Northern Illinois Stuns "Average" Notre Dame In South Bend

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SOUTH BEND, Ind. — Coming off a huge win in College Station over a 20th-ranked Texas A&M just a week ago, the Notre Dame Fighting Irish seemed poised to continue their winning ways in what was expected by many to be an inferior opponent in Northern Illinois in front of a packed house at their home stadium in South Bend.

But, as many of us know, the sport of college football can be as fickle as all get out. The Huskies of Northern Illinois, picked in the preseason to finish third in the MAC, stunned the Notre Dame Fighting, picked by many to be a contender for the revamped college football playoff.

The Notre Dame offense was simply anemic all day long and the Huskies took advantage blocking two Irish field goals, outgaining the Irish offense by over 100 yards, and taking their biggest win in school history by a final score of 16-14.

“Disappointing. Disappointing,” head coach Marcus Freeman said. “It’s our job to make sure these guys are prepared. We have to go out and evaluate where we failed in our preparation.”

The game started well for the Irish with new quarterback Riley Leonard leading a Notre Dame charge on the opening drive of the game to go up 7-0. NIU, undeterred by the gravity of the environment they were playing in, benefited from moving through some big holes in a porous Irish defense, and quickly noted the score at 7-7 off a 5 play, 98-yard drive capped off by a 55-yard touchdown pass by NIU quarterback Ethan Hampton to Antario Brown.

Notre Dame would not respond throughout the rest of the first half as NIU continued to wrack up the yards on the ground. The Huskies averaged 9.1 yards per play in the first half, while Notre Dame averaged a mere 4.8 yards per play. That was despite Notre Dame running more offensive plays and having more time of possession than the Huskies.

“I think about the explosive plays in the first half,” Freeman said. “We let the ball get outside of us too much. That’s not the Notre Dame defense that we have built over the last four years. We gotta get it fixed.”

Notre Dame also had a field goal blocked with 1:41 left in the second quarter, a beautifully athletic play made by the Huskies’ special teams unit.

The Irish took a 13-7 deficit into halftime after giving up two field goals to NIU kicker Kanon Woodall, who also missed a 48-yard field goal in the first half.

The Irish came out rejuvenated in the 3rd quarter after the defense held NIU to a punt on their opening drive of the half. The Irish followed that up with a six-play, 64-yard drive that was capped off by a 34-yard scamper for a touchdown by Jeremiyah Brown.

Leading 14-13 with a quarter and a half to play, Notre Dame appeared poised to bust the game open as the defense kept holding and holding NIU drive after drive to 4th downs. But, in doing so, NIU kept moving the ball and being persistent like a prize fighter refusing to stay down for the count.

NIU kept getting the aforementioned explosive plays on the ground with running backs Antario Brown and Gavin Williams. By the end of the day, NIU would carry the ball 45 times for 190 yards.

“They have a good stretch running game,” Freeman said. “We had some missed tackles and two or three times they would get around the edge. When you are a man coverage team, that thing is going to go for a while. We have to improve defensively.”

Still, the defense bent but did not break well into the fourth quarter. It was up to the offense, which had three-and-out after three-and-out in that same span and could not add to their ever-so-slight lead.

Part of the issue Notre Dame had with their lackluster performance on offense added up to Leonard’s inability to work the ball upfield through the air as the Irish averaged just 8.2 yards per catch all game long. Notre Dame’s receivers had a hard time hanging on to throws from Leonard and in many cases even getting separation from NIU’s defensive backfield. Leonard also felt the pressure from the NIU defense as the Huskies accumulated two sacks and four tackles for loss throughout the game.

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On Notre Dame’s second-to-last drive, Riley Leonard threw his second interception on a deep throw that would end up costing the Irish the game. NIU was then masterful in squeezing the clock dry and setting up a 30-yard field goal by Woodall to give NIU a 16-14 lead.

With 31-seconds left, Leonard made a couple of big throws to get the Irish to the 44 of NIU, but they could go no further. Mitch Jeter’s attempted 62-yard field goal with the wind at his back, was once again blocked by the NIU special teams, sealing the day and the win for the Huskies.

“We were average today,” added Freeman. “Simply average.”

Riley Leonard, a transfer from Duke, still has yet to throw for a touchdown in his first two games now wearing Irish blue. He finished the day with just 163 yards and two interceptions.

Northern Illinois, who was paid $1.4 million to come to play Notre Dame in South Bend, outgained the Irish 388-to-296 in total offense, outgained Notre Dame two-fold through the air, and in the end were simply a much better team on this particular day than the Fighting Irish.

Notre Dame will go back on the road in a week as they will take on the Purdue Boilermakers in West Lafayette. It will be a bigger-than-expected game now for Notre Dame as their College Football Playoff hopes, even though the season is still young, have taken a significant hit already.

Northern Illinois Stuns “Average” Notre Dame In South Bend was originally published on wibc.com