Quick Recap: Notre Dame survives overtime against Florida State, 41-38

The Notre Dame Fighting Irish opened up their season against the Florida State Seminoles, and in front of a very loud and energized crowd, the good guys prevailed. Barely.

Notre Dame started the game on offense and they got hot right away. Jack Coan led the Irish down the field with multiple passes to tight end Michael Mayer. Within two minutes and nine seconds, Notre Dame scored on a 41 yard TD pass from Jack Coan to Michael Mayer.

Florida State was unable to answer, but Notre Dame also looked out of sorts with a lot of pressure from FSU defensive end Jermaine Johnson. On the Noles’ third possession, Jashaun Corbin went 89 yards for a rushing touchdown to tie it up.

Florida State continued to capitalize on a clunky Irish team and went up 14-7 after a 4-play, 45-yard drive. The Irish answered with a short drive of their own with a Jonathan Doerer field goal, and then on the next drive, Coan hit Joe Wilkins for a contested 23 yard TD.

Florida State came out in the third quarter and hit another long play — this time a 60-yard TD pass to Jah’ki Douglas to pull ahead to 20-17 after missing the PAT.

Notre Dame then went on a scoring tear. The Irish scored 3 touchdowns in the third quarter. Two were touchdown passes to Kevin Austin and Kyren Williams, and Chris Tyree ran in a one yarder. At the end of three quarters, the Irish held a “commanding” 38-20 lead — but the Noles had driven down to the 2-yard line as well.

Florida State got a Jordan Travis TD pass to Andrew Parchment and then converted a 2 PAT to make it a 10-point game, 38-28. On Notre Dame’s next drive, they were forced to punt, and then the referees decided that smoking a punter in the air was NOT roughing the kicker.

FSU took advantage of the momentum and drove down the field. Jordan travis was knocked out of the game, and McKenzie Milton came in to complete 4 straight passes to find the red zone again. A 2-yard rush from Treshaun Ward made it 38-35.

Notre Dame once again was forced to punt after a poor drive due to the FSU pressure, and Florida State moved it down the field with relative ease. Notre Dame stiffened up near the red zone, but Florida State was able to stay in field goal range to connect on a 43-yarder to tie the game at 38-all.

Notre Dame got the ball back with 40 seconds left in regulation. Despite making it to midway on the field, a dropped Mayer pass that would have set the Irish up for a field goal eventually sent this game to overtime.

In regulation, Jack Coan was 25-34 for 367 yards and 4 touchdowns. He threw one interception — the Hail Mary at the end.

Notre Dame won the toss and elected to play defense. Florida State got a friendly call on an “incomplete pass” to set up a 37-yard field goal that was missed by Ryan Fitzgerald.

The Irish went nowhere in three plays, and Jonathan Doerer came on to try and win the game — and he nailed it for the 41-38 win.

More to come on OFD on this game — a crazy one.