By Justin O’Neal
In front of a sold out crowd at Notre Dame Stadium, the fifth-ranked Fighting Irish (1-1) were upset in their home opener against the Northern Illinois Huskies (2-0), falling 14-16 on a 35-yard field goal with 24 seconds remaining.Â
Notre Dame looked promising to start the game. On its very first drive, they were led down the field by quarterback Riley Leonard as he gained yards through the air as well as on the ground. The Irish finished the drive off with an 11-yard keeper from Leonard for a touchdown.
After that, opening salvo Northern Illinois held the momentum for a large majority of the game. On the Huskies first drive, senior running back Anterio Brown took a slant route 83 yards for a touchdown, tying the score 7-7.Â
The Huskies solid performance continued on the defensive side as they held Notre Dame to a quick three-and-out. On the next possession, multiple positive rushes from Anterio Brown got the Huskies into field goal range, allowing them to take a 10-7 lead.
As the Irish offense took the field to try to respond, a somewhat promising drive came to an abrupt halt as Leonard’s pass was tipped and intercepted.
After the turnover, Brown once again showed off his speed, taking a wheel route 43 yards down the field on the first play of the drive. The Irish responded to the explosive play however, holding Northern Illinois to another field goal, making the score 13-7 NIU.
Both teams failed to score again for the rest of the first half. Notre Dame was able to drive into field goal range at end the half, but it was blocked by Cade Haberman, sending the Irish into the locker room still trailing by six.
In the second half, Jeremiah Love was able to show some life for the Irish offense. After a few first downs, he took a rush up the middle for a 34 yard touchdown, hurdling over a defender in the process. This gave Notre Dame a 14-13 lead.
The score remained this way for the rest of the third quarter, and to start the fourth quarter the Irish were able to gain some momentum as they stopped the Huskies on an attempt to go for it on 4th and 2. However, the Irish offense continued to struggle and nothing amounted from the turnover on downs.
After back to back fruitless possessions from each team, the Irish managed to put together an encouraging drive. However, that all came to an end when Leonard threw an interception that was returned for 34 yards.
With just under 6 minutes left in the game, Northern Illinois began to bleed the clock with the intention of kicking a field goal as the clock runs out. They drove it down the field, but were eventually stopped with 36 seconds left. With the game on the line, Kanon Woodill attempted a 35 yarder to take the lead. It was good, and the Huskies were now leading 16-14 with 31 seconds left in the game.
A desperate drive for the Irish put them in position to attempt a 62-yard field goal as time expired, but Haberman blocked the attempt for a second time in the game.