Things We Learned: Notre Dame’s foundation of ‘a good, a tough football team’ in 2022

COLUMBUS, Ohio — he still would not on Monday. No. 5 Notre Dame fell short at No. 2 Ohio State, and no matter how close the entire game was despite the 21-10 final margin, the first thing Freeman sees is a loss.

“The goal is to win, we didn’t do that,” he said Monday. “As I said after the game, there’s no moral victories around here.”

But it should still be acknowledged, the Irish stood up to one of the top-three programs in the country. They went on the road under a first-year head coach and a first-time starting quarterback and did not struggle in front of 106,594 fans.

“We have a good, a tough football team,” Freeman said late Saturday night.

“A good, a tough football team” will be Notre Dame’s definition in 2022.

The Irish were never going to be able to outscore the Buckeyes. Even if two veteran receivers were not sidelined with injuries and one sophomore was not full-go, and even if two pledged receiver recruits had not left the class of 2022 just before December’s early signing period, Notre Dame was never going to win Saturday by opening up the ballgame.

Instead, the Irish took the air out of the ball in a way that would make Navy envious. Notre Dame ran 48 offensive plays on Saturday, a low during this six-year Irish resurgence.

2021-low: 59 plays against Georgia Tech, a game marked by multiple defensive touchdowns for Notre Dame.2020-low: 58 against Clemson in the ACC title game.2019-low: 53 plays against Navy.2017-low: 49 plays against Navy.

That may have been an extreme, but it was an extreme created by Notre Dame’s dearth of healthy or dynamic playmakers while facing an opponent overflowing with them.

Half that equation will remain the case for the Irish this season, even when fifth-year receiver Joe Wilkins