Notre Dame Secures Thrilling 27-24 Win at Orange Bowl

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Transcript

00:00try to put it all together after a amazing night in the college football playoff at the Orange Bowl

00:07in Miami. A very unseasonally 50 degrees that kickoff there, Marks. You know, a lot of not

00:14what they're used to here in South Florida at all. And I got to tell you, the way that game

00:20and Notre Dame and Penn State started last night, it looked like it was going to be another snooze

00:26fest as there wasn't a lot to be excited about. But ultimately, that second half was a game

00:33changer. We saw four lead changes. We saw Riley Leonard get hurt in the first half. They had to

00:39go to their backup. And if we're being honest here, they 27 to 24 win by Notre Dame by stepping up and

00:48making the plays when they needed to was really the difference in the second half. But this game

00:54started kind of like many of us thought, Zen, where the defenses were going to be the story.

01:00And it appeared that when Riley Leonard got hurt, that was really kind of the wake-up call,

01:06although the backup did great for Notre Dame, let them on their first scoring drive. But it was 10-0

01:11before you could blink an eye with Penn State. And then the Riley Leonard injury had to go to

01:16the tent, looked at as a concussion, but ultimately came back in and the rest was history. But that

01:22first half was very interesting to me. It looked like the defenses weren't going to allow the

01:30offenses to get off last night. That all changed in the second half, though. Yeah, look, Penn State

01:35had all the momentum in the first half and really could have been 14-0 had they not stalled out in

01:41the red zone. I think it was wise at that point for James Franklin to take the points early just

01:45because the sense was that the Notre Dame offense had no shot to do anything against the Penn State

01:50defense. It was in full control. So I wouldn't have eschewed the points at that point in time.

01:53I didn't necessarily disagree with the point to kick the field goal, but it's just frustrating

01:57that they left four extra points off the board. And then when the backup came in, kind of funny

02:02that they needed an Italian backup to save the Irish, but that's neither here nor there. Discussed

02:06at a different time. But he was great. Like, I mean, it was one of those things where either

02:10Penn State just softened up their defense or whatever, but they didn't look like they pressured

02:14him. I didn't know if they didn't know if he was going to run or not and take off. They were really

02:18caught off guard and Notre Dame was able to get a critical three points before the half,

02:22which really may have saved them at the end of the day. Because had they not, and Penn State had gone

02:26in 10-0, I think you get a totally different outcome of the game just because the sense of

02:31urgency heading into the second half would have been a lot different. But that it was also that

02:35second half opening drive where they went right down the field and tied the game up at 10. I think

02:40that really made everything sort of, you know, feel like that Notre Dame got control back at

02:46that point in time. And I remember tweeting, I'm like, when did Penn State lose control of this

02:49game? Like what happened? They didn't have a turnover. They didn't make a mistake. They just

02:53couldn't do anything on offense. And Notre Dame started moving the ball over the place

02:57and the momentum really swung. And then we got back and back and forth into a haymaker battle

03:01of you score, I score, you score, I score. You make a mistake, I make a mistake. And,

03:05and we got an exciting 30 minutes of football. But again, I can't figure out Notre Dame.

03:10I've been against them all three rounds now. I've been on the wrong side all three rounds.

03:14I just don't think they're very good. They played very well last night and they managed

03:19to survive in advance. But I don't think they were the better team on the field

03:23for more of that game last night.