Marcus Freeman knew that it was going to take a near-perfect game from Notre Dame to beat a team like Ohio State.
While the Fighting Irish came up short Monday night, as Ohio State claimed its ninth national championship, Freeman was proud of the way his Notre Dame squad compete while also crediting the Buckeyes with their execution during key plays on both sides of the ball throughout the game.
"Credit to Ohio State and their ability to execute on both sides of the ball."
With Notre Dame doing their best to work their way back into the game, one of those key moments came on 3rd-and-11 with Notre Dame trailing 31-23 with less than three minutes left in the game. On third-and-long, the Fighting Irish ran Cover 0 (or zero pressure), an all-out-blitz play that left Notre Dame's cornerbacks one-on-one with Ohio State's wide receivers. While Jeremiah Smith didn't have a catch in the second half leading up to that play, Will Howard found the freshman phenom for a 56-yard reception, giving the Buckeyes a first down inside the red zone.
Freeman praised Smith and OSU's offense while also not backing down from his decision to run Cover 0 in that situation.
"It was do-or-die. It was that type of down where if they run it and they get a first down, we have to get them stopped and we thought at that moment the best way to get them stopped was to run zero pressure and, you know what, we have to have faith at some point that we can make a play. (Jeremiah Smith) is one heckuva player and he's difficult to cover. ... It's a talented offense."
With how talented Ohio State is on both sides of the ball, Notre Dame needed to play its best football throughout the entire game in order to beat the Buckeyes. While the Fighting Irish played great at times, they didn't do so the entire game and Freeman blamed himself for the self-inflicted mistakes Notre Dame had throughout the game while also praising OSU.
"Those types of detrimental mistakes when you play a really, really good football team cost you points and that's probably the biggest thing that stuck out to me."
