Getting a road matchup against Ohio State in the opener isn’t ideal, but it was a chance for Notre Dame football to make a statement.
For a half, it looked like Notre Dame football was going to pull off an upset and shock Ohio State in Columbus. It wouldn’t have been an unprecedented upset at Ohio Stadium, actually, as the Oregon Ducks pulled off the upset in Columbus a season ago in non-conference play.
But as the game wore on, we saw just why the spread was close to 16 points in favor of the Buckeyes as Ohio State just wore down the Irish.
Ohio State got the win, but the Irish were still rather impressive in the first real game of the Marcus Freeman era (not counting the Fiesta Bowl last year) and they held their own in a hostile environment with a brand new quarterback under center.
What’d we learn from Notre Dame’s Week 1 loss at Ohio State?
3. Notre Dame’s defense was impressive
I’ll be the first to admit it, I thought Notre Dame’s defense was far better than expected. The Irish held an explosive Ohio State team to just 21 points and fewer than 400 yards on the road. That’s unheard of these days.
Ohio State was coming into the game with a Heisman frontrunner, arguably the best receiver in the country, and a Doak Walker-caliber running back. CJ Stroud was held to 6.6 yards per attempt and two passing touchdowns, Jaxon Smith-Njigba had just two catches for three yards (he was battling an injury, it seemed), and TreVeyon Henderson had 91 yards on 15 carries.
Notre Dame came out and played aggressively on the defensive side of the ball as you could tell Marcus Freeman’s fingerprints were all over this unit.