{"id":18266,"date":"2023-10-01T09:27:08","date_gmt":"2023-10-01T14:27:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/?p=18266"},"modified":"2023-10-01T09:27:08","modified_gmt":"2023-10-01T14:27:08","slug":"how-notre-dame-made-winning-plays-when-it-mattered-most-vs-duke","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/how-notre-dame-made-winning-plays-when-it-mattered-most-vs-duke\/","title":{"rendered":"How Notre Dame made winning plays when it mattered most vs. Duke"},"content":{"rendered":"

DURHAM, N.C. \u2014 Sam Hartman<\/a><\/strong> stood on the sideline all by himself. Then he sat speechless next to Notre Dame quarterbacks coach Gino Guidugli<\/a><\/strong>. When Duke scored a go-ahead touchdown with 9:22 left in the fourth quarter, he grabbed his helmet and paced back and forth waiting for his turn to take the field.<\/p>\n

Through the lens of a pair of binoculars peering down from the press box at Wallace Wade Stadium, Notre Dame\u2019s graduate student quarterback was a little uncomfortable with what was unfolding between his No. 11 Fighting Irish the No. 17 Duke Blue Devils. <\/p>\n

Hartman didn\u2019t have an easy day at the office. It wasn\u2019t a sit still on the bench and only get up when it\u2019s time to go score more points type of game for the Notre Dame offense.<\/p>\n

The Irish were antsy. Angst pervaded their visiting sideline. It wasn\u2019t just Hartman feeling it either. It was danger time all around for Notre Dame.<\/p>\n

Heck, head coach Marcus Freeman<\/a><\/strong> might have been the most affected.<\/p>\n

The Fighting Irish only lost back-to-back games one time from 2017-21, the heyday of the Brian Kelly<\/a><\/strong> era, and those losses came in the ACC Championship Game vs. No. 4 Clemson and the Rose Bowl vs. No. 1 Alabama. Freeman, meanwhile, was incredibly close to dropping back-to-back games for the second time in as many seasons, his first two on the job in South Bend.<\/p>\n

Walking out of Wallace Wade with a loss would have raised questions about Freeman\u2019s competence, especially considering the Irish were penalized 12 times for infractions that just should not occur over and over when the No. 11 and No. 17 teams in the country meet under primetime lights.<\/p>\n

Those types of questions already swirled from South Bend to Durham, Los Angeles to New York and everywhere in between after Notre Dame only had 10 players on the field for two crucial plays in the final moments of a 17-14 loss to Ohio State. Imagine if Freeman\u2019s team completely shot itself in the foot in a one-point loss to Duke, snapping what is now a 30-game regular season winning streak over ACC opponents and simultaneously shattering optimism of so many Notre Dame fans who want nothing more than for Freeman to succeed as the man in charge of this program.<\/p>\n

Relax. Breathe. Absolute heartbreak has been put on hold. Notre Dame rose to the occasion, saved face and saved grace with a come-from-behind, last-minute victory over the Blue Devils. And the Irish made it happen against in rather shocking fashion. \u00a0<\/p>\n

Hartman was a hero in leading the 95-yard, game-winning touchdown drive. He accounted for 69 yards on the march. Freeman confidently stuck two fingers in the air to tell his offense to stay on the field and try for a two-point conversion to go up by a full touchdown and an extra point with 31 seconds left, and Hartman delivered again on that play.<\/p>\n

Somehow, two minutes and one second of an offensive masterclass from Hartman and company drowned out the dozen penalties, largely ineffective running game, a blown coverage that resulted in the team\u2019s first deficit of the day and whatever other negative things you can recall from Notre Dame trailing 14-13 late into the fourth quarter. <\/p>\n

There were plenty of them.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we can\u2019t do is let the outcome cloud our eyes from the mistakes we made,\u201d Freeman said. \u201cWe have to make sure we are as aggressive in cleaning up our mistakes and attacking our mistakes, learning from them and realizing why we made those mistakes as we were last week.\u201d<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s be honest, too; Kelly\u2019s teams won games the same exact way. All the time. Just think of Toledo and Virginia Tech in 2021, an 11-1 season for the Irish. Notre Dame did not play well for 60 minutes in those games. Maybe the Irish didn\u2019t even play well for 30. But they won, and they kept the season alive by doing so, and that\u2019s exactly what Notre Dame did in Durham \u2014 even when it looked like the most remote of possibilities.<\/p>\n

It turns out, none of the standing on his own or solemnly sitting by Guidugli or anxiously striding back and forth meant Hartman was shying away from the moment. It meant the opposite. He was just biding his time in the middle of a 60-minute football game.<\/p>\n

And when his time came, he capitalized.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe battled,\u201d Hartman said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe didn\u2019t panic,\u201d Notre Dame tight end Mitchell Evans<\/a><\/strong> added. \u201cWe didn\u2019t flinch. We weren\u2019t scared. We didn\u2019t back down.\u201d<\/p>\n

It wouldn\u2019t be fair to say any of that happened in the loss to Ohio State, but the Irish certainly didn\u2019t rise up against the Buckeyes in the way they did against the Blue Devils. Doing so against the former would have meant more, but failing to do so in back-to-back ballgames regardless of opponent would have been beyond troubling.<\/p>\n

You can forget about that, for now. On to the next one.<\/p>\n

\u201cGreat teams find a way to win when it matters the most,\u201d Freeman said. \u201cThey find a way to execute when it matters the most.\u201d<\/p>\n

The post How Notre Dame made winning plays when it mattered most vs. Duke<\/a> appeared first on On3<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

DURHAM, N.C. \u2014 Sam Hartman stood on the sideline all by himself. Then he sat…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18266","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18266","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18266"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18266\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18266"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18266"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18266"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}