Marcus Freeman’s Fighting Irish took a half-time lead in Columbus against the Buckeyes, but came up short in the end.
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Week 1 of the 2022 season marked the start of Ryan Day’s fourth season as head coach of the Ohio State Buckeyes, and the beginning of Marcus Freeman’s first season at Notre Dame.
The difference in experience was obvious.
Notre Dame came in as a 17-point underdog on the road in Columbus, and to their credit, the Fighting Irish opened with a very methodical game plan. A 33-yard field goal set Notre Dame to score, and despite being forced to punt on the next two drives and handing over a touchdown to CJ Stroud and Emeka Egbuka, quarterback Tyler Buchner responded and the offense with a 10 -play, 87-yard touchdown drive — including a phenomenal 31-yard catch by Matt Salerno — that put them back in the lead and kept the margin as such at halftime.
The seven points that Ohio State collected in the first half marked the lowest score of the Buckeyes’ first half under Day. Notre Dame defeated Ohio State 181-149 in the first half, leading 53-50 in hasty yardage, and Buchner — a sophomore making his first career start — completed his first eight passes for 128 yards en route to an 8-out -10, 128-yard first-half effort.
That’s about where the benefits for the Fighting Irish ended.
Through a combination of adjustments on both sides of the ball, Ohio State took control in the closing stages of the third quarter and dominated much of the rest of the game. The Buckeyes nearly matched their 149-yard production in the first half with 125 yards in the third quarter alone, while holding the Fighting Irish to just 60 total yards of offense and four first downs in the quarter, two of which were via penalties. .
The Buckeyes recaptured the lead — and momentum — on a critical 10 play own score that closed in the last minute of the third quarter. After an illegal block penalty from TreVeyon Henderson moved the ball back to Notre Dame’s 34-yard line, Stroud found Xavier Johnson for a 10-yard gain to set up a more manageable third down. After largely keeping his defensive backs in deeper cover, defensive coordinator Al Golden put pressure on a blitz, the Buckeyes picked it up and Stroud found Johnson again for a 24-yard touchdown.
Only four behind, Notre Dame had a chance to come back and regain some positive energy. The Fighting Irish took the first downs on their first two plays of the drive, on a 32-yard pass from Buchner to Braden Lenzy and then a 14-yard run from Chris Tyree, but an offensive pass-interference penalty and three rushes for nine total yards brought in another punt, which pinned Ohio State to its own 5-yard line.
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Then the Buckeyes really took the game to the finish line. With just seven plays in midfield — requiring just a third — Ohio State took a 14-game, 95-yard drive that took more than seven minutes. The drive included three rushes from Henderson, three completes from Marvin Harrison Jr. (son of Hall of Famer Marvin Harrison) and eight total plays (a complete, seven rushes) for Miyan Williams, who produced the final scoring game with a two-yard touchdown run to put the Buckeyes at 21-10 with less than five minutes to play, a margin that would last until the end of the game.
Just as the Fighting Irish had run the clock well in the first half, holding more than 55 percent of the first two quarters, the Buckeyes came back into favor in the final 30 minutes, nearly doubling the time of the Irish (10:26) ) with 19 minutes and 34 seconds of offense in the second half. Day’s offense was 246 yards in the second half, while his defense kept the Fighting Irish at just 72 yards. After Buchner completed his first eight passes of the night for 128 yards, he made only two of his last 10 attempts for 49 yards. Likewise, Notre Dame’s hasty charge, who managed just 53 yards in the first half, amassed less than half of that in the second half, which amounted to just 23 yards on 12 rushes for less than two yards per attempt in the last 30 minutes.
Now, in all fairness, given the spread of this match and the overwhelmingly low odds the Fighting Irish have been given to come out victorious, and mentioning on Saturday morning that the Fighting Irish would lead three points at halftime, keep the Buckeyes and Heisman hopeful Stroud to just 21 points and under 400 total offense, while not turning the ball once, would sound to a typical Notre Dame fan like an excellent recipe for an upset Columbus win.
But credit the Ohio State coaching staff for making the right changes to both offense and defense to revive the game plan and extinguish Notre Dame’s hopes of a win. Focus on two major contributors to the Buckeyes: Williams and Henderson. In the first half, Williams rushed only four times for 20 yards, while Henderson rushed five times for 36 yards. By involving Williams more without sacrificing Henderson’s production, Day and offensive coordinator Kevin Wilson gave Williams an equal number of chances after halftime (10 att., 64 yds.) and he was also responsible for the decisive touchdown in the fourth quarter. Henderson won 55 yards on his 10 second-half carries to lead the team with 91 yards on the ground and Williams on foot with 84.
The problem for Notre Dame going forward lies in its ability to make the same adjustments, as Freeman and his staff were largely outnumbered by Day and his sidelines in the second half. Day, Wilson and defensive coordinator Jim Knowles found what worked and what didn’t — both for their groups and for Notre Dame — and made the necessary changes to bounce back from the halftime deficit and regain momentum and overall result. bring to their favour.
In both of Freeman’s two games as the FBS-level head coach (the other being the PlayStation Fiesta Bowl on New Year’s Day against Oklahoma State), Notre Dame led at halftime against a top-10 team. In both of those two games, the opponent held Notre Dame scoreless in the third quarter, rebounded offensively after a subpar first half, recaptured the lead and went on to secure the win.
Going back even further, Notre Dame capped it off with Georgia in 2017 and 2019, with the Fighting Irish ranking No. 24 and No. 7 in those matchups, respectively. Like the two losses mentioned above, the Fighting Irish led 13-10 at halftime at halftime against No. 15 Georgia (2017) and 10-7 at halftime in Athens against No. 3 Georgia (2019) before going 20- 19 and 23 lost. -17, Granted, Freeman was yet to join the team, but offensive coordinator Tommy Rees – now in his sixth season in the role – was on the staff for both losses to Georgia and is no stranger to the adjustments opponents are making. made … or the lack of it from himself and his colleagues.
As Freeman continues to build his experience at the head coaching level, he will likely find a way to make his own in-game adjustments to avoid similar demise and bounce back from a slow start.
Freeman and his staff will have to adjust their game plans and strategies to find ways to make such adjustments. But Saturday showed very clearly that those adjustments, if properly implemented, can lead to a successful Day.
— Written by Juan Jose Rodriguez, who is a member of the Athlon Contributor Network and a 2019 graduate of the University of Notre Dame. Rodriguez was an intern for Athlon in the summer of 2017 and worked for various media on campus, including as editor-in-chief of Scholastic magazine. Follow him on Twitter @JuanJoseRG02.
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