First-half woes doom Notre Dame, Irish fall to Clemson

CLEMSON, S.C. — Notre Dame hoped Xavier Watts’ interception, which led to a touchdown to bring the Irish within eight points (24-16) in the early third quarter, would serve as a spark. Watts’ seventh of the season and fifth in the past three games could have ignited an Irish comeback.

Instead, it was merely a band-aid.

Clemson drove down the field way too easily for Notre Dame’s liking on its ensuing possession. When junior running back Phil Mafah reached the ball across the goal line to take a 31-16 lead, the Memorial Stadium crowd erupted. They were starved for a big win this season, and they finally got one.

The Tigers beat the Irish 31-23 on Saturday in Clemson, S.C., to improve to 5-4. Notre Dame fell to 7-3, ending its hopes of reaching a New Year’s Six bowl game.

“Own where we’re at,” Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman said. “Own it. We’re 7-3 right now. And we got two opportunities to go out there and go compete. We gotta improve in these next two weeks.”

Starting with Clemson’s second offensive drive, almost everything went wrong for Notre Dame in the first half.

Trailing 3-0, Mafah gave the Death Valley crowd reason to roar. He found a seam up the middle and outran everybody for a 41-yard touchdown, putting the Tigers up by four. Mafah and redshirt junior Dominique Thomas ran wild, combining for 39 carries and 202 yards rushing (5.2 yards per carry) in the game.

The Irish had chances to respond, but they kept digging themselves a bigger hole.

Notre Dame senior punt returner Chris Tyree let a ball hit his facemask, deflecting right into the arms of Clemson junior long snapper Philip Florenzo. The dominant Irish pass defense fell apart at the worst time, allowing a drive in which Clemson sophomore quarterback Cade Klubnik connected on 6 of 6 throws for 59 yards and a touchdown.

Most damaging of all, graduate student quarterback Sam Hartman forced a pass to sophomore tight end Holden Staes that Clemson junior linebacker Jeremiah Trotter Jr. intercepted. Trotter had nothing but green grass ahead of him, giving the Tigers a 24-6 lead at the time.

“We can’t do those things,” Freeman said. “I still believe in cause and effect. It’s not luck. We didn’t just muff the punt because we’re unlucky. We didn’t throw a pick-six because we’re unlucky. We gotta figure out why that happened, and how do we fix it.”

After pulling within eight a second time, 31-23, Notre Dame got the ball back in a position to come back and win several times. But Hartman — who threw his second interception with just less than two minutes to play — and the Irish passing game couldn’t get it done.

“We had ample opportunities to score,” Hartman said. “We had ample opportunities to make plays, and frankly, I just didn’t make them.”

Notre Dame will enter its Week 11 bye with a lot to think about on the long flight home. The Irish could have all but cemented a successful season with a win in Death Valley against a .500 Clemson team reeling from a loss to North Carolina State. 

Instead, the Notre Dame offense looked overmatched down the stretch against a Clemson defense missing four starters: two at safety, one at defensive end and one at cornerback. In the fourth quarter, Notre Dame went 4-of-14 passing, rushed 5 times for 17 yards and only picked up 2 first downs.

“Every coach, every player in that locker room has to own where we’re at,” Freeman said. “There’s no magic formula to improve. There’s no magic formula. It’s hard work, and it’s the only thing we know how to do.”

The Irish will play their last two games for a one-win improvement over their 2022 campaign. The first one kicks off at 3:30 p.m. ET on Nov. 18 against Wake Forest in South Bend.