PROVO, Utah - Notre Dame had this game in its grasp, then watched it slip away in the kind of finish that can linger.
The Irish rallied from a 21-10 halftime deficit to grab a 24-21 lead in the fourth quarter, only to give it back in a 28-24 loss to No. 8 Brigham Young at LaVell Edwards Stadium. BYU went back on top with 1:47 left, and the late swing ended a night that moved from chaos to control and back to chaos again.
For a stretch, Notre Dame looked like it had found its footing. After trailing after the first quarter, the second and the third, the No. 2 team in the country finally settled in and played like it. But one costly defensive series undid the comeback and left the Irish with a defeat that felt bigger than a single game.
The opening minutes set the tone in the wrong direction for Notre Dame. On just the fifth play, defensive end Boubacar Traore was ejected after a helmet-to-helmet targeting hit on quarterback Bear Bachmeier. Traore, who had walked off with his gold helmet in hand, was out early, and Notre Dame was forced to regroup immediately after falling into a 7-0 hole.
It was the second time in three weeks the Irish had been behind 7-0 early, and the second straight game outside Northern Indiana where they had to dig out of that kind of start. They did it in the rain at North Carolina. This time, the comeback had to come in Provo, with the sun still up and the pressure building.
The first half was messy almost everywhere for Notre Dame. The defense struggled to sort out BYU’s motion and misdirection, and the Irish were also hurt by an illegal substitution penalty late in the half that kept another Cougar scoring drive alive. BYU scored on a throwback pass to the quarterback for one touchdown and later nearly hit Notre Dame with a reverse flip and run for another.
Then came the sequence that summed up the half for the Irish: CJ Carr appeared to spike the football with six seconds left, Notre Dame looked headed for a touchdown, and the play was overturned into a fumble. It was that kind of night for the Irish before halftime, and the 21-10 deficit they carried into the break fit the mood.
Still, Notre Dame answered in the second half. The Irish made enough plays at the right times to claw back, take the lead, and turn the game into a late fourth-quarter fight. But BYU kept pressing, and Notre Dame could not finish the job.
The setting added another layer to the night. College GameDay was in Provo, and Georgia’s loss to Auburn about 44 minutes before kickoff raised the stakes even more.
A Notre Dame win would have pushed the Irish to a level they had not reached in October of a regular season since 1990. Instead, one bad defensive sequence helped turn a wild, unforgiving night into a frustrating loss.
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