Marshall 26, Notre Dame 21: Highlights were few, but Irish lessons persist

SOUTH BEND, Ind. — The unknown severity of Tyler Buchner’s left shoulder injury notwithstanding, the vast majority of Notre Dame’s struggling offensive production was dependent on the sophomore quarterback in Saturday’s 26-21 loss to Marshall. Without Buchner, one may shudder at wondering how few points the No. 8 Irish (0-2) would have scored against the Herd (2-0).

Buchner took 12 carries for 60 yards (sack adjusted) while throwing for 201 yards on 18-of-32 passing. A 6.3 yards per attempt average is not one that will push an offense for an entire season, but on a day when little was working for Notre Dame, it was nearly acceptable.

And yet, Buchner was oh-so-close to so much more. Multiple times his throws deep bounced off his receivers’ hands. A fourth-and-four shot down the sideline to fifth-year receiver Braden Lenzy was caught but out of bounds. Just before the end of the first half, Lenzy could not hold onto a pass as he dove to get to it. This became the theme for Buchner, even before his fourth-quarter hope for Lorenzo Styles — not quite a desperation heave, but the Irish were beginning to trend that way — ended up a bit behind the sophomore receiver. A week ago, a similar look landed two yards in front of Styles.

“We’ve been working on trying to get better at that every single day,” Styles said. “It didn’t hit today, we just need to work to get better at it until we’re completing it in the game.”

Deep passes fail more often than they succeed. That much should be obvious. But the rewards of a completion generally outweigh the risk of an incompletion, as long as one can avoid an interception; both of Buchner’s turnovers against Marshall came on short routes that the Herd cornerbacks jumped, be it via impressive