Ineffective offense, turnovers doom Notre Dame vs Marshall in Marcus Freeman’s home debut

SOUTH BEND, Ind. — Notre Dame could not run the ball when it needed to. It could not throw the ball efficiently. The Irish could barely stop Marshall’s ground game, and then they could not even do that.

Struggling in all facets, No. 8 Notre Dame (0-2) lost to the Herd (2-0) on Saturday, 26-21, making Marcus Freeman the first Irish coach in history to start his career 0-3. On a day when Notre Dame could barely move the ball in the first place, Marshall eliminated any chance of an Irish comeback with an interception return for a touchdown in the final five minutes, giving it a two-score lead to withstand a last-gasp Notre Dame touchdown.

“It starts with me as the head coach and looking at myself and saying, ‘What do I have to do to help this football team?’” Freeman said after his first home game as the Irish head coach. “Really look at everything we’re doing because the performance isn’t where it needed to be.”

From the outset, the Herd bullied Notre Dame. It took a second-quarter lead with a long touchdown drive, a 10-play march on which six Marshall rushes gained 27 yards on the drive, the Irish able to render only one ground attempt as ineffective.

Similarly, to retake the lead in the fourth quarter, the Herd ran eight times for 64 yards on a drive that took 11 plays to cover 94 yards.

“If you can’t stop the run, get after the quarterback when it’s crunch time — if you can’t run the ball and protect the quarterback when it’s crunch time, we’re not where we need to be,” Freeman said. “… We have to be able to stop offenses when it matters the most.

“Our defense did a good job, but when it matters the most, we didn’t get the stop that we needed. We didn’t get that stop — when the ball was on the five-yard line and we’re