Freeman safeguards leaving Irish short-handed late

• Heather Dinich, ESPN Senior Citizen WriterSep 24, 2023, 12:46 AM ET

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  • College football reporter
  • Signed up with ESPN.com in 2007
  • Graduate of Indiana University

SOUTH BEND, Ind.– Notre Dame coach Marcus Freeman stated he was trying to get a fourth defensive lineman on the field for the final play of the game in Saturday night’s 17-14 loss to Ohio State however didn’t want to draw a charge, so he stuck with 10 protectors on the play that enabled the winning touchdown.Trailing 14-10, Ohio

State had the ball on the 1-yard line on third down, when Chip Trayanum added the middle and scored the winner with one 2nd remaining.Freeman, a previous

linebacker, was asked after the game if he ought to have taken the charge and attempted to get the 11th defender on the field.Editor’s Picks 2 Related”To me it resembled,’Hey, don’t

provide another chance to get settled and to try to make a various call,’right?”stated Freeman, who didn’t have any timeouts staying.”Hey, men, remain off the field. Let’s not provide a freebie from the half-yard line and let’s attempt to stop them.”And I thought perhaps they would do the very same thing they did the breeze before, and then they ended up running the ball,” he included. “So I got to see the play and see where the ball hit. But yeah, that’s why that I made that choice.”

Notre Dame’s short-handed defense was spotted by lots of when the officiating crew evaluated the winning goal.

“Everything was going fast. I’m attempting to do my job, get the call,” security Thomas Harper said. “That’s something we have actually got to do much better. We can’t be down because circumstance. We’ve got to do much better, players and coaches. We’re going to gain from it and grow.”