The Toledo Rockets came awfully close to a road upset of the No. 8 Notre Dame Fighting Irish Saturday, but couldn’t quite get there. Toledo scored a go-ahead touchdown with 1:40 left, with dual-threat quarterback Dequan Finn rushing in from 26 yards out on third-and-one.
TOLEDO TOUCHDOWN TO TAKE THE LEAD OVER NOTRE DAME https://t.co/FAtIyqwGZ9
— , (@dubs4o8) September 11, 2021
However, Notre Dame came right back after that, with quarterback Jack Coan capping off a 75-yard touchdown drive with a throw to tight end Michael Mayer (seen at top after a first-quarter touchdown grab):
Fighting to the very end!@NDFootball back on top with one minute to play. #GoIrish pic.twitter.com/C67QcqO8Bf
— Notre Dame on NBC (@NDonNBC) September 11, 2021
And that came right after Coan had his finger popped back in on the sidelines:
The most impressive part of that TD throw by Jack Coan was that he had a dislocated finger casually popped right back into place just before the play.
(🎥: @bubbaprog) pic.twitter.com/Jz6MiXnX8C
— Field Yates (@FieldYates) September 11, 2021
And the Irish made a great two-point conversion after that, with receiver Avery Davis (a converted quarterback) throwing to Kyren Williams (who had previously committed the fumble that set up Toledo’s TD drive) on a broken play:
Avery Davis punches it in and the two-point conversion is GOOOOOOOOOD!
No. 8 @NDFootball 32 – Toledo 29
📺 @peacockTV #GoIrish #BeatRockets pic.twitter.com/GEHW1LcLnY— The Fighting Irish (@FightingIrish) September 11, 2021
Toledo had their own chance after that, getting the ball back with 1:09 left. But some penalties set them back, and quarterback Carter Bradley’s fumble and Notre Dame’s recovery wound up sealing the deal. Still, the Rockets put a whole lot of pressure on the Irish here, and they almost pulled off their school’s first upset of a top-10 team since Bruce Gradkowski and Lance Moore led a takedown of Pitt back in 2003. Notre Dame survived, though, and NBC certainly got a lot of people to tune into Peacock (where this game was exclusively broadcast) for the finish.
[CBS Sports; photo from Matt Cashore/USA Today Sports]
