Notre Dame needed every man possible to try and stop Ohio State at the goal-line on the final possession of the game. As it turns out, the Fighting Irish were one man short.
The Buckeyes handed the ball to running back Chip Trayanum with time expiring at the 1-yard line. A lengthy review confirmed that Trayanum had just gotten the nose of the football past the goal-line with one second left in the game, giving Ohio State the 16-14 lead.
While the review by officials confirmed the touchdown, a review by everyone else saw that the Fighting Irish had just 10 defenders on the field, one shy of the defenders allowed on the field for the play.
"We were trying to get a fourth d-lineman on the field, and I told him just stay off because we can't afford a penalty, I didn't have any timeouts, right, so we couldn't afford a penalty there," head coach Marcus Freeman said after the game. "It's on us. We've got to be better."
Notre Dame only had 10 players on the field for Ohio State's game-winning touchdown. pic.twitter.com/OyAGNczgaj
— The Sporting News (@sportingnews) September 24, 2023
MORE: Ohio State outlasts Notre Dame with last-second touchdown
Freeman was asked whether he should have just taken the penalty and tried to rush the player out onto the field. Since the play was already at the 1-yard line, it would have only moved the ball up a few inches.
"Yeah you could've [taken the penalty], but to me it was like, 'Hey don't give them another opportunity to get settled and to try to make a different call," Freeman said. "Right, 'Hey guys stay off the field let's not give them a freebee from the half-yard line and let's try to stop them.' And I thought maybe they would do the same thing they did the snap before, they didn't they end up running the ball so I've got to watch the play and see where the ball hit, but yeah that's why I made that decision."
Though the play was technically on a third-and-1, it was, for all intents and purposes, a fourth-down play. There were just three seconds on the clock when Kyle McCord's pass fell incomplete to Marvin Harrison Jr. to the right side of the end zone. The Buckeyes, without a timeout, likely would not have had enough time to get a pass off, and certainly they would not have had time to run the ball a second time.
Previously, Ohio State had been met with no success in similar short-yardage situations. The Buckeyes had faced two prior fourth-and-1 situations, including one from the goal-line. The first play was a play-action pass, where McCord could not find an open receiver in the end zone, and the Buckeyes turned it over on downs. The next fourth-and-1 was a jet sweep to Emeka Egbuka that went for no gain.
