The Independent Postgame -- Notre Dame is STUNNED by Northern Illinois

welcome to a live episode of The Independent that nobody saw coming uh I am Pete Samson at top nerame Stadium after Northern Illinois 164 win over the Irish which I you know we can get into playoff considerations and all that but man there was there was a lot to unpack here Matt um and frankly I'm not even sure where to begin I'm I'm at a loss of words I really am Pete I mean this was um not at all something I saw coming you know to to say that they're they should be Beyond this by now is an understatement um I saw you tweet this I watched Marcus Reams post game presser and I was on the same wavelength as you it not that a bad thing happens a loss happens there's nothing that a coach or anyone could say that everyone say oh okay like everything's going to be all right like it's it's either really bad or a little bit bad like there's no good that comes from that but I'm with you it's not like he was just talking circles and I don't want to say sounded clueless but like was contradicting himself right like you practice well I had these guys ready well you didn't like I mean the offense struggling was not a huge surprise and even at halftime I'm watching that I'm thinking okay like points are going to be hard to come by but NIU exhaust emptied the tank in the first half offensively um this defense will figure it out and like if you look at the final score 16 points just three in the second half you could say okay yeah they did that but anytime NIU needed needed yards they got them anytime they needed to make a big play they got it and they did it in the much of the second half without their best player inario Brown who was pretty much the sole reason they were in this thing to begin with in the first half um and they got screwed on that last call too that was a first down and they yeah I did not get a good look at that from the field but they helped uh the the NBC's referee guy chimed in after and said the clock should have run after that review and Andy would have been forced to use their timeout which they didn't use anyway on that final drive but the same way and I tweeted this the same way like oh wait there was nothing fluky about nanb A&M look they were the tougher team they were uh better conditioned in the fourth quarter they had better athletes on the field who made plays when it mattered most like the inverse of that was almost completely true here it's like NIU made plays in space NIU got all the the tough yardage when they needed to NIU had a quarterback who played much better than n Ames quarterback did today like everything none of it makes sense to me here in the the moments after this thing just happened but I just can't believe we're we're invoking Marshall and Stanford 2022 all over again but this is right up there with those no I mean it's a frankly the the farther I get away from the game the more I'm thinking back to Yukon and in Syracuse at the end of the Weiss era um Navy during the Weiss era like this was Notre Dame was so badly outcoached today I but at least those staffs like you you're like okay well that's not a great staff like Den Brock and Al golden to to end up with this like I mean did they hit 300 yards of total offense against a Max school I don't think that they did um 286 and NIU at 388 and I you know that I go back to something Den Brock said in the preseason when we were talking to him about Jaden Daniels and picking up the system and improving a player after a transfer and he's like you know year two is really when you know we kind of threw gas on that fire and you're sitting there thinking like well you don't there isn't a year or two right like it's now or never um and I think the end result is is going to prove to be never here with Riley Leonard but I um he looks so far away from any kind of comfort in the system I don't I don't really know what to make of that um because like you if you're a staff you had to have seen this in the preseason right like and maybe you did and that's why you ran them five times on the first drive against Northern Illinois um all all effectively by the way I like all right they March right down the field just I think um you know last week the I think the highest praise I could have given Den brro was like he called The Game Plan he had to not the one he wanted to that deep shot was the play he wanted to call not the play he had to call um so it's the exact opposite of that in so many ways um he was asking Riley Leonard to do things that he could not do um and that is just sort of leaves you it leaves you scratching your head that uh whether Notre Dame was UNC overconfident misread their own situation didn't know their own Personnel called poor plays I don't really know but um ultimately that does come back on the head coach and it's it's been a wi minute since I've been an oppressor after after a loss with Marcus Freeman I felt like o this this doesn't sound good um this doesn't sound like a head coach in control of the situation but that was I know there's no good things to say um but there are bad ways to deal with it and I I felt like Marcus Freeman after the game today it would like when you say we've been here before like that's the problem um you you shouldn't be here again and and here we are after n Dame loses to a Max school I think it's the first max school to beat a top 10 opponent since 2009 um I just this kind of stuff can't just cannot happen no and everything everything they were that we said everything that the team said everything that everyone outside said all week like all right let down spot NIU Boneyard victories like they've made their program name for themselves by winning games like these usually not top 10 big but you know they got game day when they beat Alabama 15 20 years ago they they were they were in the Orange Bowl you know 10 or 12 years ago like this is about as known a commodity as it gets for a mac program and they have some good players they were probably the team the Mac team least decimated by the transfer portal they're one of the oldest teams in the country they've got a coach who's been there a minute like there's nothing that should have snuck up on this nerd Dame team which we all thought was going to be really good this year and which made us feel better about those predictions after last week um by winning on the road in the SEC and winning in a mature way like the way they won last week is what gave me confidence like all right like Marcus Ran's first or second teams without Mike Dem brck as his offense coordinator they would have lost that game because they would have tried something that would have backfired or wouldn't have worked they would have done something they would have made a mistake that would have allowed that place to explode and give the home team the momentum they needed and they didn't do that last week they won very soundly by putting their head down sticking their hand in the dirt and just out toughening them for four quarters and basically like persevering the way they did that I'm like all right they've turned a page I think I think I tweeted program def finding win for Marcus Freeman after they win at A&M last week it's the exact same program after two weeks of this I mean maybe even in reverse because the fact that this happened again I mean Brett McMurphy tweeted this third time under Marcus raner Dames loss a as a massive massive favorite at home we know what they are but Marshall the game was a 20o nerd a favorite they lost 2621 Stanford they were only 16o favorites they lost 1614 and same score today 28 point favorites 1614 um it just we'll talk a lot about Riley Leonard and rightfully so um this was a as much as last week was a program win this is a program loss because the defense was not impressive at all to me today based off what they did last week to see them get pushed around like that not make the crucial stops when they need to make them uh you know we we all have questions about Leonard's deep ball well he threw a dime to Jaden greous in the first half that the best receiver on the team just dropped like that's when that's happening on both sides of the ball you get two field goals blocked I know one's 61 yards and that's more prone to happen um like this isn't like up we got to throw better up we got to tackle better like no what the hell were you guys doing this week like everything was out of syn yeah it uh it was shocking to me how much the defensive line got pushed around um you know the idea that Howard cross is totally healthy like I you just can't buy that based on what you're watching um you know there the young linebackers I thought were really poor today I mean really poor today um you know with misdirection you know I I discipline was used after the game which is something you heard a lot from Brian vanor um it just like it was a just a poor poor performance across the board um I don't you know even special teams you get a field goal blocked at the end of the first half I don't I don't know what the game management situation was that a 61 yard field goal was the way to go um I don't I don't understand how you're managing the clock in that situation it um everything about it was a disaster uh there's there's just there's nothing good to take away I you know honestly the guy who felt like he had the most answers of the clearest mind afterwards was Howard cross um because he was like defiant and angry about it not a captain by the way but no I mean but was like it was a captain I'm just saying like maybe should he got up there and it was like look I've been up here after Cincinnati I've been up here after Marshall like um I would not Cincinnati in the same category as Marshall I mean it's like a Midwest team with a lot of red um nor has been through this before but like you know Howard cross got up there and like he he was counted um I you know Riley Leonard got up there had very few answers for what the heck happened um or what's going on with the offense I don't and I just like you watch him play Everything feels to beats too slow um and I'm not saying Notre Dame has like great receivers but I feel like their receivers are better than what they what they were given a chance to show today and yet Jaden Grey house drops that pass um if the margin for error should not be one dropped pass it shouldn't and you know what it all goes away if they make something happen on one more play on that last drive and again a field goal range but they couldn't Leonard had no chance to even make that happen which is its own right but yeah the the offensive line was was pretty bad today um you know Leonard was under constant pressure um Craig gets called for the hole to bring back the Evans pass which happened right before the great house drop yeah it was there were there were so many thing and but it's I'm with you I think you referenced this at the top like it wasn't like a million things had to go wrong like as if NIU played some perfect game that was like Against All Odds two call that Osberry breaks up they miss a field goal I thought they should have tried more field goals like I thought they should have tried a touchdown earlier but yeah like I thought that was a mistake that was come back gonna come back to kill them um turns out no um that was you know in retrospect the right move but yeah it it's just like to see Notre Dame allegedly a top 10 Team come out and just look like they got outplayed and out talented by Northern Illinois is incredibly alarming um because that we know that Notre Dame has more Talent than Northern Illinois like that that's not a question so how as a coaching staff do you bring the program down to the level where a Mac team can beat you at home um that is that's incredibly disappointing and and frankly disturbing uh if you're if you're Notre Dame and like if you're Pete Bak in that press conference and after watching this like that you're a you're on high alert for like what's going to happen the rest of the season um because this is not this isn't year one anymore when you can lose to Marshall and feel like or Stanford and come back be like all right this is you're learning on the job like and that's the way I phrased it to Marcus Freeman is like don't you feel do do you feel like the program should be Beyond this and he's like yes um but it's not and I I don't really have a great answer for why I don't either I mean there's a lot of talk on the broadcast about that entire NIU offensive line being from Wisconsin even the subs and as we all know that state produces great linemen uh hammock was on Wisconsin staff with Joe Rudolph her name's a line coach like maybe he should listen to him like there there there's no reason like you look at upsets in college football or near upsets like last week all of our Radars were up on Oregon because they struggled to put away Idaho and yet you look at that box score and I'll pull it up just as a reminder Oregon had four 487 total yards to Idaho 217 like Oregan dominated outplay them made some dumb turnovers idah a Notre Dame USF kind of Idaho had a trick play to stay alive that wasn't today no how the hell does a Max School average six yards per play to your 4.7 when you're avering nine yards per play most of the first half how's that happen against this old defense I don't know I mean that's I I will give Angel story with Mac upsets even these NIU upsets like yeah they'll get a receiver who didn't have the GPA to get into a big 10 school like Corey Davis or something at Western Michigan and he bumps up being a first round pick ant Antonio Brown at CMU like that's how these upsets happen not because you're tougher inside and yet yeah NIU was a better team today in pretty much every facet yeah and that's like I will give NIU a lot of credit I I felt like Notre Dame had a near Perfect Defense assembled this year with the exception of the the linebacker who was not Jack Kaiser because that was a young player who could get tricked and that happened a lot today you know what Osberry came back and made two plays in the second half uh in the first half he had a huge whiff you see Drake Bowen chasing a running back down the field where the pass is lobed to him you see Kings and V Assa involved in the the 84 yard touchdown jayenne with a terrible M tackle that he gets immediately pulled from the game like that position really struggled today the the Brown touchdown and I say there's nothing fluky Maybe I'm Wrong Chris H to halftime said watch that play and said I don't think that was intended for brown like he thinks it was a broken play that brown essentially accepted and if you watch it I mean real time it was like whoa they threaded the needle like Jason Garrett's dissecting in real time saying like KVA is playing great defense here Morrison just misses really quickly coming in to try to take his head off I don't know but again it shouldn't come down to that like it just it's very little of it made any sense to me um the end like I don't I know you can only do so much when you have a young offens line that's not good and they're not giving your quarterback a chance but and I'm not saying try to run a play with 5 seconds left because you know that was not going to work with that like if you're trying to get closer that's not going to work but cheeter career Long's 53 and you're trying to 61 yard on a day where he's already had one blocked yeah and it wasn't even like at least watch on TV it was like all right five seconds let put the field go like it didn't even seemed like it was a a decision in their minds like yeah of course we're going to do this and again there's no good choice in that situation I don't trust lard zall Al though it's literally called a Hail Mary for a reason yeah um I just I'm at a loss for words for how all this unfolded the way it did no I am too um yeah I don't know if we have any comments that are worth uh I kind of forgot a live show for a second I'll let you I'll let you scan those first one give me all maybe this is boys I'm on a cliff the steel Horsemen uh they've bounced back from losses like this before and it's a 12 team playoff and uh I'm man the this one's good pck voice playoff yeah some somebody a player I think it was cross mentioned the playoff after the game like that's got to get tabled for a long time like Notre Dame has essentially has gone from like inside track to the playoff should be the five seed to out of contention in seven days because like how how does Notre Dame play its way back into contention at this point have Louisville win the ACC USC win the Big 10 and yeah no I know I mean apologies bar worth considering it's barely worth considering I will not give you my money but I will apologize profusely to all of you I said bet nerd am go undefeated at home at plus 140 because that's lock of the century especially after Florida State looked like crap my bad I thought for the first time in four freaking years these guys would go undefeated at home with a soft ass home schedule and they could even get by NIU my bad um let's see Tom F I figured we get a lot of these so they pull the plug on L as qb1 before during after the second loss uh no I mean not maybe after second loss whenever that comes but no that's not a I don't criticize them all you want it's it's deserved after today yeah I don't think that's even remotely in the like head space of anyone there right now I could be wrong no there's they have too much invested in him um and in more ways than one but one of those ways is the entire offense is built around the threat of the quarterback run right and there's not another quarterback that offers that threat the way that he does I'm not I'm not saying that they shouldn't think about it um but I would I would be absolutely floored if they went there even after a second loss same similar question from JG does this feel like wimbush book situation 18 needed Wim to beat Michigan but Turn the Page in game three when you know you he can't get you where you need to be well I mean yeah if they can't move the ball against Purdue and that's three straight games of bad offense then certainly that's worth considering but like you said Pete there's a lot invested in him I do think I could be wrong here I think character his character really matters in this situation especially during bad times like that would be a again if you were to lose a Purdue next week and we're already like going down worst case doomsday scenario but they invited that conversation today with their play yeah I mean nothing's off the table but like to do anything rash would wreak of a panic move right now two games in After all you've usted in this season yeah I would feel a lot that would be a huge red flag to me with the coaching staff if they even considered this right now that' be like change up the o line in the middle of the game at Louisville like that just red of panic um yeah now I mean look the the offensive line I don't really know what you're supposed to do there um you know can you go if they went to kugan or Spindler I think that would be fine like I don't that's a move that would make sense to me um but the quarterback no no that's that's not a move that would make sense to me right now no and it's Leonard got up there again he nothing he can say that's going to make people feel better in this situation but I do appreciate his ownership of it like they're going to follow me like I need to like if I sulk they're going to sulk if I you know if I let this beat me twice like Sam Harman never showed up after loss his last year at press conference like I think there's something to be said for that when it's the most important position he did come out of Cl um did he did Ohio State but he was very tur and didn't really give any answers yeah I just think there's frankly trust Leonard's leadership a lot more than I ever did Sam Hartman's in this situation does that mean he's better does it mean he's going to take the prom I do think like I was at Duke Northwestern last night two a man people still at Duke as mad as they are at mik Elco they all said we were rooting for Riley Leonard to beat him last week because we all love Riley Leonard like that guy gave us everything um I think there's something to be said for that uh JG again miss the press conference did anyone ask why he didn't run a play of five seconds and timeout remaining I don't think so he got asked about just the decision to kick but yeah no he didn't um it's like I I'm down on the field at that point like I I wasn't sure how they were going to use their timeouts there um I don't I don't quite get the approach I'll be interested to sort of go back and watch that though um because it's like it didn't feel of like a very organized approach to like what is admittedly a chaotic situation right um but it didn't feel like a staff that had been in that moment before even though some of them have including just last year at Duke yeah I don't um that was a I mean they had a little bit more time this was a lot more desperate of a situation but I would say you know five seconds left don't run a play with the way that offense have been it's not going to go well unless it's a Hail Mary um I thought I say this all the time the coaches like in Madden it's very or EA Sports whatever like oh yeah we could just spike it here that's great and we'll save that time out but when your play gets blown up the next play all right like we just lost three seconds spiking it and now we're going home with one timeout in our pocket like I I would have called a timeout after that first completion I don't know what you're saving it for in that situation um I think with the way the offense was going you like appreciate the uh I don't know not the luckiness but like you appreciate completing a pass that far and know we're going to need all hands on deck to do something similar and then hit a field goal after that to win this game you know I don't see the point of land three especially again they didn't deserve that timeout they should not have had it well take advantage of it uh while you do have it um Andy Dan we all stop talking about Contra extensions and hosting playoff games done uh Thomas zic uh a Steelers sh Marcus Raymond as same as Mike Tomlin losing games they have no business losing to uh well Tomlin does have a Super Bowl um I I have a lot of Steelers fans in my life who have similar sentiments about Mike Tomlin and I always push back not saying that he's without but um the guy has a Super Bowl win appearance on his resume and has never had a losing season in however many years he's been an NFL coach which is pretty amazing so I don't I don't think there are any parallels here um Ryan breach even if Andy wins out would they even still have a chance to make the playoff yeah a chance although I just said I want to talk about playoff again oh I said I want to talk about hosting a playoff game uh oh yeah that's that's toast there we will not if whatever happens this season there will not be way good good thing because when they host group of five teams it doesn't always work out so good for Notre Dame yeah well they're they wouldn't be the five seed in this in that scenario either so they would not be playing a group of five team it um yeah that this is I always felt like they were better off beating Texas A&M and USC and losing a different game during the course of the season but it couldn't be this one like you could get away with losing to Georgia Tech or Louisville maybe even Purdue um you you just this is a I think this is a unforgivable result as it relates to the playoff um certainly like you there's no there's no I don't think there's an 11-1 scenario not like look and to say that n's goingon to go 11 and one this point is like crazy um but even if they did I think that the Northern Illinois loss would drag would you lose all sort like in the same way that you won a bunch of tiebreakers last weekend at A&M you went on the road you beat an SEC team you beat an SEC team that plays other playoff contenders you lose all tiebreakers losing to a group of five team this is this is like Michigan losing to App State sort of like it's it's that that bad you just this one will not go away so I agree with everything you say the only point of contention I would have there is when we went from like all right the BCS to the playoff the BCS was all right who has no losses we don't care who they played in we got to the playoff and it was who' you beat because we saw good nerd aim teams win all the games they should win and then lose by like two to Clemson or you know Christian mcaffry Stanford it's like well they have no good wins they're not getting in um I don't know like yes last week matters in its own right this week matters its own right assuming the committee is going to act similarly to how they have in the past and I don't see why they wouldn't I do think in a weird way this is a better game to lose because you don't gain anything from this win and it's easier toite if they were again we're we're projecting out into like you know make believe land right now but nerd Dame runs the table and dominates everyone and the schedule ends up really good I think it's very easy to say all right to write this off it's just like college football crazy stuff happens um whereas had they lost A&M and A&M's not good that's like a greater argument of like see like secc like they deserve all 12 bids and no name can't play Down here um but again we're that's so far off the radar of what this team needs to be focusing on right now it's hard to like really dive too deep into it um Tristan tahara the Georgia alabas of the world do not let this happen to them Alabama doesn't Georgia did early on until they finally won it and turned into the Goliath that they are um George's had some stinkers over the years I mean that nerd A's on how many years 35 my age 35 without a title Georgia was at 40 and believe me Georgia has a lot more working for it from a natural resource standpoint and geography standpoint uh than Notre Dame does so I would push back on Georgia as a whole although again this version of Georgia pretty damn good RL I don't think this is Riley Leonard's burner but it could be uh really Riley yes RL really Riley uh by the way I just want to go ahead you say something no just I'm I was kind of watching back the the last drive there that if they had used the timeout right away they would have saved three seconds um which is probably not the best use of a timeout um but holy cow I mean they just have a unblocked Blitzer off the left Edge and like that to me is like Leonard has to see that um that I mean that I guess it's it's one of those things that was of concern last week you just didn't know how much when they turned guys loose it's like they didn't understand what the defense was going to do um that's a that's kind of like a failure of preparation so I don't I still don't know the the 61 yard field goal though I i' I have a hard time processing that like with we have a timeout something quick call it I mean it's Pro you probably are kicking a 52 yard field goal at that point but um that's confusing it's just confusing I I have a hard I have a hard time understanding game management there at the end I think three seconds is valuable because I think that in theory if you have your stuff together eight seconds you're running a play might not work but it's not like all right field goal team out um throw it get throw it to the sideline maybe not Middle Field because you won't be able to spike it quick enough but quick out to the sideline we've if anything we've seen Bo Collins make good plays doing that you know among the receiver group so far this season uh so I do think it was crucial but the way they were playing offense today and moving the ball I'm doubtful it would have made a difference in the end I will add fair is fair we uh whenever we last did this Wednesday I think uh we had a lot of fun at Brian Kelly's expense um Brian Kelly was 54 and9 in his last five years at Notre Dame Marcus rean is 209 through 29 games so that's um I could not help less than half as many games coached and as many losses now for schedule but that does not include like and IU is not tougher Marshall's not tougher Stanford's not tougher no I mean let let me throw this out to I don't know the answer to this um if Brian Kelly is zor's head coach do they win today yes yes okay I think so too I just like I have a hard time saying it out loud yes I mean even I saw LSU fans last week saying after he lost another big one on like man this guy's raised the floor of our program but I don't know if we're ever going to win national championship with him and it's like yep no that's their name fans are waving right at you saying that's exactly how it was for them here yeah um yeah he he would not have lost this game now In fairness he almost did to Toledo in a very similar situation yeah I mean he almost lost this game many times um you know but that's good I mean look there right penate almost lost the Bowling Green today but they didn't like there's yeah I mean it's like there was he lost this game to Tulsa that was a long long time ago um yeah but I mean the the yes that's like and I think that is one of the most alarming points of like where Notre football is today like Brian Kelly took a broken down six and six program and got them to the national championship game in three years Marcus Freeman took a team knocking on the door of the college football playoff made it twice in four years the last twice in the last five years right last three last four last four yeah um that doesn't include 2021 when they went 11 in1 so Marcus Freeman has sort of taken a 11 in1 program and made it a 93 program like that that's kind of hard to get your head around if you're the and I'm waving my arms like Notre Dame powers that be Notre Dame um but that's the reality of where Notre Dame football is today they're like it's for all the investment that's gone into it it's it's gone in Reverse leads into Jeff her's question clearly Marcus isn't a big time head coach and the job is too big for him will PP have the guts to do what's needed I'm not going there yeah I mean look throw all your criticisms you want out today because like anything's fair when you lose a game like this but no I'm not going to be a prisoner of the moment now if they go seven and five this year with this roster all bets are off or anything yeah that's and that I I agree like there's the point of going there is stupid um at this point but um one of the most alarming things about this game is like now everything is on the table every week the rest of the year which is why I said last week was so big you can afford a trip up at yeah or USC Notre name should Notre Dame needed to be Beyond everything is on the table every week of the year um you know we kind of laughed that like Notre is the only Power four school to play Four power four group of five teams this year well like that's not really a joke anymore um you know because Notre Dame could lose to anyone they play at any time and like that's that unpredictability like that was Brian Kelly had many many many faults however he did a good job of like beating human nature of making Notre Dame predictable and boring uh and I know people got bored of a boring football program that just kept winning every game that it should win but that's difficult to do um and I think Marcus Freeman is sort of fig finding out in real time how difficult it actually is I forget who I did a story on a year or two ago coach and the money quote he gave me was like great coaching is about the capacity for boredom like yeah the same stuff we're gonna do the same stuff We're not gonna get tired of it when it doesn't work we're gonna stick with it the boredom to call a quarterback run near Midfield instead of taking a deep shot yeah that that kind of boredom the kind of boredom it looked like Notre Dame was comfortable living with at T&M right so that's the thing like last week everything we thought was behind them just bubbled right back to the surface like they erased every not every remaining question but all the key questions we had about them entering the year were answered pretty def definitively last week yeah we're so all went back in Reverse today against a Mac opponent I just can't figure that one out Steve madon not I'm not gonna call you Steve Madden uh Freeman is clueless what's worse as we've known this for the past three years why do we keep getting transfer QBs can we go start Ang jelli now well I thought about Freeman today when I saw shron Moore get destroyed by Texas because he's got a walk-on quarterback at the winningest program in the history of college football might thinking being he made the same mistake Marcus reman made in year one he wanted to bet on his guys and did not go get a transfer quarterback that would have absolutely help them um so I don't you know they are more transfers starting than not at the power conference level right now um people might not like it people may be turned off by it I get it I know coaches who can't stand I know ex- coaches really can't stand and say that's why not they're not getting back into it but that's college football in ell right now also like you're being R I appreciate the rational thinking here because you're suggesting to St in jelly now where I think most angry comments In the Heat of the Moment are start the Freshman which isn't going to happen um as exciting as the prospects of CJ Carr's ner Dame career are whenever that day comes yeah that's um if there was a change it would have to be angelli but there's not going to be a change in the short term um I don't I don't know where it would take how long you would have to go um to get to that point but uh um uh that's we're I feel like we're a ways away from that Kevin I'm Heaven M Cunningham please explain why he deserves this job any other top program and not allow this I'm sensing a theme with these questions here Pete uh it's um look it's a firsttime head coach who had to learn on the job a like learn a lot on the job um and that that is okay and I I've said this when I go talk to not alumni clubs I try to mention the fact that like I actually have't been impressed with the fan base and their patience with Marcus Freeman to date that I not not something I will say again um no but like go no it's just like this is you know I don't know what the solution is that Kevin's looking for here about like any other program would not allow this like it took Kirby Smart a while to figure it out um you know it took Brian Kelly a while to figure it out here I guess if you want har nine years to figure out Harbaugh a track record but yeah um and and that's the most alarming thing with Freeman is there's no proof that he is going to be able to do this 12 up 12 down that was that was one of the thing I was talking about this with some other reporters and I I think flying out to A&M last week about you know going 12 and0 you're like okay like on paper they should if if they get the first one they they should do it I saw multiple people last night who were like you're crazy saying they're a playoff team after one game and I'm like look at the schedule who are they going to lose like yeah not losing two and now shoot they lose them all but they could it's like the schedule is not any harder than we thought after today the problem is Notre Dame is a lot less reliable than we thought um we all were like fooled or jumped the gun last week on like who Notre Dame is how they're you know how they're operating um and there's there's just no like even when Brian Kelly was at the D the lowest of the lows in those first two years or even like the entire 2016 season he actually had something to call on to be like I know how to fix this and it was an arrogance and you know a me against the world a Defiance but at least he had the grounds to feel that way he had the grounds to believe him in himself Marcus Freeman doesn't have sort of sort of that Foundation to stand on right now which I think is incredibly concerning um where because in the the when this happened against Marshall or Stanford or Louisville or Clemson um you could sort of live with it a little bit this is this is more alarming because like the the learning part of Marcus Freeman's job should be much farther along than it appears to be completely agree I I would just add like any other top program not allow we've said this or some version of this a lot I know I said it on at least one show last week like coming in this year Marcus ream was the perfect narum head coach Nine Months of the Year and that matters probably even more at a place like this that it does at other places and it gets you the benefit of the doubt but at some point you need to prove it and I thought he proved it last week and he disproved it this week so to speak um to balance it out I mean it's Brian again I hate to keep doing the comparison but like it was like a begrudging likeness or tolerance of Brian Kelly right like he was not the guy kissing babies and speaking to every booster club at least Beyond his first year it was like all right I got a handed to him he won 11 games with with this roster again whereas this one's like nine months of the year it's like I mean do you want to go through all of our mentions last week after the Freeman video and they won even my mother was like man like she doesn't know anything about fo like God like they really like that guy huh and I'm like they wouldn't have if they lost that game and now I could show her proof of concept with this one they really don't like him tonight but that matters like anything else only matters to a certain extent um and we shall see I mean we're gonna learn a lot this season a lot more than we ever thought we would frankly based off today like just how they respond to this does the offense figure it out does the defense tighten up um again it looked after last week's dramatic Victory it looked like a very boring regular season ahead which was kind of needed around here now it's no it's it's going to be drama filed probably not in the best of ways as we saw today um but it's it's going to be it's going to be different um could you imagine the ratings for here come the Irish if they put one out last week and they put one out this week that's the thing like once it come out December like half these guys in the portal then like No One's Gonna care no I mean not no again no offense to Peacock I'm sure they're working hard and putting together a good job but like yeah colge football like it's all right that's all news like needs to be in season as far as like drama yeah um who's going to Care in December if this team's not in the playoff no one every headlining player will be in the draft or transferred coaches will leave or get fired whatever like it's staff's turn over every year um yeah it it sounds like a whole lot of work for not a lot of payoff to be honest um JG again zero TD passes eight quarters play right uh believe that's right um looks bad in the box score and it looks bad when you're one- one is it four touchdowns total yes that's bad it's like even JJ McCarthy went through a stretch last year where he had like one touchdown pass in six games that guy was a top 10 pick but he had like the most unbelievable rushing attack at his back so we didn't need to do it um is why I don't want to focus on the box score too much especially with a dual threat quarterback like Leonard like I I wrote down that first drive four or five 40 yards five rushes 33 yards CA by 11 yard touchdown run ner him goes up seven nothing I'm like all right like here we go like this is nice defense it was like a tease on top of a tease yeah right like you had the A&M game and then they come out you're like oh well okay they're just gonna do this again like butm thism and NIU are not the same like NIU is not going to be able to stop them moving forward forward I think for the rest of the first half they averaged like 3.07 yards per play um they and think about like think about what Notre am's offense would be this year if it didn't have love and price who can make people Miss yeah who can run by people who can jump over people What offense do you have at that point I don't I mean it's do you do you have one I don't know it's um that's that is alarm that's like an alarm on top of the alarm right now because it's not like you're seeing different levels that they can pull like the receiver room has done very very little quarterback room you know we've gone over that um you know tight end room Mitchell Evans was back a little bit today um two catches 26 yards big one yeah I think they're both on third down if I'm not mistaken but at least one moved the chains on like a third and long I don't yeah it's tough um really really difficult to look at this offense to be like that's where the solution is going to be found um because and and maybe this gets back to like if you don't have an offensive line it really doesn't matter what your offensive scheme is it's kind of hard to make things stick together I'm I still don't know how NIU has more tackles for loss two sacks in her AES none and goes six for 17 on third Downs which isn't a great percentage but still probably four or five more than they should be getting converting against a alleged playoff defense I mean hell nor was three for 10 it's I I I I I cannot make sense of that um I don't their average third down to go was 7.9 yards that's atrocious n Ames you mean yeah right I Say ni was in thir and short a lot JG Matt your Pros is a fan ball off levelhead and sign emotionally rant well done thank you I'm not expecting any compliments on my wardrobe today the way I did uh when everyone was riding High last week but I'll take anything I can get right now um I won't tease any more wardrobe stuff because we have something coming later but now would not be the best time to to announce it uh rlh how do they not see in training camp he can't throw WTF is going on I mean the guy didn't have a spring he was I don't want to say anointed the starter because he had a body of work but that's what camp was for right like yeah every time we heard these guys speak at least publicly it was all right we gotta we got to make up for lost time right Le and even Leonard would say like I feel bad like I didn't get a chance to show everything that's why I did so much in the offseason with these guys um so I mean maybe they saw it it wouldn't shock me if they didn't see it like out of deep shots like again the one they did really backfire yeah I don't know it was it's hard to find people that I when you talk to people about like hey how things are going like what what are you actually showing you did not hear from a lot like Riley Leonard is a really developmental passer um I know I his old OC told me that from duke but you didn't hear that this was a major concern um you know I I phrased a question to den Brock in the in training camp or maybe gameweek about like it you have a running quarterback like how do you how much running is too much running and he stopped me and he was like we have a dual threat quarterback uh Tim prer from Irish Illustrated asked Marcus Freeman a question on Monday last week about like you know and he he phrased it with like taking deep shots isn't really a Riley Leonard strength and Freeman is like hey I'm not a quarterback Guru but I think those are a strength so like I don't want to read too much in the stuff they're saying about Riley Leonard but if whatever they have seen in practice if we take them for their words that is not matching up to what Riley Leonard has been able to show in games at all no not at all and you know even um not necessarily L related Thursday Freeman does his zoom and um I forget who asked it but it was kind of emblematic of this week especially in retrospect and again this was not Freeman this was a reporter but he said we haven't asked you many questions about Miami this week what do you think of them and fre Freeman was like let's because we're playing Northern Illinois and I'm glad Freeman corrected him and even if he didn't I'm sure someone in D Cal watched that video circled it and was like see even the media there's overlooking us well I mean after the game last week he said I don't even know who we're week which like we're like he's exhausted I get it like I didn't you know certainly illino that one's fine it like it doesn't wear very well but like I don't that's the that would be the least of my concerns if I'm Notre name right now yes uh there's another one here I wanted to get to C Simmons was not translating from the practice you see these games L is nothing close to what you said the receivers still soar o is average the DL is only slightly above that uh I think it' be nice to the O right now I don't even think Aver the O is not average at all um but I I think it it gets back to something I said earlier like the offensive line and the quarterback like the entire operation in pass Pro is not good um they they have a difficult time figuring out where stuff's coming from and how uh the the defensive line has been very disappointing uh I don't you know certainly Howard cross has not played a whole lot of football um well I take that back he led the defensive line in snaps at Texas A&M he has not played a lot of impactful football he had a sack at A&M which was big uh it was it was hard to pick anybody out today I really thought they were grasping at straws on the defensive line I I interested to go back and watch to see like how they moved RJ Obin around you know what impact is he having um that that he's been a non-factor so far uh you know obviously they're out without Gabe Rubio but like there just is not there's not a lot of production you know Jason on one tackle Howard cross one tackle um that's not I mean that's just not what you thought you were going to be getting from that group um so I I don't really know I mean I don't think RJ Obin has made a tackle in either of no I'm sorry he made one tackle today um which is obviously just not enough um that's not what that's not what you brought him here to do to make one tackle in two games Steve madon again Pete why don't we start in jelly wait wait one more one more one more Billy Brad the media hates Ang jelli I don't get it usually those East Coast Jersey guys get the benefit of the doubt mainstream media yeah not from Fair Hope Alabama no I mean I think that I've said I already said this but like the offense is built around the threat of the quarterback run game um Leonard offers that the other ones don't not at that level but if th if this is who Leonard is as a passer I I don't blame uh all of these questions for flooding in like usually I'm not a bench the quarterback after two games person um I still think that would be a mistake but I don't but I don't dismiss the question is like that's crazy talk um because what Leonard has shown and not shown as a passer I think is incredibly alarming if you're Notre no I mean I don't know what he's making but I'm sure he's making a lot of money good for him good for all of them but like Don Draper says that's what the money's for like great power comes great responsibility like you're G to get questioned you're gonna get criticized that's why you come to n Dame and we'll see how they respond but yeah it's been very underwhelming so far uh JG again asked us in the mailbag this week and arose again when your coach is the emotional tone Setter you can certainly get up for big games you need a More Level approach for this exact reason I I still have no problem with what he did last week because it worked um I don't think I I don't think because X happened last week y happened this week I don't I mean yes something did not click this week yeah I think that was more a product of whatever happened Sunday through Friday than what happened Saturday night I could be wrong which is like that that is again free when Freeman's like we got to go back to the preparation the preparation leads to Performance and then two minutes later he's like our practices were really good we got we were physical like it h it's kind of one of those things where I don't it's kind of hard to know what to believe at this point um you know I I understand what he's saying and why he has to say it but it just it doesn't come off as like somebody who has got a grip on what's Happening we'll end with this one because um it's always good to like get our bubble or remind people Nathan dval I don't mean to pick on you but tired of the learning on the job excuse Ryan Day hasn't dropped any games where OSU was big favorites how much extra time does Freeman's ability to recruit an elite level buy him if they win eight or nine um Nathan well have Ari wasman or Bill Landis or one of our Ohio State beat friends come on and explain to us in very kind terms how Ohio State fans feel about Ryan day after these last three years a guy who was the greatest winning percentage in the history of college football through 50 games U that guy's on the hot seat even though he's yep probably gonna win it all this year um so yeah that's all I've got I mean I I could talk in circles for two more hours about what did or didn't just happen it's still not GNA make a whole lot of sense to me um I'll be curious to hear how the coaches and players respond to all that this week as well um and on to Purdue uh which you know they were off this week and it's a power five Road game um it's a place that much like NIU has a history of slaying Giants although yeah ner a earns that giant status this week I think we both was going so we we'll see um season got a lot more interesting not in a good way yeah and Frank and less interesting all at the same time um yeah there's there's just so much for Notre Dame to get fixed if they want to frankly Salvage something from a year that we we said this many times and it still holds true if you do not make the playoff this season this season is a failure um and now that is hanging on knife's edge on September 7th um and that is not a healthy place to be for notame football or Marcus Freeman um with a new athletic director it's not and president and new president um so yeah change of leadership here so yeah Notre name there they will continue to be a fascinating interesting team even when they should have been able to evolve into something a little bit more boring and predictable um we thought in year three of Marcus stream but but lo and behold here we are after notame Falls 1614 to Northern Illinois and I got nothing else for you Matt unless you got a final take to spit out here I'm I'm spent I'm out of words much like everyone there I don't have answers right now but uh we will reather Tuesday or Wednesday this week and talk it out with a special guest thanks for being with us on the latest episode of the independent