Breaking down what went wrong for Notre Dame having 10 men on field

There’s no guaranteeing Notre Dame would have stopped Ohio State‘s late touchdown this past Saturday, even if the Irish would have had all 11 defenders on the field. With that said, playing with 10 players for the last two plays certainly didn’t help.

On3’s Andy Staples was on Pardon My Take earlier this week, after speaking with Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman about what happened on the final two plays.

Freeman shared with Staples what went wrong for the Irish.

“They did not find out right after that second-down play, because if it would’ve been right after the second-down play, which was an incomplete pass, you just run somebody out onto the field,” Staples explained. “They found out as Ohio State was lined up, ready to go.”

With Ohio State already lined up ready to run a play, it limited Notre Dame’s options. The Irish would have been offsides if they would have sprinted a defender onto the field. It didn’t help that Notre Dame was out of timeouts.

“The ball’s on the far hash, down in the end zone. The coach can’t go past the 30. So he’s like, ‘We can’t run somebody on, because they won’t make it across the line of scrimmage in time. They’ll snap it and it’s a free play.’ You just drop the flag and the play goes on,” Staples said. “So even if you stop them, then you have to stop them again.”

Ultimately, Freeman and Notre Dame wanted to purposely commit a penalty and give Ohio State half the distance to the goal. However, what they didn’t want to do is give the Buckeyes two opportunities to score a touchdown.

“He did want to cause a penalty. What he didn’t want to cause was a free play,” Staples said of Freeman.

Moving forward, that shouldn’t be an issue for Notre Dame. Freeman and the Irish put together a plan to ensure that a similar situation doesn’t happen again.

“The only way to do it is to get one of your defensive players to touch an offensive player. And they had no way, because it’s too loud. So they have now created a signal,” Staples said. “So the cornerback nearest their sideline, for now on, there will be a signal to that guy, if you need it – touch the receiver and get the official’s attention.”

Notre Dame will look to bounce back from the heartbreaking loss to Ohio State this weekend when the Irish face another top 20 team in Duke. ESPN’s College GameDay will be in town for the matchup, which kicks off at 7:30 p.m.