Facing fourth-and-goal, trailing 31-15 early in the fourth quarter in a College Football Playoff national championship matchup against Ohio State, Notre Dame coach Marcus Freeman elected to score a basket. Had Mitchell Jeter’s attempt gone over the uprights, it would have cut Ohio State’s lead to 13 with just over nine minutes left.
But Jeter missed, and Notre Dame walked away from a crucial 12-play, 70-yard drive — which began after an Ohio State fumble — with nothing. After the Irish ultimately lost 34-23, 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-point game, but you have a better – better probability of 14 points (sic) than 16 points. So if it was a shorter fourth-and-goal situation, I ‘probably would have
Freeman’s logic is sound when you consider the strength of Ohio State’s red zone defense this year. The stretch was the 25th time Ohio State’s opponent faced a first-and-goal and the ninth time it came away scoreless.
Notre Dame still had three timeouts and more than nine minutes. At that point, the Irish defense – throttled in the first half – had allowed just one field goal in more than 20 minutes of second-half play.
The Fighting Irish got a touchdown later in the fourth quarter when Riley Leonard hit wide receiver Jaden Greathouse on a 30-yard strike with 4:15 left. The ensuing 2-point conversion cut Ohio State’s lead to 31-23.
From there, the Ohio State offense was able to bleed the clock, marching down the field to score a 33-yard field goal from kicker Jayden Fielding that effectively put the game out of reach with 26 seconds remaining. Had Notre Dame attempted its field goal earlier in the fourth quarter, it would have had a glimmer of hope in the final 30 seconds of the fourth quarter.