The 16th-ranked Notre Dame Fighting Irish defeated the 4-2 NC State Wolfpack 36-7 this afternoon in South Bend. The Irish racked up 485 total yards of offense behind quarterback CJ Carr's 342 passing yards. At times, the offense struggled, but the biggest takeaway was this defense's continued success today. The Notre Dame defense held NC State's explosive offense to 233 total yards, picked off quarterback CJ Bailey three times, sacked him four times and recorded a safety. Head coach Marcus Freeman broke down the big win in this weeks' post game press conference.
You can watch the full press conference here:
Here's some of Freeman's main quotes from today's post game press conference
Freeman On The Message At Halftime
"My message was stop beating Notre Dame," Freeman explained, "That was the message. The penalties that put you behind the sticks result in punting the ball or turning it over on downs. It's easy for me to say 'don't beat Notre Dame', but we have to continue to train our minds to focus in the right way and go out and execute. They did, and it wasn't perfect in the second half. I think we came out the first time on offense and had to punt and went three-and-out. We didn't come out of the locker room perfectly, but you just keep battling. Your mindset has to just be, 'I don't care what happened last play, I don't care what happened, I've got to win this play.' I've been trained to win this play, and I've got to go out there and do it, and then you've got to move on to the next one, and that's going to hopefully help you get the results you want."
Freeman On The Officiating
"I think Sunday or Monday you can submit clips in if you want clarification or if you disagree with a call and they'll give you a review," Freeman explained. "We do it every week. It's an every-week thing. It's just trying to get clarification on what you saw, why you saw it and how you're going to call it. They didn't have enough evidence to overturn a call or confirm a couple calls. Again, same as last week; they've got a job to do. I can be upset if I want, but I've got to worry about how is this team going to continuously get better."
Freeman On The Three Turnovers For The Defense
"Our guys are playing hard," Freeman stated. "I know Adon [Shuler]had one, I think we got good pressure up front. It was the cover two. It was perfect, man. He did his job, was in a great position and made the play. That's an understanding of what you're asked to do; play with clarity and execute your assignment. I know Karson [Hobbs] had one at the end. Kyngstonn [Viliamu-Asa] had one, but usually it's the front and the coverage that helps you with all those things, but it was an accumulation of guys executing on that play."
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