What they’re saying after Notre Dame football loss to Marshall
In a stunner, Notre Dame, a program that came into the game as a three touchdown favorite, fell 26-21 against Marshall, a team from the Sun Belt Conference.
It should have been a tune-up game for the Irish to get back on track after falling 21-10 against Ohio State a week ago, but now the Fighting Irish are off to a rocky start in the Marcus Freeman era, dropping the first two games of the 2022 season.
We’ll take a look around at what the media is saying about Notre Dame’s loss and start of the season, including Blue & Gold’s Mike Singer and Tim Hyde giving their instant reaction in a postgame live YouTube show.
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 at 7 p.m. ET Sunday.
And for a handful of written reactions, including our own at Blue & Gold, continue reading below.
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Patrick Engel, Blue & Gold: Notre Dame tumbles in home opener against Marshall
Marcus Freeman’s home debut at Notre Dame head coach ended in stunning fashion. The Irish lost to Marshall 26-21 Saturday, dropping to 0-2 this season and leaving him still in search of his first victory. Here are five thoughts on what transpired.
1. Line problems continue
Freeman has expressed his desire to create an offensive and defensive line-driven program countless times since his hiring. Two games in, Notre Dame is far from that. And Saturday, the Irish saw a Group of Five opponent come to their home venue and outplay them on both lines.
As if Marshall adding a win to their $1.25 million paycheck for playing the game wasn’t humbling enough.
The Thundering Herd’s 219 rushing yards on 50 attempts isn’t eye-popping efficiency. Notre Dame allowing 163 yards on 31 carries to running back Khalan Laborn, though, is another disappointing outing for a front seven that should be a strength on paper. Marshall’s offensive line generated consistent push. It moved Notre Dame’s defensive line at will on a few possessions.
There’s too much raw talent and depth for Notre Dame’s defensive line not to find itself, but its first two weeks have featured too many out of character moments.
On the other side, Notre Dame’s offensive line followed a bumpy opener at Ohio State with a marginally better performance that still wasn’t enough to produce a steady rushing attack. Through two games, the Irish have produced 206 rushing yards on 67 attempts, a 3.07 per-carry average. Remove sack yardage, and the yards per carry only climbs to 3.85. The 39 running back carries over two games have totaled 115 yards (2.95 yards per rush).
Tyler Horka, Blue & Gold: Grading Notre Dame football in loss to Marshall
This is foreign territory for Notre Dame football. The Fighting Irish hadn’t started a season 0-2 since 2011 until Saturday’s loss to Marshall at home dropped them to that mark to begin the 2022 campaign.
Offensive coordinator Tommy Rees was Notre Dame’s starter then. He’s in charge of a meager offense yet again. Here’s how Rees and the rest of Notre Dame’s players and coaches graded in the 26-21 loss to the Thundering Herd.
Notre Dame Passing Offense: C-
Rees and the Irish actually tried to air it out a bit with 36 pass attempts, exactly twice as many as were thrown against Ohio State in Week 1.
Execution? Proliferation? Efficiency? Same old story.
Sophomore starter Tyler Buchner was 18-of-32 for 201 yards. He threw two interceptions, the second of which was essentially a game-sealing pick-six for Marshall. Buchner gave way to junior backup Drew Pyne, who promptly threw an interception himself with Notre Dame trailing by 11 points with less than five minutes left.
It was encouraging to see sophomore wide receiver Lorenzo Styles bump his production up from one catch in Week 1 to seven catches in Week 2. Junior tight end Michael Mayer was a force with eight catches for 103 yards and a touchdown. But outside of that, Notre Dame did not have any consistency or a threatening presence with its other pass-catchers. Fifth-year senior Braden Lenzy had one catch for five yards on five targets, for instance. Just not good enough.
Sam Cooper, Yahoo! Sports: No. 8 Notre Dame upset 26-21 by Marshall, still winless in Marcus Freeman era
Notre Dame’s issues on offense again on display
Notre Dame’s issues on offense were on display in the Week 1 loss at Ohio State. The Irish couldn’t get much of a push up front and the passing game was extremely underwhelming with few reliable options available outside of Mayer, the All-American tight end.
But those issues weren’t supposed to be as evident against Marshall, an opponent that was expected to be overmatched.
The offensive line — supposed to be a major strength for this program — couldn’t open many holes for the running game. Notre Dame averaged just 3.5 yards per rush. Buchner, making his second career start, struggled as well. He went just 18-of-32 for 201 yards and two interceptions through the air. Pyne, despite the late TD pass, wasn’t much better.
Now it’s back to the drawing board for Freeman and his staff with Cal visiting next week.
The Irish are 0-3 under his watch. After Brian Kelly left for LSU and Freeman was elevated to head coach late last year, Notre Dame blew a lead in a Fiesta Bowl loss to Oklahoma State. To open the 2022 season was the 21-10 loss in Columbus to the Buckeyes.
Those two losses were defensible, but Saturday’s performance was a really rough turn of events in the early stages of a new era of Notre Dame football.
Tom Noie, South Bend Tribune: This program? Answers won’t be easy for Notre Dame
SOUTH BEND — At 5:54 p.m. on a Saturday that was supposed to serve as a celebration, everything we thought we knew about this No. 8 Notre Dame football team, about this coaching staff, about the rookie head coach, effectively evaporated into the Northern Indiana evening.
Poof. All the feel-good vibes are over. Gone. Like that, it’s all become difficult to dissect.
This was supposed to be a day remembered for when Marcus Freeman registered his first win on the Notre Dame sideline. Against an opponent that came to town nearly a three-touchdown underdog. After a hard game the first time out against No.2 Ohio State, Notre Dame would find its collective footing, boat-race Marshall and when it was over, have the game ball handed to the first-year head coach.
Instead, the Irish had their lunch handed to them. In the trenches. On the outside. Across the field. How’s it taste?
Nobody saw this season going sideways this soon. Sideways it has gone after a 26-21 loss to a team from the Sun Belt Conference. Ugh.
“We have to look at ourselves as individuals,” Freeman said. “We all have to look ourselves, the head coach on down, and say, ‘What do I have to do, what do we have to do to fix these issues that we’re having?’”
Pete Sampson, The Athletic: Marcus Freeman is 0-3 at Notre Dame, and every shred of Irish optimism is in question
SOUTH BEND, Ind. — Jarrett Patterson wanted no part of it, his jersey and shoulder pads already off in the immediate aftermath of Notre Dame’s 26-21 loss to Marshall. The two-time captain, returning from a foot injury that sidelined him for the season opener at Ohio State, was headed up the tunnel in the south end zone of Notre Dame Stadium before he was pulled back onto the field by Irish director of player development Hunter Bivin to sing the alma mater. Cam Hart was led back to the scene by Bivin, too, as No. 8 Notre Dame swallowed medicine it never expected to take on Saturday.
This was supposed to be a celebration of Notre Dame’s new era under Marcus Freeman, the first-time head coach with the sharp image so many were quick to embrace. Freeman brought back pregame Mass in the Basilica and the walk to the stadium, known with some hubris as the Victory March. Freeman was supposed to get his first win, Tyler Buchner was supposed to throw his first touchdown passes as a starter and Notre Dame was supposed to enter its first evidence that its new head coach might take the program to a place the old head coach could not.
