What they’re saying about Notre Dame’s 16-14 loss against NIU
After a thrilling win against Texas A&M to start the season, Notre Dame laid an egg in its home opener, dropping a 16-14 contest against NIU.
In this article, we’ll take a look around at what the media is saying about the Fighting Irish’s setback against the Huskies, including Blue & Gold’s Mike Singer and Tim Hyde giving their instant reaction to the game in a YouTube live show. You can watch the replay of the show in the video player above.
And now for what they’re saying….
Tyler Horka, Blue & Gold: How Notre Dame QB Riley Leonard didn’t do enough in upsetting Irish loss to NIU
f Notre Dame’s Riley Leonard experiment was like putting together IKEA furniture we’d be at the point in the process where you thought you were rolling right along, following all the steps, but things aren’t coming together like they should. So instead of staring at a finished product you’re staring at the instructions like, “Did they give me all the necessary equipment? Is this even the right sheet for this dresser?”
Confusion. Angst. The urge to go back to the store and get your money back. We’ve all been there with a for-home purchase. Is Notre Dame already there with Leonard after he went 20 of 31 for 163 yards with 0 touchdown passes and 2 interceptions, the latter of which was of the game-costing variety, in a 16-14 loss to Northern Illinois in South Bend on Saturday?
No. Not quite. But causes for concern are multiplying like scratches of the head when the pieces aren’t coming together with that darn dresser.
“Everybody’s going to try to point the finger at somebody, some side of the ball, one play, one person,” Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman said when Blue & Gold asked about Leonard’s level of play.
Leonard pointed the finger at himself.
“Can’t happen,” Leonard said of his second INT, a fourth-quarter turnover that led to NIU’s game-winning touchdown. “Completely my fault. I got to fix it.”
Jack Soble, Blue & Gold: Notre Dame left energy, intensity, urgency in College Station
In Week 1 at Texas A&M, Notre Dame played with its hair on fire.
It started with Irish head coach Marcus Freeman’s intentional display of passion and energy as the team walked out of the tunnel, meant to take the pressure off his young offensive linemen. It continued into the first quarter, when the amped-up visitors flew to the football and made everything the Aggies did difficult.
Even when Notre Dame made mistakes, it did so at full-speed. But it didn’t make a ton of mistakes, because it played with a sense of urgency that matched the magnitude of the game.
Where was that in the home opener against Northern Illinois? Where was any of it?
After an opening-drive touchdown put the Irish up 7-0, senior NIU running back Antario Brown slipped between freshman linebacker Kyngstonn Viliamu-Asa and junior cornerback Benjamin Morrison on a simple route. Just like that, he was gone for an 83-yard touchdown. Last week’s Notre Dame team doesn’t let that happen, nor does it suffer a coverage bust that left Brown uncovered for a 43-yard gain on the next possession.
Last week’s Notre Dame team also shows much more resistance up front, as Brown and the Huskies ran the ball nearly at will. Even the fans that made the trip were more into it than the ones in South Bend, who produced the saddest, quietest “Mo Bamba” rendition known to college football in the second quarter.
Who could blame them? There wasn’t much to get excited about.
“If you’re not motivated to play in Notre Dame Stadium, then that’s a choice,” Freeman said. “It’s a choice. Motivation is a choice.”
If that’s the case, many members of the Fighting Irish chose the wrong option.
Here are four more thoughts from Saturday’s Notre Dame loss.
Ian Casselberry, Yahoo! Sports: Where does Notre Dame’s stunning loss fall among the biggest upsets in college football history?
Northern Illinois went into South Bend as 28.5-point underdogs for its Week 2 matchup versus Notre Dame. A rout seemed like a near-certainty for the No. 5 team in the nation coming off a season-opening victory over Texas A&M.
However, the Huskies flipped that script by stunning the Fighting Irish in a 16-14 upset on a field goal by Kanon Woodill with 31 seconds remaining in the game.
Northern Illinois’ win was certainly impressive when taking the rankings into consideration. And a program from the Mid-American Conference (MAC) defeating one of college football’s traditional powers is notable. But how impressive was the Huskies’ win in terms of point spread?
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Surprisingly, a 28.5-point upset isn’t even among the top 10 biggest point spread upsets of all time. But it is among the top 15 biggest point spread upsets of the past 45 years. Three previous teams have won as 28.5-point underdogs, according to Action Network:
Ralph D. Russo, AP: 3 years in at Notre Dame, Marcus Freeman is again explaining a stunning loss
Marcus Freeman still has not mastered the most underrated part of being a college football coach at a blue-blood school: Beat the teams you’re supposed to beat.
The Notre Dame coach can now add a stunning home loss Saturday to 28-point underdog Northern Illinois to a resume that already includes being upset at home by Marshall and a Stanford team that was in the midst of a 3-9 season back in 2022.
“We’ve been here before,” Freeman told reporters.
Sort of. This one is far worse.
This is Year 3 of Freeman leading the Fighting Irish. He’s still a young coach at 38 years old, but inexperienced isn’t an excuse anymore. Neither for Freeman nor his team.
“It’s our job as coaches to make sure these guys are ready to go. I’ve always said performance is a reflection of preparation,” he said.
Notre Dame came into Week 2 ranked fifth, coming off a quality road win over Texas A&M and looking like a team with maybe the most manageable path to the College Football Playoff in the country — starting with a Mid-American Conference team at home.
Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman
Opening statement from postgame press conference:
“Obviously disappointing. Disappointing in the performance. You know, it’s our job as coaches to make sure these guys are ready to go.
“We’ve got to go back and evaluate the way we prepared and figure out exactly the mishaps that occurred in the preparation. I’ve always said performance is a reflection of preparation. We’ve got to figure out where we failed in preparation.
“It’s disappointing. You go from the highest of highs to the lowest of lows in a tale of two weeks, but we’ve got to own this thing. As coaches and players, we’ve got to own it, and we’ve got to fix it.
“We’ve been here before, right? We’ve been here before. Now it’s time to get it fixed. We’ve got to get it fixed and get back to playing football the way we know how to play, we’ve played before, and we can, and we will.”
Everything Freeman said in his postgame press conference
