Northern Illinois stuns No. 5 Notre Dame for first-ever win over a top-10 team

Northern Illinois stunned No. 5 Notre Dame 16-14 with a late field goal by Kanon Woodill on Saturday.

Woodill kicked a 36-yard field goal with 31 seconds left as Notre Dame couldn’t stop the Huskies after a second interception by Riley Leonard. It's Northern Illinois' first-ever win against a team ranked in the top 10 of the AP Top 25. It's also one of the larger upsets by point spread in modern college football, as the Irish were favored by 28.5 points coming into the game.

A week after Notre Dame took down Texas A&M in College Station, the Irish offense struggled to move the ball. Leonard threw a bad interception with 5:55 to go as he inexplicably forced a deep pass into a two-safety look on second-and-1.

Northern Illinois ran over five minutes off the clock after the pick, but Notre Dame had one more chance thanks to a bad spot and horrible clock management by the officials. However, Mitch Jeter's 62-yard field goal was blocked as time expired. 

Northern Illinois coach Thomas Hammock was moved to tears by his team's performance after the game.

"I’m so proud of our kids, the coaches, everybody," the former NIU player told NBC while wiping tears from his eyes. "They believed. They believed and we came in and got it done."

Northern Illinois stayed committed to the run game against the Irish defense and it ultimately paid off. The Huskies start five seniors up front and rushed the ball 45 times for 190 yards to just 20 pass attempts. NIU’s final drive started with four straight run plays and included just two passes as the Huskies inched down the field and drained the clock.

How Notre Dame had a chance for the win

Woodill probably should have been making his field goal as time expired.

Two officiating mistakes in the final minute of the game gave Notre Dame one final chance to win. Gavin Williams appeared to get a first down on a third-down run play but was ruled short of the marker on the field. The play went to a replay review and though it was obvious that Williams got the ball past the line to gain before his knee went down, there was no clear angle of the ball and officials ruled there wasn’t enough evidence to overturn the call.

The second mistake came right after the first. Williams was tackled in bounds on the next play and Notre Dame had one timeout left. Since Williams landed in bounds, the clock should have started when the ball was deemed ready for play on fourth down and Notre Dame should have had to take its final timeout to stop it.

Instead, the clock didn’t start. That allowed Notre Dame to keep its final timeout for its final drive.

Thankfully for NIU, that timeout didn’t matter. The NIU defense was not afraid of Leonard’s passing and sent more than four defenders on multiple occasions. That forced Notre Dame to try Jeter’s long kick with five seconds to go.

Another bad loss for Marcus Freeman

Notre Dame brought Leonard in from Duke for the 2024 season along with offensive coordinator Mike Denbrock from LSU. The downfield passing game that won Jayden Daniels the Heisman with the Tigers in 2023 hasn’t come to South Bend.

Leonard averaged just 5.3 yards per pass in the 23-13 win over Texas A&M in Week 1. Though he made plenty of plays with his feet and powered Notre Dame to the win on the ground, it was clear he needed to be a better passer if Notre Dame was going to be a playoff team.

Saturday, Leonard was 20-of-32 for 163 yards. That’s 5.1 yards per pass attempt.

Running back Jeremiyah Love provided a highlight with a 34-yard TD run that included a hurdle of an NIU defender, but even with that run, Notre Dame had less than 300 yards of total offense.

Saturday’s loss is the second inexplicable Week 2 home loss in the past three seasons under Freeman. In 2022, Notre Dame started 0-2 after losing at Ohio State in Week 1 and then at home to Marshall in Week 2.

Later that season, Notre Dame lost by two at home to Stanford. And a season ago, Notre Dame lost by 13 at Louisville as 6.5-point favorites.

The Irish’s playoff hopes are far from dead, but a soft schedule means that Notre Dame may not be able to afford another loss. When the AP Top 25 comes out on Sunday, Louisville and USC will be the only two ranked teams remaining that Notre Dame will face in 2024.