Marshall played spoiler Saturday at No. 8 Notre Dame, upsetting the Fighting Irish 26-21 in South Bend. It was a poor showing for the Irish, who are now 0-3 in Freeman’s short tenure as coach. On Saturday the Irish came out of the gates sluggish and fell behind 9-7 at halftime. Marshall’s lead grew to 12-7 entering the fourth until the Irish finally went back in front, 15-12, on a Tyler Buchner touchdown run on the first play of the fourth quarter. Although the Irish offense was in disarray, it looked like the defense could hold off the Thundering Herd and give Freeman his first win. But things changed in the last minutes. Marshall went on an 11-play, 94-yard drive to take the lead with a third-and-goal from Henry Colombi to Devin Miller. That gave the Thundering Herd a 19-15 lead, but Notre Dame still had 5:16 on the clock to avoid the upset. Instead, disaster struck. On the third play of the ensuing drive, Marshall’s Steven Gilmore stepped in front of a Buchner throw for an interception that he returned 37 yards to the house for a touchdown. From there, the shell-shocked Irish attempted a comeback but failed. On the next drive, Buchner drove the Irish into Marshall territory, but took a hard fall on his left shoulder and was ejected from the game. His backup, Drew Pyne, then threw an interception. Pyne would hit Michael Mayer for a touchdown in the final minute, but it was too little, too late as the Irish suffered an embarrassing home loss.
The themes of Notre Dame in the attack again on the screen
Notre Dame’s issues on offense were on display in the Week 1 loss at Ohio. The Irish couldn’t get much momentum going forward and the passing game was extremely underwhelming with few reliable options outside of Mayer, the All-American tight end. The story continues But those issues shouldn’t have been so apparent against Marshall, an opponent expected to be overmatched. The offensive line – which was supposed to be a major strength for this program – couldn’t open many holes for the running game. Notre Dame averaged just 3.5 yards per rush. Buchner, making his second career start, also struggled. He went just 18-of-32 for 201 yards and two interceptions through the air. Pyne, despite the late TD pass, wasn’t much better. Now it’s back to the plan for Freeman and his staff with Cal visiting next week. The Irish are 0-3 under his watch. After Brian Kelly left for LSU and Freeman was promoted to head coach late last year, Notre Dame blew a lead in a Fiesta Bowl loss to Oklahoma State. The 2022 season opener was a 21-10 loss in Columbus to the Buckeyes. Those two losses were defendable, but Saturday’s performance was a truly harsh turn of events in the early stages of a new era of Notre Dame football.
