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Notre Dame dismantled by social media over failed fake punt
By Paul Harvey
Published:
Notre Dame is starting to feel desperate in the national championship game vs. Ohio State, and that’s evident by the fake punt Marcus Freeman and his staff dialed up in the 3rd quarter.
After falling behind 21-7 at halftime, the Fighting Irish allowed Quinshon Judkins to roll 70 yards and then score his 3rd touchdown of the night on the first drive of the 3rd quarter. Then, Notre Dame quickly found itself in a 4th-and-2 situation from its own 33-yard line after failing to generate much offense.
Instead of keeping the full offense on the field, the Fighting Irish called a fake punt on a play that saw backup QB Steve Angeli take the snap after sneaking into the formation. Though “sneaking” is used loosely because it appeared that everyone in the building expected the Fighting Irish to try and get a conversion.
To the credit of Notre Dame, the play should have worked with Angeli fitting a pass into a catchable window for Jordan Faison, but Faison was unable to complete the catch. Take a look:
Even if the play was close to working, it ultimately failed, and the call itself had many questioning the call to begin with. For many, the fake did not have any element of trickery, and others wondered why Notre Dame would take Riley Leonard and the offense off the field to begin with if they wanted to try and pick up the 2 yards.
Paul Harvey lives in Atlanta and covers SEC football.
