freeman has said often that Notre Dame can't beat Notre Dame, but that's exactly what happened against the Buckeyes. Yes, Ohio State's players did a lot of good things as well, but in the biggest moments, the game-changing moments, the game-deciding moments, it wasn't as much about the Buckeyes beating Notre Dame as it was about Notre Dame beating Notre Dame.

They just could not finish.

That's the frustrating part of the entire game. Ohio State did some good things, but until the final three minutes the Irish were the better football team, clearly so.

But they could not finish at the player level or the coaching level.

Notre Dame had every chance to go out and seize the game, to make the winning plays, but they could not finish.

That is the final task for Coach Freeman as he looks to build Notre Dame into an elite program. The talent is getting better, and the 2023 class is evidence of that. With what the Irish have in the 2024 and 2025 classes already, Notre Dame is going to get another huge infusion of talent in coming seasons. The team is physical, much more so than the squad he inherited as head coach. Notre Dame has come a long way in a short period of time, but we are still here in that "almost" phase.

We are going to learn a lot about Freeman as a coach and this Notre Dame football team over the next week as we evaluate how they respond to this crushing loss. If they can quickly bounce back, and use this loss as fuel to become even better, it could be the kind of look back moment where you realize that adversity turned you into the best version of yourself.

Notre Dame showed toughness against Ohio State, it showed heart, but it also showed it cannot finish .... at least not yet.

If Notre Dame wants to be the best version of itself they have to learn how to finish like champions.

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