welcome everybody to postgame takeaways with inside ND Sports I'm Tyler James he's the one and only Eric Hansen and we're recording this from separate rooms in Eric's house we cover Notre Dame football recruiting and more for inside sports.com on the rivals Network and we we are here to share our postgame takeaways from Notre Dame's 16 to 14 loss to Northern Illinois um I'm not sure anyone could have seen this coming Eric what was your biggest takeaway from an inexplicable loss in Stadium my biggest takeaway from just the game itself and not the bigger picture was how much Northern Illinois really ruled both lines of scrimmage not all the time but way too much of the time for a team that shouldn't have been able to do that especially their offensive line versus Notre Dame's defensive line that was stunning to me uh there are big picture things I know that we're going to get into but that was the thing that I really noticed and I'll tell you what I mean Northern Illinois dunked on Notre Dame toward the end of that game they went for a fourth and two when they could have kicked a long field goal and they thought well we're going to get closer because we think we can get two yards on you guys and they were able to so how about you yeah I think you got to go to the offense in general and to me I think there's a number of different things offensively but it my biggest thing is just like what is n Dame's offensive identity right now like go do something spectacular Jeremiah Love Like that's been Notre Dame's offense the first couple games is Jeremiah Love and jarian price doing something Incredible or Riley Leonard doing things with his legs mostly rather than through the air um certainly the the rushing touchdown that Jeremiah Love had today was spectacular but the running game in general I don't think was reliable enough um and that's in part because of the offensive line in part because Notre Dame doesn't really have a potent passing game right now right so from a big picture standpoint um you know I wrote this in my column we've seen movies similar to this before in 2012 when Notre Dame uh played for the national championship they had a game like this against Purdue at home after a big win in Ireland against Navy in 2021 it was Toledo that they survived and that was a team that almost made the playoff 2018 it was a Ball State team that was way worse than this Northern Illinois team and that was a one possession game with Ball State having a chance to win it and a team that eventually made the playoff but this one smells different because for me Tyler Notre Dame should have been beyond this at this stage of the evolution in the program they shouldn't have been able to lose to a four touchdown underdog maybe having some difficult quarters against them yes but not losing to them yeah and regardless of the stage of the program like the loss to Marshall feels very similar right and that like I it's not like the outcome of this game feels like it should have been the other way right if you just like look at the game this felt like a game Northern Illinois should have win nor nor not Dame never felt like a dominant team in this game at all it seemed like Northern Illinois was almost from start to finish the better team and deserve to win this game um which is not so something you're expecting to see when when a a Mac team comes into Notre Dame Stadium but that is what we saw um the the to me the concerns about Notre Dame's passing game are are now warranted I I I gave Riley Leonard a pass for the the Texas A&M game because of everything that came with it the hostile environment his first game in in this offense experienced inexperienced offensive line but it has to be better than what it was today 20 for 32 for 163 yards with a pair of interceptions um bad throw Illinois's quarterback had a better day against Northern Illinois than Ry Leonard did so yeah he his first interception he threw into a crowd it was a late throw the second one I just don't know like he just didn't throw it far enough and he didn't give Chris Mitchell a chance to get to the ball he said he had bad feet it was a bad throw um bad Reed as well so the longest completion of the day is a 19 y for Notre Dame's passing game um certainly the receivers have to make plays and the pass protection needs to get better um this isn't all on Riley Leonard everyone involve needs to improve right now right in total I mean northern Li outrushed Notre Dame they out gain them the 286 yards Notre Dame put up today that's the fewest that they've had against against the group of five opponent since 1997 Bob Davy's first year as head coach no they had 283 against Navy and they won that game very narrowly what what did you think of Notre Dame's defense today I was surprised at how few answers they had for the running game I think antario Brown is a really good running back and I think he probably will play at the next level and he has a six point .3 yard per carry average for his career he was recruited by power five schools he was committed to South Carolina for a while before decommitting and going to Northern Illinois but Notre Dame really needed to this year improve in their run defense their losses last year were games in which they got gashed in the run and and that happened today against a team it shouldn't have happened against and and so I that was really concerning to me and I know Howard cross talked about well they kind of tricked us with some things well that's why you have a really good defensive coordinator in Al golden that needs to be able to fix those things at halftime and and Notre Dame did only what three points in the second half but Northern Illinois was still able to move the ball on the ground to chew up clock to position themselves for a game-winning field goal and that was I think Marcus put it well that was a that was a not the defense they've had for the last three or four years yeah not the defense they had last week right yeah they gave up as many Notre Dame gave up as many points on its first three defensive series that it did the entire game against Texas A&M so yeah I you look at the final score you giving up 16 points that's enough points for Notre Dame's offense to outscore the opposing team but the defense didn't do a good good enough job like it it put the offense in tougher positions by not taking the Le like allowing Notre Dame to build a lead um in the first quarter um gave up big plays on all three of those first three series all to anio Brown but like yes they might have been doing some different things but the one is just a a pass to a receiver out of the back field uh who motioned into the slot and just makes a nice play for the 80 plus yard touchdown um one was a real wheel route out of the out of the back field like that that's this isn't rocket science um and one was just an outside run where he sort of hesitates behind the line and I think that got Jaylen Sten and Xavier Watts out of position to be able to prevent him from getting less than 20 yards on on on the first play of the the second series for Illinois so yeah I think you expect better from Notre A's defense all told giving six yard giving up six yards per play that's that's a shocking number um and yeah just on the final drive yes that was a bad position that Riley Leonard put Notre Dame's defense in but there's five 555 left in the game Notre Dame can get off the field with one one or two stops or a stop on one or two third Downs uh or fourth Downs um and is unable to do so and and other not only kicks the gamewinner what' you think about the 62 yard field goal attempt at the end of the game um didn't didn't seem like it had much of a chance um I I mean I we have not haven't seen Mitch jeters show that kind of a leg before um already had a bad moment before like I don't know I I just think the same guy block both field goals right so yeah if you already that that's the thing like when you get one long field goal blocked it's like well they're going to try to do that again they learned something I I didn't spend a lot of time reviewing the last kick to see what happened um because I just I don't know I just never felt like it was realistic for Notre Dame to to get that I I I don't know that they had much of a better chance at a Hail Mary but um I I was a little bit surprised that that was the I I think I would have I would have tried the Hail Mary I would have thrown it up to Bo Collins I mean a guy with a 42inch vertical jump I mean yeah well why didn't it work earlier in the game I mean he had five catches but I mean I would take my chances with a guy like that and there's a better chance of there being a defensive penalty on something too like something could have happened to extend the game um so yeah it was a little bit of a a surprising decision to to K to try to kick that field goal but um not Dame put itself in that position where it needed something crazy to happen in the final seconds and had plenty of opportunities before that to make sure that that wasn't the difference so so I mean we're going to be peppered with people on our message board who we love but who don't necessarily love this outcome today and uh we're going to have a football never sleep show on Monday night and I'll have a chat next Wednesday so previewing what what's going what what would you tell people in this moment the prognosis of Notre Dame being able to be doing something in December other than Christmas shopping that that's meaningful I mean college football changes a lot week to week uh so like crazier things have happened right I mean you can have one bad week that happens for a lot of teams um I mean look at Alabama last year right they almost lost to South Florida um and noler Buckner starting and no one would have thought that they would end up being the playoff now I think obviously Notre Dame doesn't have like a lot of Marquee wins potentially on it on its schedule at least at this point it seems but if Notre Dame can run the table who knows what what happens from there that you you'd think there's still a chance of the playoff if that happens I mean I guess there's an outside chance that it's still not not enough depending on how things play out but but things can turn around I I I this isn't it's concerning for sure I don't I don't think it's it's not we shouldn't minimize that like Notre Dame should not lose a game like this it brings doubt of what's going to happen the rest of the season but it's not something that should be insurmountable it could be um if used correctly a launching point of sorts but you coming into a season like this coming off a win like it had at Texas A&M you did not expect for something like that to happen and no's going to have to do some real soul searching to figure out why it happened and how to prevent it from happening again because it's become too familiar for n Dame fans right now well here's the thing I mean again this P the game kind of invites the big picture because people you know they're upset with Riley Leonard even coming now and they're upset with Marcus Freeman as a coach whereas last year they were ready to last week they were ready to Cor him into something so for me I I think this is less about Riley Leonard although I think Riley Leonard could be part of the solution I'm wondering what at this point you're thinking about Marcus Freeman what is your confidence level that Marcus is going to find a way to find a Road to Redemption that's that's not that doesn't end in El Paso yeah I I don't I don't know some place like it I'm not picking on Al Paso I'm picking on a non-playoff venue yeah and I don't think UTEP is going to be in the playoff yeah and you you just you somehow managed to not say Street report so you get you get an award for that but yeah I mean I don't know that my confidence is is extremely high right I I I think um it's it's hard to balance the ups with the the Downs during the Marcus Freeman era there certainly have been some impressive victories um I thought I thought people are probably getting ahead of it themselves in terms of like making out what the win at Texas A&M was to be like a program changing Victory I think that was probably a bit overstated and uh what's week one of college football without overreactions um so we'll see like I I don't know that like how I I'm not sure that I could be tremendously confident that Marcus Freeman can win 10 games in a row right like I don't I don't like if we're talking about getting the playoff now obviously get manage this season with two losses three losses but no one's going to be satisfied with that people within the program and people who cheer for this program spent a lot of time and money supporting it so I I don't I don't know where things go from here um and what needs to be done to avoid situations like this but um it's it's it seems right from the outside like everything is being put in place to give Marcus Freeman the reason to not have any excuses right like what right why why why can't Notre Dame avoid losses like this why can't notame um have better game plans to overcome spunky Northern Illinois that it takes four series of of offense to figure out what they're doing like why can't not Dame fool Norland Illinois for three series uh like it it it's just it it's just head scratching to to think of like why the things you're saying about no no only what they're able to do against another Dame and why it can't be in the reverse on a weekly basis for another day well what do you have to see from Marcus that would reinstate your faith that this was a good higher that year four is going to be better than year three that this is moving in a Direction that's going to end with confetti at some point or some kind of celebration or some kind of move up the college football Blue Blood ladder I you just got to keep winning games I I don't know what else what else there is to do right we can't point to recruiting like recruiting does not matter it's not making a big enough difference if because Notre Dame had better players than Northern Illinois did today there's no like no one can argue the opposite of that so recruiting is not the issue um when you lose a game like this um so he's got to just and yet Devonte Ali who was a zero star recruit and walked on was the most impactful defensive lineman on the field wouldn't you say today yeah yeah I think that's fair yeah yeah he he was uh getting his name announced plenty of times so yeah I was sitting next to somebody named Ali so it stood out more to me because I was like okay you need to make that kind of impact with your writing today yeah it's it's just it's it's pretty stunning to think of like what the conversations were seven days ago at this moment U with Notre Dame coming off of that when at A&M and now where things are now um well people had them in the playoff I mean already guaranteed in the playoff I still think that there's a path there but it's very convoluted and it's very steep right and it depends on many many other circumstances that are out of their control yeah and and right now under Dame's fans are dealing with too much Whiplash with how things seem to be going One Direction and all of a sudden be going the other so we'll see what under Dame can do to to try to get back on track um this is just another reminder that you can't take any game for granted um and so a win at Purdue is isn't isn't guaranteed by any stretch um so we'll see what undername can do in the week leading up to answer some of the questions that became apparent in this game um and I got one more for you then all right sure what you got I got one more for you and you can throw it right back at me but I'll let you answer first okay so again I just like took a little peek at my Twitter timeline and a little peek at my Facebook just because I was posting stories and it was in my face yep and there's a lot of negative stuff about Riley Leonard that they should go to another quarterback that okay that Riley Leonard exper experiment should be over what is your thought about the state of the quarterback room um I like I I can't changed my opinion after two games I don't think like right I I think Riley Leonard's the best quarterback in there right now um I don't think that Steve Angeli is gonna do any better with a shaky offensive line in front of him um I that's just that's just what I think I I I don't know maybe I would be wrong but I what does NERD Dame's offense look like if the quarterback isn't running as well like I know Steve Vaneli made some nice runs against Oregon state but I don't think that's going to be part of the game plan if he's the quarterback um in the same way that it has for Riley Leonard I asked Marcus Freeman after the game is is running Riley Leonard too much impacting his ability to throw I don't I don't I don't know what Riley Leonard just does not look very good as a thrower right now um and I don't know the reason for that and I'm sure taking as many hits as he does um probably doesn't make that any easier um but yeah I still think he's the quarterback to go to um I don't know I like at some point maybe you get to a point where you throw CJ Carr in there but I I I don't I don't know like I mean I guess you'd I think you sort of have to go to Steve vanelli next just because he's he's shown tremendous determination to stay stay within the program and put himself in a position to earn that next chance but I know CJ car is the name that everyone's like hm I want what he could do out there but I don't know that I don't know that that's going to get you anywhere that's puts you in a significantly better position than the next for next year um so I I think he gotta ride out the Riley Leonard situation um the Steve Angeli thing like if he was that good that people seem to think he may be like how does someone not convince him to go into the transfer portal like what he must really love Nutter Dame and be in the quarterback because everyone knew that's what was going to be happening um and he decided to stay at Notre Dame so I I don't I don't know what sort of opportunities could have been out there for Steve Angeli if he entered the transfer portal but if he's as good as everyone who wants to see him instead of Riley Leonard uh is then you sort of wonder why he didn't up end up in the transfer Port role in the first place my thought on is this Tyler I think you're sticking with Riley Leonard at this point certainly he's one of your captains you have a large body of work from the summer and the training camp that told you that this guy was the number one quarterback he has the skill set that that most helps an offensive line that is getting finding its footing and so forth um so I think you stay with him at this point um and then we'll see but you know I mentioned in my column the three close calls that some of their special teams had that not special teams as in kicking but teams that had special Seasons had um in game two at home and escaped now they didn't lose like this when they escaped 2012 20 uh 18 and 2021 in each of those there there was adjustment at the quarterback position in a way in 2018 they did change quarterbacks later they changed from Brandon wimbush to Ian book in game four in 2021 at the bye-week Brian Kelly changed how he used Jack con right he was strategically said you know what we need to uh do less what was it they did less huddling and so forth they played at a faster Pace it seemed to suit him better and he got rid of the ball fast and then in in 2012 it was having a bullpen bringing Tommy Reese in some times forever Golson I don't think it lends itself to the 2012 edition but maybe the way you use Riley Leonard maybe Tempo with him is a better a better thing but I do think you have to look at those kind of things Marcus says he's GNA exhaust all options so I figure that's on the table yeah I mean I can see having a hook for Riley Leonard if he's coming out and bouncing passes and throwing picks like I think I think we're probably getting closer to the stage where it's like okay maybe we don't start someone else but if Riley Leonard's not sharp and is costing our offense then maybe we we do yank him now obviously I don't think that's ideal but the way things are going right now at the quarterback position aren't ideal either all right before we get out of here I want to remind our viewers about our partner autograph you can now find inside any sports content on the autograph app which is free to download on Android and iOS devices and just left the beta phase this past week there are many Cool Tools and features in the app including the daily replay which summarizes the news from the previous day with links to content you may have missed you can download the app using the QR code at the bottom of our screen or by using the link listed in 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