What they’re saying about Notre Dame’s 31-23 loss against Clemson
Notre Dame fell 31-23 versus Dabo Swinney‘s Clemson Tigers on Saturday afternoon and dropped to 7-3 on the season.
In this article, we’ll take a look around at what the media is saying about Notre Dame’s triumph against the Panthers, including Blue & Gold’s Mike Singer and Kyle Kelly giving their instant reaction in a postgame YouTube live show. You can watch the replay of the show in the video player above.
Make sure to subscribe to the Blue & Gold YouTube channel here and tune in to The Mike Goolsby Show, which will be live on the page Sunday at 7 p.m. ET.
And now for what they’re saying….
Tyler Horka, Blue & Gold: How it’s been the same old song and dance for Notre Dame football in 2023
Medical science is one of the wonders of the world. What doctors and surgeons are able to do is truly astounding. But brace yourself for the medically influenced image I’m about to present. Just know it’s all for the sake of setting up a Notre Dame football analogy. Bear with me. It’ll all make sense in the end.
So, here goes it. Back to medicine. It’s mesmerizing someone can accidentally cut their finger off — chopping lettuce or slicing potatoes, whatever it may be — and then put the phalange on ice, bring it in to the emergency room and have somebody there put it back on for them. Toot-a-loo, send ‘em on their merry way.
Good as new? Probably not. But it’s not gone forever. It’s there. It’s functional. That’s far better than the alternative — no finger.
Notre Dame cut off its finger in Clemson. It’s on ice, and the doctor has plenty of time to perform reconstruction surgery. The Irish have their second and final bye week of the season before they host Wake Forest on Nov. 18. When that game kicks off, Notre Dame will probably roll the Demon Deacons by multiple touchdowns. Sam Hartman will get the last laugh against the team with which he spent five of his six collegiate seasons.
Jack Soble, Blue & Gold: Five thoughts—Clemson gave Notre Dame every chance to come back
Clemson punted 3 times in the fourth quarter of its 31-23 win over Notre Dame. Going back to the last 4 minutes of the third quarter, the Tigers booted it twice more.
None of those punts — all of which wound up inside the Notre Dame 15-yard line, with all but one pinning the Irish inside their own 10 — resulted in Irish points. To be clear, Clemson was trying to score. They made several mistakes, from giving up a sack to snapping the ball over sophomore quarterback Cade Klubnik’s head to botching a pitch.
The Tigers had the ball with less than two minutes to go, at the Notre Dame 24-yard line, when a field goal would have iced the game. There was no way the Tigers would risk passing the ball, so the one thing Clemson couldn’t do was fumble. And junior Irish defensive tackle Gabriel Rubio stripped junior Tigers running back Phil Mafah, giving Notre Dame one last life. Graduate quarterback Sam Hartman and the Notre Dame offense still couldn’t get it done.
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Here are the rest of this week’s five postgame thoughts.
Billy Connelly, ESPN: 2023 College Football Power Rankings after Week 10
No. 22 — Notre Dame Fighting Irish
Marcus Freeman’s Fighting Irish played maybe their two best games of the season before heading to Clemson, but they couldn’t keep the momentum going early Saturday. Red zone failures and a pick-six gave Clemson a 24-6 lead midway through the second quarter, and while Notre Dame outscored the Tigers from there, the Irish went scoreless over their final six possessions and fell 31-23. The Irish defense held Clemson to 285 total yards (4.1 per play), and Audric Estime gained 120 combined rushing and receiving yards. But Sam Hartman went a dismal 13 for 30 for just 146 yards and two interceptions, and Notre Dame fell to 7-3 overall. Any hopes for a New Year’s Six bowl bid are pretty much toast.
Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman
Opening postgame press conference statement…
“Obviously, disappointing outcome. As I told the team in the locker room, ‘That’s a really good team.’ And we knew that all week. They had four losses, but as you watch the film, it’s a good football team. It’s a Clemson football team — the record doesn’t reflect how good of a team that is.
“But when you play a good team like that, there are three or four plays in that game that if you turn the ball over, you muff a punt and turn the ball over to their offense, they end up creating an outcome that’s an 8-point loss. So, that’s the reality of it.
“Two good teams. There are plays in the game that we didn’t finish the way we needed to — finish those plays that were on the outcome. We got to be better on third down, I think, on both sides of the ball. First half defensively, but on offense, we got to be better on third down. Again, we got to get some things fixed.”
Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney
Thoughts on the win over Notre Dame…
“We won the turnover margin. And we were pretty dominant in the first half with no turnovers. In the second half, 2023 kind of showed back up. You battle again. We are a tough team to beat when we don’t beat ourselves and we take care of the ball like we did today, especially in that first half. I’m just thankful. It’s a blessing. For a minute there I thought it was going to be eight years ago all over again and come down to a two-point conversion. Thankfully that didn’t happen.
“I’m just proud of our team. We had the least amount of guys available today that we’ve had all year. We played a great football team, and we didn’t make any excuses. I told them all week, ‘Nobody cares. Nobody cares. What we don’t have, quit worrying about it. we have plenty. Let’s take what we got, and let’s go beat what they got. You guys are here. You’re on scholarship. This is an opportunity.’ And man, those guys responded. It was awesome.”