Notre Dame Head Coach and QB Discuss Costly 4th Quarter Interception vs. Northern Illinois

Perhaps the biggest play of the game outside of the game winning field goal by Northern Illinois

Notre Dame quarterback Riley Leonard looks for an open receiver during a NCAA college football game between Notre Dame and Northern Illinois at Notre Dame Stadium on Saturday, Sept. 7, 2024, in South Bend. / Michael Clubb / USA TODAY NETWORK

Things weren't always looking bleak for Notre Dame football on Saturday against Northern Illinois.

Despite a remarkably slow start and frustrating afternoon, Notre Dame led Northern Illinois 14-13 with 6:07 to play and faced a second-and-1 a yard shy of midfield.

What followed was one of the most questionable play calls you'll ever see.

Riley Leonard, who hasn't thrown the ball well downfield in two games as Notre Dame's quarterback, was given a playball to try and beat Northern Illinois with a deep pass. Instead of finding paydirt though, it found the hands of Huskies defensive back Amariyun Knighten who returned it to the 50-yard line.

🚨UPSET ALERT🚨

Don’t count out Northern Illinois just yet 👀

Riley Leonard’s second interception puts the Huskies in BUSINESS
pic.twitter.com/HQKbOlMyaR

— Always College Football (@AlwaysCFB) September 7, 2024

Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman was asked about the decision to throw deep in that situation after the game and said they wanted to do that there, but just needed to execute better.

Yeah, we wanted to take a shot on that situation. Obviously, (it was) not the execution that we wanted. Obviously, we never intend to throw an interception, but that's the look we wanted. That's where we wanted the ball to go. We've just got to throw a better ball.

Everybody's going to try to point a finger at somebody, some side of the ball, one play, one person. It's the entire program that underachieved today, and the entire program has to own it and improve from it.

Leonard didn't offer as detailed of response after the game. He was instead more short and to the point.

“Bad eyes, bad feet, bad ball,” he said.

I don't understand the play call whatsoever. What I hated the most Saturday was Notre Dame failing to attempt to even get a real running game going.

If Mike Denbrock and Marcus Freeman had a do-over, I'm guessing they'd choose a different play call just shy of midfield as well.

Notre Dame on Sports Illustrated


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