Notre Dame chokes, and Dan Lanning steals Coach Prime’s soundbite

Throughout the Notre Dame-Ohio State game, the booth constantly reminded viewers that Irish skipper Marcus Freeman said he wasn’t going to coach scared like he did a season ago against the Buckeyes. For 57 minutes in South Bend on Saturday night, he did that, and the Irish lost, 17-14 as a result.

The drive heaves started after a five-yard loss on first down at the 2:28 mark of the fourth, with the Golden Domers holding the ball, and a four-point lead. On second down, sixth-year senior Sam Hartman “dropped back to pass,” and attempted a running back screen that was almost intercepted. It was an egregious hedge that stopped the clock and didn’t give Hartman an honest opportunity to make a play.

Ryan Day was able to conserve a timeout, and it came in handy during Kyle McCord’s subsequent game-winning drive. The junior QB was called for intentional grounding, and Day was able to avoid a 10-second runoff that would’ve dwindled the clock to 5 seconds and given Ohio State only one shot at the endzone.

Instead, on third, and 19, a 21-yard Emeka Egbuka catch got the Buckeyes to the Irish one-yard line with 9 ticks left. McCord clocked the ball with 7 seconds remaining, and running back Chip Trayanum walked it off two plays later.

It wasn’t just that the screen pass was the definition of conservative, and let Day keep a Get Out of Jail card, but on that third and 19, Notre Dame opted to rush three and drop eight.

Egbuka found a hole in the coverage, and McCord was able to calmly step into the throw without a green jersey anywhere near him. You can’t say you’re playing to win, and not take risks. There’s more to being aggressive than going for it on fourth and short.

Giving any Ohio State quarterback all day to push the ball downfield is never advisable, and dropping eight only works if the offense isn’t expecting it. While Notre Dame only scored 14, they moved the ball well and stalled out, or missed field goals. Despite that, Hartman was still seconds away from delivering the Irish its first win over Ohio State since the 1930s.

Then Marcus Freeman got the video game sweats and gagged on his own phlegm.

It’s one thing to get decapitated in two quarters, but during the first half of the Oregon-Colorado broadcast, ESPN rolled a clip of Oregon coach Dan Lanning’s pregame speech to his team, and even for the internet, it was shocking.

That’s a massive amount of sh*t talk, and the decision to bring cameras in the locker room — knowing very well if the Ducks lose, that clip goes viral for the wrong reasons — meant Lanning was either supremely confident or certifiable.

Turns out it was the former (maybe) as the No. 10 Ducks took a 35-0 lead into the break and cruised to a 42-6 win over the No. 19 and soon-to-be unranked Buffs. The funny thing is all Coach Prime had to do to make this “personal” again was to go back and read Lanning’s comments in the offseason about Colorado returning to the Big 12.

Even though the essence of his point was rendered moot almost immediately when Oregon announced its move to the Big Ten, the shot was brazen. But I guess Colorado was too busy huffing headlines to remember (or scared to poke the duck).

By the time the game was over — which was by the half — the talk was about Bo Nix, the pass rush, the Ducks, but mostly Lanning. And if we’re being completely candid, I’m more impressed with the media coup than the win.