A week after Notre Dame went into the Horseshoe and gave Ohio State just about all it could handle for more than three quarters, the Irish returned home to South Bend for what figured to be a comfortable bounce back against Marshall.
The Irish were three touchdown favorites, but found themselves down 6-0 in the early going and then 9-7 at the half in what was another dismal offensive performance from the Tyler Buchner led group. After another Marshall field goal put them up 12-7, Notre Dame finally took its first lead of the day in the opening seconds of the fourth quarter and looked like they might escape with a win.
However, after the two teams traded punts, Marshall marched 94 yards in 11 plays for the go-ahead touchdown with just over five minutes to play, as Henry Colombi found Devin Miller for the score.
https://twitter.com/MrMatthewCFB/status/1568712788574408705
On the ensuing Notre Dame drive, the Herd would put extend that lead to 11 with a stunning pick-six on third down, as Steven Gilmore jumped the route and took it 37 yards to the house to make it 26-15.
As called by @HerdCotton & heard on the @varsity app: pic.twitter.com/L0DLDjpTL0
— Timothy Burke (@bubbaprog) September 10, 2022
Marshall would again pick off Buchner on the next drive as Notre Dame got into the red zone, all but locking up the victory.
https://twitter.com/MrMatthewCFB/status/1568716411908030464
The Irish would get a stop after that and partially blocked a punt to get the ball on the Marshall 30 with two minutes to go, but after taking a sack the clock became too big of an obstacle to overcome. Marshall’s defense was able to force them to take enough time off the clock before scoring a late touchdown to make it 26-21 with 14 seconds to play. There was no miracle with an onside kick and one kneeldown from Marshall delivered them one of the program’s biggest upset wins in history on the road against a top 10 team (that surely won’t be anywhere near the top 10 after this week).