Saturday proved to be a true BLOOD WEEK and Notre Dame was not immune to this college football curse against the BYU Cougars in Provo, Utah. In true BLOOD WEEK fashion, Notre Dame made its own mistakes and poor officiating at the end to give BYU a massive victory and now they will go home with a 28-24 loss heading into the bye week.
The Irish entered the bear’s den from the start. BYU and Bear Bachmeier took their first drive 75 yards in 11 plays for a Bachmeier touchdown to take the lead and get the crowd pumped. On the fifth play of that practice, Boubacar Traore was ejected from the game after a rough passer call also turned into a targeting call. His absence was painfully felt throughout the match because Loghan Thomas is simply not at the same level.
Notre Dame tried to answer BYU’s opening score and moved down the court diving and dunking with some Nolan James points mixed in, but they were ultimately forced to score a field goal to make the score 7-3.
Notre Dame forced a 3-and-out on BYU’s next possession and recovered the ball from the punt at the 16-yard line. The Irish drove 84 yards in 12 plays using the same type of mix as their first drive – only this one ended in the enodzone as Nolan James threw it from the 8-yard line to give the Irish a 10-7 lead.
BYU didn’t back down and Bear Bachmeier orchestrated another great drive. This time, however, the Cougars were very tricky and scored on a double pass from Kyler Kasper to Bachmeier to put BYU back up 14-10.
The Irish began to break down.
On the next drive, Notre Dame quickly went out 3 after losing two yards. BYU would capitalize on Notre Dame’s inability to move the ball or cover anyone on the field, and drove 72 yards in less than 3 minutes for Bear Bachmeier to run it in from there to make it 21-10, BYU.
Notre Dame had less than a minute and a half left and drove the ball to the 6-yard line with 6 seconds left, but CJ Carr fumbled the ball as he tried to punch it to stop the clock. An official review found a clear recovery by BYU and the semester ended. The officials, somehow, didn’t see BYU’s defensive line collapse to the ground before the play and they didn’t throw a flag for delay of game — which might have negated the whole thing.
Notre Dame did not come out after halftime with their hair on fire. The Irish scored on their first two possessions. The Notre Dame defense finally found its rhythm a bit and forced a punt that saw the ensuing offensive attack get a field goal, then BYU failed on a fake punt deep in its territory – which only resulted in a field goal for Notre Dame to make the score 21-16.
The Irish defense passed the test again and forced another BYU punt, and Notre Dame got the ball back with good field position. It took a few 4th down conversions, but the Irish fell inside the 5-yard line and Jonaz Walton ran it into the enodzone from 3 yards out to make it 24-22. Notre Dame opted to go for two to try to take a 3-point lead, and Walton got the call again – and he managed to make it 24-21.
On BYU’s next drive, Jayden Sanders intercepted the ball deep in Notre Dame territory – but the offense went cold and BYU got the ball back near midfield. After holding the Cougars in check for most of the second half, the Irish couldn’t stop Bachmeier from orchestrating one last goal to edge the Irish, 28-24 with less than 2 minutes to play.
CJ Carr led the Irish down the field and reached the 6-yard line with 4 seconds left. Carr throws it to Jaden Greathouse, and the refs have ruled that DPI no longer exists or the clock is counting – as 1 second showed when the ball hit the ground.
Notre Dame loses during Blood Week, and it’s a huge setback for what this team is trying to accomplish this season.
Gn sports
