Notre Dame football: Breaking down Marcus Freeman’s key decisions in the Fiesta Bowl

Notre Dame football: Breaking down Marcus Freeman’s key decisions in the Fiesta Bowl

End of Game Timeouts

Oklahoma State was gassing the Notre Dame defense throughout the second half. It felt like there were opportunities to take a timeout to regroup throughout Oklahoma State’s comeback to take the lead, and then to extend the lead, where Freeman would have done well to use his timeouts to stop the momentum. That never happened.

Instead, Freeman held onto those timeouts and was able to use them at the end of the game.

Because of how the Oklahoma State offense ran itself, and the fumble forced by Isaiah Foskey, Freeman was able to hold onto those timeouts for the final drive of the gaming. Started with about three minutes left. That drive was an abject failure though, and after a turnover on downs, he had three turnovers for another defensive drive.

Freeman immediately used his first timeout and then his second to save the clock against short Oklahoma State runs. That set up a 3rd and 5 with about 2:26 left. A stop on third down forced the final timeout to be called with 2:19 remaining. This set up a chip shot field goal for Oklahoma State. The kick was good, meaning Notre Dame needed to score twice with 2:16 left.

If there is a successful onside kick, Notre Dame would have had a little more than a minute to win the game with a field goal. So, you can’t say Freeman didn’t effectively use those timeouts in the end.