Marcus Freeman Breaks Down Notre Dame’s Ground Game and CJ Carr’s Fourth-Down Play vs North Carolina

Marcus Freeman walked out of a soaked Chapel Hill night crediting the ground game for a win Notre Dame had to grind out. “It was so wet. We knew we weren’t going to be able to throw the ball,” Freeman said, pointing to gap-scheme runs and movement at the point of attack as the difference in a third quarter that flipped the game. CJ Carr said the same thing from the other side of the huddle: “They couldn’t really stop us. Felt like we were imposing our will on them whenever we wanted to.”

Freeman’s other talking point was Carr’s awareness on a fourth down when the play clock bled out, the Irish hard-counted twice, and Carr ran it in himself. “He’s telling me like, ‘Coach, you want us to do this again, right?'” Freeman said. The coach was less happy about a fourth-and-1 he went for near the goal line, saying he was convicted in the call because he trusted the defense to hold after a stop. It didn’t.

• Leonard Moore left the game and was being evaluated. Freeman had not yet talked to doctors.
• Luke Talich played a week after a hand procedure and picked off a pass by reading the quarterback’s eyes from the post.
• Jordan Faison went for 132 yards and a touchdown.
• Freeman on the pass defense: “Our guys didn’t play crisp.”