Notre Dame needed to beat Cal three times on final drive to secure Marcus Freeman's first win

Zac Al-Khateeb

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Notre Dame needed to beat Cal three times on final drive to secure Marcus Freeman's first win image

Marcus Freeman's first win at Notre Dame was not a thing of beauty, but it was still a win — despite his team's best efforts.

The Fighting Irish beat Cal 24-17 at Notre Dame Stadium on Saturday, capped with a final drive by the Golden Bears in which they appeared to be beaten on no fewer than two occasions. In the end, however, it took a failed Hail Mary attempt — go figure — before the clock hit zeroes and Notre Dame got the win.

Notre Dame scored its go-ahead touchdown with 9:16 left in the fourth quarter. Drew Pyne — who completed 17 of 23 passes for 150 yards and two touchdowns — hit tight end Michael Mayer for a 6-yard touchdown to give the game its final score.

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The Notre Dame defense held Cal to a turnover on downs and punt on the Golden Bears' two ensuing drives, but a failure by the Fighting Irish offense to get a final first down gave Cal the ball at the 20-yard line with no timeouts and 1:03 left on the clock.

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It appeared Notre Dame ended the game on Cal's first play of the game, as Jack Plummer overthrew his receiver right into Clarence Lewis' waiting arms. He smartly slid — at the bidding of his teammates — seemingly ended the game.

Except: Linebacker JD Bertrand was called for targeting on running back Jaydn Ott following a review of the play. Because the play occurred before the interception, it netted Cal 15 yards, a fresh set of downs and resulted in Bertrand's ejection.

Five plays later, Cal faced second-and-7 from Notre Dame's 29-yard line. Defensive lineman Justin Ademilola managed to strip-sack Plummer, with TaRiq Bracy returning the fumble 77 yards for a game-sealing touchdown. Right?

Wrong. Officials again reviewed the play and determined Plummer's right knee was down, resulting in a 6-yard sack and leaving time enough for one last play from the Notre Dame 35.

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Here's the final play of the game, in which Notre Dame defenders failed to bat the ball down, allowing both Mavin Anderson and Jeremiah Hunter a chance to grab the touchdown.

No one knows whether Cal would have gone for an extra point to send the game to overtime, or the 2-point conversion for the win. It's a moot point, now.

That said: Notre Dame was this close to beating Cal twice — and still losing.

Zac Al-Khateeb

Zac Al-Khateeb Photo

Zac Al-Khateeb has been part of The Sporting News team since 2015 after earning his Bachelor's (2013) and Master's (2014) degrees in journalism at the University of Alabama. Prior to joining TSN, he covered high school sports and general news in Alabama. A college sports specialist, Zac has been a voter for the Biletnikoff Award and Heisman Trophy since 2020.