Everything Marcus Freeman said after Notre Dame loss and what it actually means

Notre Dame came up short to Ohio State in the College Football Playoff. They came in with the mindset of sticking with their game plan and it worked — until it didn’t. Riley Leonard ran the ball nine times on the opening drive helping the Fighting Irish milk 10 minutes off the clock on the game’s first possession. 

Then Notre Dame went quiet. Ohio State stalled the Fighting Irish’s run game. And at the same time, its offense was clicking. Before you knew it, Ohio State was up 31-7 and waiting to run the clock out and win its first national championship in a decade. 

Marcus Freeman was obviously frustrated with how the season went. But it came down to the Irish going with what got them to the national championship. And when it didn’t work, they had no other adjustments. 

Here’s everything Freeman said after Notre Dame’s national championship loss on Monday night in Atlanta. 

Marcus Freeman on decisive third down conversion: “It was do or die.”

Notre Dame came into the game with the mindset that defensively, they weren’t going to stray from their aggressive approach. And Ohio State simply had an answer for everything they did. When they went man, Will Howard extended plays and scrambled for first downs.

When they switched up to zone, Howard dissected the passing lanes and extended drives. Once Notre Dame got momentum in the fourth quarter and getting to within eight points, they needed one final stop to potentially tie the game. 

On third-and-long, after Ohio State ran back-to-back quarterback power plays, the Irish went back to their strength. They called a zero blitz, leaving every defensive back on an island and Howard found his target. 

He connected with Jeremiah Smith, leading to a field goal and ending any hope the Irish had of a comeback. 

“It was do or die,” Freeman said after the game. “... We got to get them stopped and we thought at that moment, the best way to get them stopped was run zero pressure.”

And it failed. Just like it always was going to. Ohio State was going to run the ball a third straight time after being behind on down and distance. They were always going to pass it. It was a setup the whole time. 

Chip Kelly knew if the Irish had a glimmer of hope, he could draw up the play he had been sitting on in his back pocket for the most important moment in the game. Freeman and the Irish played right into their hand and it cost them one final stop.

Marcus Freeman defends late-game field goal attempt despite being down two scores either way

While the zero blitz call was questionable, in that situation, it was justified. What was not justified was the abysmal call to kick a field goal inside the red zone down 16 points in the fourth quarter. 

That will join Steve Sarkisian’s sweep call from the 1-yard line in the Cotton Bowl as the worst calls a coach has made in the history of the sport because exactly what happened makes that a wasted possession. 

Sure, you have a chance to get three points instead of none if you don’t convert. But what happens when you miss the field goal and you’re still down 16 points? It was a weak call and the Irish deserved to lose after that. 

“If it was a shorter fourth-and-goal for us, I probably would have went for it,” Freeman said. “I just felt fourth-and-9 was not a great chance for us to make that. We decided to kick it and we didn’t make it.”

National championship loss doesn’t put damper on Notre Dame’s season, future

No matter how frustrated Freeman was after the game, he didn’t let that cloud what the Fighting Irish accomplished this season. He talked about the development of the team and the leadership Riley Leonard and the rest of the senior class showed during the playoff run. 

And he said because of that, the Irish are better, even after a loss in the last game of the season. 

“The outlook of Notre Dame football is extremely high,” Freeman said. “As long as the people in that locker room that come back, understand what it takes, the work that these guys put in, there’s a lot of success in the future.”