Marcus Freeman deserves Ryan Day-level criticism for explanation over Notre Dame FG

Notre Dame refused to quit despite a big deficit in the College Football Playoff national championship game against Ohio State on Monday night. But while they made the Buckeyes sweat, the Irish's fourth-quarter rally wound up falling just short — and they have their head coach, at least partly, to blame. (Well, that and Jeremiah Smith.)

Trailing 31-7 in the third quarter, Notre Dame found itself on the precipice of making it a one-score game, with the ball on the Ohio State eight-yard line down 31-15 with more than 10 minutes still remaining. But after the drive stalled out at the nine, Freeman elected not to go for it, calling on Mitch Jeter for a field goal attempt. Jeter promptly missed, and while the Irish got a stop and defense and another score to pull within 31-23, that was as close as the team would get.

Even in the moment, Freeman's decision raised eyebrows around the country. Even if Jeter had made the kick, Notre Dame would still have needed two touchdowns; was forgoing a crack at the end zone inside the 10 really worth an extra three points? Freeman still thought so after the game, but his argument wasn't terribly convincing.

Marcus Freeman's explanation for late Notre Dame field goal attempt doesn't add up

Asked about the decision after the game, Freeman didn't hesitate to explain — and defend — his thinking.

"I think it was fourth and nine or 10, and I just thought, ‘Instead of being down 16, let’s try to go down 13.’ I know it’s still a two-score game, but you have a better probability of getting 14 points than you do 16 points. If it was a shorter fourth-and-goal situation, I probably would have gone for it, but I just felt fourth-and-9 was not a great chance for us to make that and decided to kick it."

On the surface, you can understand the thought process here. Notre Dame's odds of scoring on fourth-and-goal from the nine weren't great, especially considering just how good Ohio State's red zone defense has been this season. But while we're calculating odds, is it more likely that the Irish convert, cash in the two-point conversion, get a stop and score again, or that they kick it, make it, then get two stops while scoring two more touchdowns?

The answer sure seems to be the former. Notre Dame had a difficult time stopping Ohio State's offense all night, and asking them to do so two more times in order to pull even was doomed to fail — which we can say for certain, as Will Howard's long bomb to Smith on third down set up a field goal that salted the game away. Being down 13 is certainly better than being down 16, but Freeman needed to maximize every possession his team got, and not doing so left his team with too steep a mountain to climb.