Toledo had the ball on the 26 yard line, 1:40 to go.
3rd and 1.
I don't think they are thinking field goal at that point. They need to make the 1st down.
QB runs around everyone and sees daylight.
His instinct was to run to the end zone while seeing all of that open field.
I don't think you can blame him.
Everything is more readily apparent in hindsight or after the fact. As has been noted the reliability of a college kicker is very different than that of the NFL and Toledo's kicker is probably not as good as most top 25 programs and it's early in the season and a very high pressure situation.
Taking a down prior to the end zone is also not without risk. The easiest would be to run out of bounds as one has to worry about a fumble, being stripped, etc. if they are in bounds but it's not always easy to have such situational awareness in the moment.. The fact of the matter is that taking a 4 point lead with less than 2 minutes to go isn't a bad situation to be in, fact ND got the ball back with 1:35 left and no timeouts. Had Toledo been able to make a few stops the game is over.
The other potential downside of taking the down, running down time and kicking a field goal is the kick-off return. A FG by Toledo would have given them a 1 point lead and a field goal by ND would have won it at that point. Again hindsight is 20/20.
Leprechaun Losers wrote:
DC guy wrote:
regardless, this proves Notre Dame has no business being ranked #8
Week 1: Ranked #9 - Struggle to beat an unranked Florida State team by three points in overtime, 41-38. Move up to #8
Week 2: Ranked #8 - Favored to win by 16.5, struggle to beat unranked Toledo by three points by scoring with one minute to go.
My guess is they will move up to at least #7 after Ohio State lost. It depends on how much the wealthy donors from Notre Dame influence the voters.
Fell to 12th. Looks like you are an idiot.
Will be interesting to see what happens with the games that matter. They are adapting to a new QB, so there will be some growing pains. Book was their leader for three solid seasons. Hopefully they can right the ship. Better to learn while winning than while losing. I was at the game when they lost to Navy for the first time in 43 years in 2007. I remember the game because they announced Ryan Shay's death at the start of the game.
rojo wrote:
Less than 2 minutes left. Toledo has the ball 3rd and 2 at the Notre Dame 26 yard line. Down by 2. ND has zero timeouts left.
Toledos runs a clever QB sneak but the QB ran it in for a TD. If he just kneels it at like the 1 the game is over, right? I mean they would still have to kick the field goal but there would have been hardly any time. Instead Notre Dame had 1:51 and easily scored.
In the moment I remember thinking "what would have happened had he just taken a knee inside the one?" Surely they could have gotten in from there in four tries. But the typical coach's response is "don't take points off the board." I understand the idea of just scoring, but tactically the better move is to stop before the end zone and run the clock down as much as possible. Unfortunately most coaches don't think that way.