Notre Dame walked out of Provo with a loss, but the problems on offense showed up long before the final whistle. The Irish were limited to their lowest total offense output since the season opener against Wisconsin, and this one ended very differently than that September 6 game.
Notre Dame beat Wisconsin 41-13. Against BYU, it fell 28-24, dropping its first game in 17.
The bye week could not be better timed for Mike Denbrock, CJ Carr and the rest of the offense, with Miami coming up fast. There is real work to do, because this was a night when missed chances kept piling up and the cushion disappeared.
The first crack came on the opening possession. Carr missed Faison on a wide-open touchdown, turning what should have been a clean scoring drive into a field goal.
That theme kept coming back. Near the end of the first half, Notre Dame put together a 10-play, 69-yard march and got the ball into the low scoring zone, only to leave with nothing after a botched attempt to spike the ball.
The second half brought more of the same. After BYU tried a fake punt deep in its own territory and turned the ball over on downs, Notre Dame needed 10 plays to gain 28 yards and settled for another field goal.
Then, after the defense intercepted Bear Bachmeier in the fourth quarter, the offense went three and out instead of putting the game away. There were points there for the taking, and against BYU, those empty trips mattered.
Part of the issue is that the offense is starting to look easier to read. Denbrock has leaned on a limited set of calls depending on the situation, and that has been easier to get away with against teams like Rice, Purdue, Michigan State and Stanford.
BYU was different. On third down and in the red zone, the Cougars seemed to know what was coming, and the Irish stalled.
The situational numbers tell the story. A week earlier against Stanford, Notre Dame went 8-13 on third down and 4-4 in the red zone.
The week before that, it went 4-5 in the red zone against North Carolina on the road. Against BYU, the Irish finished 8-19 on third down and 3-5 in the red zone.
Three drives that could have become touchdowns ended as field goals, and in a four-point loss, that is the kind of margin that turns into the difference between winning and losing.
Notre Dame also took a step backward in the 'Middle 8,' an area Freeman has been strong in during the 2024 run. The final two possessions of the first half went three and out, then a turnover. To start the second half, the Irish opened with back-to-back punts, including a three and out and a four and out.
Still, there was one major bright spot. Jaden Greathouse delivered the kind of performance Notre Dame needed from a senior receiver, finishing with 8 catches for 125 yards on 13 targets.
It was not just the production, either. He made clutch plays that kept drives alive and helped the Irish try to claw back.
It was, in the writer’s words, his coming-out party in 2026.
For all the frustration, the offense never quit. Neither side of the ball did.
But there are no moral victories when you are the 2nd-ranked team in the country, and this loss has left Notre Dame in a win or go home type of scenario. The heart was there.
The finishing was not.
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