Freeman’s decision drew heavy criticism on social media
Facing fourth-and-goal, down 31-15 early in the fourth quarter in a College Football Playoff National Championship clash against Ohio State, Notre Dame coach Marcus Freeman elected to kick a field goal. Had Mitchell Jeter’s attempt made it through the uprights, it would have cut Ohio State’s lead to 13 with just over nine minutes left to play.
But Jeter missed, and Notre Dame walked away from a pivotal 12-play, 70-yard drive — that started after an Ohio State fumble — with nothing. After the Irish’s eventual 34-23 loss, Freeman explained the decision to go for three points rather than a fourth-down conversion.
“Instead of being down 16, let’s try to go down 13,” Freeman said. “I know it’s still a two-score game, but you have better — a better probability of 14 points [sic] than you do 16 points. So, if it was a shorter fourth-and-goal situation, I probably would have gone for it but I just felt fourth-and-9 was not a great chance for us to make and I decided to kick it and we didn’t make it.”
Freeman’s logic is sound when considering how strong Ohio State’s red zone defense has been this year. That sequence was the 25th time that Ohio State’s opponent has faced a first-and-goal and the ninth time it has come away without points.
Notre Dame still had all three timeouts and over nine minutes of clock. At that point, the Irish’s defense — which was throttled in the first half — had allowed just a single field goal in over 20 minutes of play in the second half.
The Fighting Irish did get a touchdown later in the fourth quarter when Riley Leonard hit wide receiver Jaden Greathouse on a 30-yard scoring strike with 4:15 left to play. The ensuing 2-point conversion cut Ohio State’s lead to 31-23.
From there, Ohio State’s offense was able to bleed the clock, marching down the field to tee-up a 33-yard field goal from kicker Jayden Fielding that effectively put the game out of reach with 26 seconds left. Had Notre Dame made its field goal attempt earlier in the fourth quarter, it would have actually had a glimmer of hope in the last 30 seconds of the fourth quarter.
