Notre Dame-Ohio State: Let’s be honest – Irish choked that away

Let’s be honest for a second – that was an epic choke job by Notre Dame.

You can go ahead and call it an epic comeback by Ohio State if you like.  After all, they were the team that converted a fourth-and-seven in the final minute to extend the game.

They were the ones that didn’t drop a sure interception which would have clinched a victory.

They were the ones that converted a third-and-19 when Notre Dame went into one of the worst prevent defenses you’ll ever see.

And they were the ones that played the game’s final down with 11 players instead of 10.

Notre Dame seemingly had their biggest win in perhaps 30 years secured Saturday night against a resilient Ohio State team.

Ohio State deserves credit, no doubt, but that was an all-time collapse by Notre Dame late.

No, let’s call it what it actually was.

An epic choke job.

Let’s examine…

Notre Dame blows 21 point lead in Fiesta Bowl: 5 takeaways

Would you rather get blown out or blow a massive lead?

Everything was fine and dandy for Notre Dame with two minutes to go in the first half of the 2022 Fiesta Bowl.  They led Oklahoma State 28-7, Jack Coan was doing seemingly whatever he wanted, and the Irish appeared headed towards an easy victory to put an end to their drought in winning a major bowl game that dates back to January of 1994.

And then Oklahoma State answered quickly with a touchdown before halftime while the Irish chose to run out the clock despite having all three timeouts.

A third quarter that was entirely dominated by Oklahoma State gave the Cowboys a 31-28 lead that they wouldn’t look back from and what we’re left with is Notre Dame’s biggest collapse in program history.

Here are five takeaways from a brutal defeat on New Year’s Day 2022.