Notre Dame vs. Louisville recap

LOUISIVILLE, KY--Notre Dame at University of Louisville recap: 10/7/23

Notre Dame suffered their second loss of the 2023 season Saturday night, falling to #25-ranked Louisville on the road, 33-20.

What started out as a back-and-forth contest was out of hand by the 4th quarter.

Both teams had stellar first-half defensive performances, with the two squads deadlocked at 7-7.

The first half score from the Irish came on a 36-yard pass from quarterback Sam Hartman to wide receiver Jordan Faison.

In the third quarter, the Irish offense struggled to finish drives, relying on kicker Spencer Schaeder to nail back-to-back 50+ yard field goals.

The defense faltered down the stretch, allowing running back Jawhar Jordan to rip off a pair of long touchdown runs to pull ahead and stay there.

Notre Dame struggled overall on third down, converting just 2/12 on the night with the running game racking up just over 50 yards between their top three backs.

Head coach Marcus Freeman sharing at the post-game press conference that they need to take a look at some things before their game against USC. 

Freeman said, "Our guys weren't prepared for whatever reason, we got to take a deep dive, and figure out what it was. Nobody's affected our quarterback quite like Louisville did. So, you have to give them credit, and you know, they were stacking the box, and saying hey, we're going refuse you to let you run the ball, and that means we got to make some plays in the passing game. And so, we didn't, and we've got to make sure that we cannot let this happen again."

Notre Dame drops to 5-2 on the season and will take on another difficult top-25 school in the currently ninth-ranked USC Trojans on Oct. 14.