No. 8 Notre Dame upset 26-21 by Marshall, still winless in Marcus Freeman era

Marcus Freeman is going to have to wait a small for a longer time to get his 1st gain as Notre Dame’s head coach.

Marshall performed spoiler on Saturday in No. 8 Notre Dame’s residence opener, upsetting the Preventing Irish 26-21 in South Bend. It was an unsightly effectiveness all about for the Irish, who are now -3 all through Freeman’s transient time as head coach.

On Saturday, the Irish arrived out of the gates sluggish and fell at the rear of 9-7 at halftime. The Marshall guide grew to 12-7 getting into the fourth until finally the Irish lastly went again in entrance, 15-12, with a Tyler Buchner landing operate on the 1st participate in of the fourth quarter.

Although the Irish offense was scuffling, it seemed like the defense would be equipped to keep off the Thundering Herd and give Freeman his to start with get.

But points improved in the final minutes.

Marshall embarked on an 11-play, 94-garden generate and went in advance on a third-and-objective landing go from Henry Colombi to Devin Miller. That gave the Thundering Herd a 19-15 guide, but Notre Dame however had 5:16 on the clock to avoid the upset.

In its place, catastrophe struck.

On the third engage in of the ensuing generate, Marshall’s Steven Gilmore stepped in front of a Buchner toss for an interception that he returned 37 yards to the residence for a back again-breaking touchdown.

From there, the shell-shocked Irish attempted a comeback but it failed to materialize. On the next push, Buchner led the Irish into Marshall territory but took a challenging fall on to his still left shoulder and exited the recreation. His backup, Drew Pyne, then threw an interception. Pyne would hit Michael Mayer for a landing in the final minute, but it was far too little, too late, as the Irish experienced an uncomfortable dwelling loss.

Notre Dame’s concerns on offense again on display

Notre Dame’s issues on offense had been on exhibit in the Week 1 reduction at Ohio Point out. The Irish could not get a lot of a drive up entrance and the passing activity was incredibly underwhelming with couple reliable solutions accessible outside the house of Mayer, the All-American tight finish.

Tale carries on

But those difficulties weren’t meant to be as apparent in opposition to Marshall, an opponent that was expected to be overmatched.

The offensive line — supposed to be a big energy for this software — could not open a lot of holes for the running game. Notre Dame averaged just 3.5 yards for every hurry. Buchner, producing his second career start off, struggled as effectively. He went just 18-of-32 for 201 yards and two interceptions by means of the air. Pyne, irrespective of the late TD pass, wasn’t much better.

Now it truly is back to the drawing board for Freeman and his employees with Cal viewing up coming 7 days.

The Irish are -3 beneath his enjoy. Immediately after Brian Kelly left for LSU and Freeman was elevated to head coach late very last 12 months, Notre Dame blew a guide in a Fiesta Bowl loss to Oklahoma Condition. To open the 2022 year was the 21-10 decline in Columbus to the Buckeyes.

People two losses were defensible, but Saturday’s overall performance was a seriously tough flip of activities in the early phases of a new period of Notre Dame soccer.