Every Second Counts
Notre Dame suffered their first lost of the season with one second left on the clock, after an egregious defensive pass interference no call. That second matters. Just ask Michigan (twice).
Fans condition themselves to focus on those last seconds. They can absolutely seal the fate of a game. Just ask Indiana. Nick Marsh saved them in the final seconds last week. This week he drifted out of bounds while catching what should have been a wide open game winning touchdown.
However, the seconds before that will have a greater impact on the college football season overall. Ohio State won the game, but lost Julian Sayin for weeks prior to that fateful step out of bounds.
Texas doesn’t lose to a team like Florida without having multiple seconds and minutes of terrible play. Arch Manning’s pedestrian game (14/20, 173, 1 TD) happened over sixty minutes of football. The Texas needed an entire half and a two minute drill to blow a 17-3 advantage.
Georgia doesn't experience the hell of Auburn Jesus deciding it's your time to die in just a second. Although Gunner Stockton's late fourth quarter fumble during their game-winning field goal drive to provide Auburn their actual game winning field goal doesn't help.
Florida State scored on a miracle second overtime Hail Mary until it was brought back for holding. They did it again, although the ACC refs and replay command center weren't convinced. They still would have needed a two point conversion to tie. Who knows what those extra seconds would've given us.
So while all of Notre Dame fans will suffer the narrative and replays of that final fateful play in Provo, my mind keeps returning to something that I tell all my youth teams when they complain about umpires and refs: if you feel that a single call swayed the game, you didn't play well enough to win. Don't put it in their hands.
Credit to BYU for emptying the clip on offense. Credit them for being the first defense to give C.J. Carr fits this season. You earned the win.
That being said, there were multiple times were Notre Dame could have won their clunker. So lets walk through the other seconds that counted and sealed the Irish's fate.
211 Seconds: Boubacar Traore's Targeting Penalty
It's been a while since Notre Dame suffered a targeting penalty that tossed an impact player--much less this early into a game. Traore earned every bit of it too. This hit might end up on a training film as a perfect example of what targeting is.
