Things We Learned: Notre Dame OL’s second-half surge against Cal a step forward despite ‘a long way to go’

Marcus Freeman’s verb tense caught back up with the present, and it was no coincidence that came immediately after Notre Dame (2-1) found the first win of his head-coaching career, beating Cal, 24-17.

“We are an O-line, D-line -driven program,” Freeman said Saturday. “Got to be able to run the ball, but you can’t just say this is what we’re going to do, that’s it. You have to be able to adjust to what is having success and to what an offense or defense is giving to you.”

A week ago, Freeman had to couch his aspirations for the program with an “if” qualifier. For the first half against the Bears, it looked like that would again be the case offensively, though the offensive line’s biggest issues early were repeated false starts and not failed blocks.

Instead of constant pressure plaguing him, the Irish skill-position players could not buoy junior quarterback Drew Pyne in his first career start. Dropped passes made his first few possessions look worse than they were, as did him missing a few open looks to preseason All-American junior tight end Michael Mayer. Less obvious but just as problematic, freshman receiver Tobias Merriweather failing to motion presnap when expected to led to an aborted third-down attempt deep in Cal territory.

“We have to have people that make the quarterback look good,” Freeman said. “A lot of the result of play falls on the shoulders of the quarterback, but there’s so much that happens during a play that really dictates the outcome.

“But the quarterback is going to have to answer to it.”

While a few moments of a particular phone call between Pyne and Irish offensive coordinator Tommy Rees garner most of the attention and were clearly aimed at Pyne’s mistakes, reminding him of others’ mishaps was