Notre Dame Appears To Have Only Had 10 Players On Field During Game-Losing Play

The Notre Dame Fighting Irish came one second and one play away from a signature victory under second-year head coach Marcus Freeman on Saturday night.

The Irish welcomed rival Ohio State to South Bend and after taking a late 14-19 lead, looked headed for victory.

A late defensive stop by the Buckeyes gave quarterback Kyle McCord and company a chance to go down and win the ball game with under two minutes to play.

Slowly but surely, McCord led his team down the field. He hit star wideout Emeka Egbuka on a big 3rd-and-19 pass down to the Notre Dame 1-yard line with under 10 seconds to play.

McCord then looked to fellow star wideout Marvin Harrison Jr. for the game-winning score, but his pass went astray.

Then, with just three seconds remaining on the clock, he handed the ball to backup running back Chip Trayanum, who plowed in with just one second left on the clock to give the Buckeyes the lead and, in turn, the victory.

But did Notre Dame make an egregious mistake on the play?

It appears so.

The Fighting Irish seem to have had just 10 players on the field for Trayanum’s winning touchdown. Would another player have made a difference? It’s hard to say. But it sure couldn’t have hurt.

Instead, the Buckeyes took advantage of the numbers advantage and stole a victory straight from the jaws of defeat in South Bend.

Something tells us that Notre Dame defensive coordinator Al Golden is going to be absolutely sick when he looks back at the tape and sees the brutal mistake.