Notre Dame's Marcus Freeman cites 'mental' issue for Northern Illinois loss

Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman believes that a "failure" in mental preparation was a factor in their 16-14 loss to Northern Illinois on Saturday.

"There is a physical approach to preparing for a game, and I think physically we prepared the right way, but there's also a mental approach and a mindset that you have to have every single week, and I think that's where we failed," he said, according to ESPNs Heather Dinich.

Despite their early-season losses to Ohio State in both 2022 and 2023, Notre Dame could take some pride in overcoming Texas A&M at the start of their 2024 season, with the Aggies being the No. 20 ranked team in the Week 1 Associated Press Top 25 poll , as reported by Bleacher Report.

• What Notre Dame QB Riley Leonard has written on wrist tape

• Riley Leonard targets NFL Draft boost with strategic Notre Dame move

"This is the first time in my three years as a head coach that we have won the big game early in the season," Freeman said, via Dinich. "Two losses to Ohio State and then all of a sudden, we win and everybody says, 'Hey, you're going to the playoff. You've got an easy schedule.' We all hear it, and I think we started to believe that."

It was not the best day for Notre Dame's passing game against the Huskies. Riley Leonard only managed to throw for 163 yards and gave away two picks without a single touchdown pass. On the defensive side of the ball, the Fighting Irish had a tough time as well, yielding 190 yards to Northern Illinois' rushing efforts.

For the latest local news and features on Irish America, visit our homepage here .