Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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BLUEGOLDONLINE.COM SEPT. 20, 2025 21 BY ERIC HANSEN N ot even Notre Dame Stadium's new alcohol-friendly sales pol- icy could positively skew the eye test when it came to Chris Ash's defensive reboot in Game 2 of his so-far wobbly regime as Irish defensive coordinator. Nor the near-escape route the Irish offense eventually provided No. 8 Notre Dame to try to keep its College Football Playoff aspirations in the realm of the real, rather than surreal. All that melted away with another de- fensive breakdown with 13 seconds left on a fourth-down touchdown pass from Texas A&M quarterback Marcel Reed to tight end Nate Boerkircher, and Randy Bond's accompanying extra point in a 41-40 victory for No. 16 Texas A&M (3-0). Notre Dame is now 0-2, losing in a post-bye week game for the first time in six tries in the Marcus Freeman era and failing to concoct a successful sequel to 2024 Broyles Award winner Al Golden's three-year run as defensive coordinator. "It's not the call. It's the execution, and I've always believed that," Freeman responded when asked if he'd consider changes in how the game was called and who was making the defensive calls. "I've been a play caller — at times can be overrated as much as it's the execution of that play call. So, that's what we've got to evaluate. "Maybe we'll look and say we prob- ably shouldn't have called this in that situation. There's things you always look at. At the end of the day, why aren't we able to execute in a way that we be- lieve we need to and should? That's the question we've got to get answered." Irish running back Jeremiyah Love, on his 23rd carry, provided what had ap- peared to be the winning margin with 2:53 left on a 12-yard scoring run. Tyler Buch- ner bobbled the snap on the extra point and wasn't able to concoct a Plan B with his arm as the Irish lead stayed at 40-34. Texas A&M's Terry Bussey returned the ensuing kickoff for a touchdown, but it was called back for holding. Still, the Aggies were able to get all the way down to the Irish 10-yard line. They had four shots at the end zone in the closing seconds, and Reed cashed in for the vic- tory from the 11. The 6-foot-1, 185-pound redshirt sophomore connected on just 17 of 37 throws (45.9 percent), after coming into the game at 66.1 percent. But he had timely and explosive completions and finished with 360 yards with 2 touch- downs and 1 interception. Mississippi State transfer Mario Craver had 207 receiving yards for the Aggies on 7 catches. "Hopefully, you guys won't have to ask me any more questions about whether or not Marcel can throw," said Texas A&M head coach Mike Elko, coaching at Notre Dame Stadium for the first time since his one-year run as Irish defensive coordi- nator in 2017. "That is what I really hope comes out of this one." Notre Dame redshirt freshman quar- terback CJ Carr's second career start, with 293 passing yards, largely got lost in the defensive backslide. He completed 20 of 32 passes with 1 touchdown — to Love — and 1 interception and actually had a pass efficiency rating roughly three points higher (143.5) than Reed. Before and even during the final of- fensive volleys, most alarming was how a team that finished No. 1 nationally in pass-efficiency defense each of the past two seasons got gashed so convinc- ingly in the pass game in stretches for the second straight week. And with a bye week to take a deep dive on the fixes for the flaws that playing a top-10 team on the road, Miami, exposed for Freeman and his defensive staff. And the tests in the passing game aren't relenting any time soon, Head- A&M ND FIRST QUARTER ND Johnson 20-yard blocked punt return (Burnette kick) 13:06 0 7 A&M Craver 86-yard pass from Reed (Bond kick) 9:33 7 7 Drive: 2 plays, 90 yards, 0:47 ND Price 7-yard run (Burnette kick) 6:30 7 14 Drive: 7 plays, 75 yards, 3:03 SECOND QUARTER ND Burnette 22-yard field goal 14:54 7 17 Drive: 11 plays, 38 yards, 5:55 A&M Moss 1-yard run (Bond kick) 12:23 14 17 Drive: 5 plays, 75 yards, 2:31 ND Love 36-yard pass from Carr (Burnette kick) 9:43 14 24 Drive: 6 plays, 75 yards, 2:40 A&M Moss 2-yard run (Bond kick) 5:32 21 24 Drive: 9 plays, 75 yards, 4:11 A&M Moss 1-yard run (Bond kick) 1:11 28 24 Drive: 7 plays, 47 yards, 2:20 THIRD QUARTER ND Price 17-yard run (Burnette Kick) 8:17 28 31 Drive: 5 plays, 29 yards, 2:15 A&M Bond 43-yard field goal 0:44 31 31 Drive: 6 plays, 25 yards, 2:50 FOURTH QUARTER ND Burnette 39-yard field goal 14:01 31 34 Drive: 6 plays, 44 yards, 1:36 A&M Bond 45-yard field goal 9:06 34 34 Drive: 11 plays, 47 yards, 4:55 ND Love 12-yard run (pass failed) 2:53 34 40 Drive: 12 plays, 75 yards, 6:13 A&M Boerkircher 11-yard pass from Reed (Bond kick) 0:13 41 40 Drive: 13 plays, 74 yards, 2:28 A&M ND Total First Downs 24 23 Rushing 6 9 Passing 15 12 Penalty 3 2 Rushing Attempts 32 39 Yards Gained Rushing 130 176 Yards Lost Rushing 2 40 Net Yards Rushing 128 136 Net Yards Passing 360 293 Passes Attempted 37 32 Passes Completed 17 20 Had Intercepted 1 1 Percent Completion 45.9% 62.5% Yards Per Attempt 9.7 9.2 Yards Per Completion 21.2 14.7 Total Offensive Plays 69 71 Total Net Yards 488 429 Average Gain Per Play 7.1 6.0 Fumbles: No.-Lost 0-0 1-0 Penalties: No.-Yards 13-86 5-31 Punts: No.-Yards 4-121 2-92 Average Per Punt 30.2 46.0 Average Net Punt 16.2 46.0 Punt Returns: No.-Yards 0-0 2-56 Kickoff Returns: No.-Yards 2-55 2-39 Interception Returns: No.-Yards 1-3 1-0 Fumble Returns: No.-Yards 0-0 0-0 Miscellaneous Yards 0 0 Possession Time 26:53 33:07 Third-Down Conversions 4-11 7-15 Percentage 36.4% 46.7% Fourth-Down Conversions 1-1 2-4 Percentage 100.0% 50.0% Sacks By: No.-Yards 2-15 0-0 TEXAS A&M 41, NOTRE DAME 40 Sept. 13, 2025 ✦ Attendance: 77,622 Notre Dame Stadium ✦ South Bend 1st 2nd 3rd 4th Final Texas A&M 7 21 3 10 41 Notre Dame 14 10 7 9 40