Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1509252
20 OCT. 14, 2023 BLUE & GOLD ILLUSTRATED BY TYLER HORKA AND JACK SOBLE A fan in the first row of L&N Stadium heckled Notre Dame quarterback Sam Hartman just less than an hour until kickoff. Then heckled him some more, and some more. He wouldn't stop going at him even if he didn't get so much as a glance in return. Turns out, the hollering man with an adult beverage in one hand and his other cupped around his lips to create a mini megaphone foreboded what was to come for all of the Irish. The Cardinals wouldn't stop going at them all night in a 33-20 Louisville victory, and Notre Dame simply didn't respond. "I'm disappointed in the perfor- mance," Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman said. "We got to take owner- ship as a coaching staff first." The somewhat soothsaying Louis- ville (6-0) supporter insistently claimed Hartman would throw 2 interceptions. He was wrong. He should have given his home-team Cards more credit. Hartman tossed 3. He completed 22 of 38 passes for 254 yards with 2 touchdowns in addition to the 3 picks. He was sacked 5 times. Notre Dame went 3 of 13 on third down and the Irish only rushed for 3.5 yards per carry, even when adjusting the total by removing the sack yardage. Hartman wasn't good, but who was for the Irish (5-2) on offense? "Everybody is going to be pointing the finger at Sam; you better point the finger at us — me," Freeman said. Hartman's first interception came on the fifth play from scrimmage. It was his first of the season. Louisville promptly marched 70 yards in 12 plays. The Cards capped the drive off with a 9-yard touchdown from quarterback Jack Plummer to wide receiver Jamari Thrash. The Cardinals were forced to punt on their next four possessions, but Notre Dame had to punt on its next two as well. The Fighting Irish finally got on the board when freshman walk-on wide receiver Jordan Faison blew by his de- fender on a slot post and Hartman found him for a 36-yard touchdown midway through the second quarter. There wasn't enough of that for the Irish. Notre Dame's next touchdown came with 1:35 left in the game. Too little, too late. Hartman's second interception came with Notre Dame trailing 27-13 with half the fourth quarter remaining. He telegraphed a pass to junior tight end Mitchell Evans. Louisville's Devin Neal stepped right in front of it for an easy pick. The Cardinals tacked on another field goal to make it a three-score game, 30-13, with 5:02 left. Neal picked off Hartman again with 1:10 left to seal the victory. Faison made his first career catch two plays prior to his TD to move the chains on third-and-8. A walk-on wide re- ceiver on a lacrosse scholarship making his debut and getting action right away says everything you need to know about the Notre Dame wide receiver corps; it's not dependable. It's not productive. None of the Irish's scholarship wide re- ceivers struck fear into the Cardinals' defense, and it showed. That was only part of the problem. Esteemed junior running back Au- dric Estimé was bottled up for his worst stat line of the season; 10 carries for 20 yards. He was outshined by Louisville tailback Jawhar Jordan who went for 143 yards and 2 touchdowns on 21 attempts. He scored on sprints of 45 and 21 yards. Estimé, meanwhile, wasn't trusted in short-yardage situations; the Irish instead elected to use the width of the field on multiple end arounds. They didn't work. "We got on our heels a little bit with our confidence level," junior left tackle Joe Alt said. Notre Dame rotated and shuffled of- fensive linemen out of their usual spots for the first time outside of garbage time in the first half. Graduate student Andrew Kristofic and sophomore Billy Schrauth were featured in the rotation. That didn't work either. It truly felt like the entire offensive operation was scuf- fling and in shambles throughout the night, and a game-long average of 4.5 yards per play was indicative of that. "We got to take a deep dive and figure out what it was," Freeman said. WILD CARDS Cardinals surprise Fighting Irish 33-20, ending their College Football Playoff hopes and snapping their 30-game ACC win streak Graduate student quarterback Sam Hartman was sacked 5 times and committed 5 turnovers in the loss to the Cardinals. PHOTO BY CHAD WEAVER