Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman met with the media again on Monday, the first time in front of everyone since the BYU loss.

There were plenty of questions that he fielded, from how the Irish will react to the devastating loss to how the team will respond in the coming weeks. Freeman didn’t seem too pleased with how the game ended as well, as there more than a few issues with the final drive and plays.

That is now in the past, as he wrapped up the loss to the Cougars along with previewing this weekends opponent Navy. Find out below my top takeaways from what Freeman said on Monday afternoon.

“Sometimes you have to lose to win” - Marcus Freeman

“Our job is to learn as many things as the loss taught us”, stood out to me the most during his opening comments, as Freeman is looking at the loss as a way for improvement. He’d go on to say that every play matters, which in a one-score game, it certainly does. The pain that the team that has gone through since the BYU still hurts, but you have to “fix the process to get a better result.” It’s about reaching the teams full potential, as Notre Dame is still looking for that.

Navy isn’t as bad as their record

“They’re gonna fight until the very end of the game,” as Freeman doesn’t want his team to overlook Navy with Miami lurking at the start of November. He’s aware of the rotating quarterbacks that the Midshipmen use, and on defense, they show a variety of looks and have been good at stopping the run. Freeman thinks his team is ready to get back to work this weekend.

On Notre Dame’s short wide receiver rotation

The flow of the game dictate who plays, as they’ll play who the coaching staff trusts. Freeman knows that they need to have a deeper room, but needs to see the receivers be more consistent in practice, “so there’s no hesitation” for them to see the field.

Third down and red zone has hurt Notre Dame

Freeman emphasized third downs and red zone issues have hurt the team. They haven’t been able to make the plays in those situations, and he knows that for the team to succeed, they’ll need to improve in those areas. “Those are things we have to correct,” which was the focus of practice last week. The hope is that the issues have been fixed and that we’ll see that this Saturday.

When running the ball, Notre Dame has to be more efficient

The run game has struggled for parts of the year, and Freeman still wants more from the group. He singled out the fact that sometimes the team would like to go for it on fourth down, but can’t due to the run game issues. The backs have had their moments, but Freeman is looking for consistency from the group, eliminating negative plays. He also mentioned that Jonaz Walton needs to see the field more, however, I think he needs to force the issue by either changing the depth chart to reflect that or force offensive coordinator Mike Denbrock to play him more.

Teams are using extra players to help pass blocking vs. Notre Dame

Freeman has noticed that teams have been using tight end and backs to help in pass protection, which is one of the reasons why the sack numbers haven’t been as good as he would like. BYU also got the ball out fast when passing, and did a great job getting out of situations where the Irish would use their rush package. He gave them credit for a good game plan, but you could hear the frustration in his voice.

On the Notre Dame secondary playing zone vs. man

Some of it was execution, and some of it was the Cougars executing on offense, which is why we saw the secondary struggle a bit. It doesn’t seem like Freeman wants the team to exclusively use man-to-man, as changing the coverages is part of the cat-and-mouse game with an offense. Execution is huge here, and it seems like Notre Dame didn’t do as good of a job doing that.

Losing Boubacar Traore was massive

Freeman was asked about losing Traore, and he believes that BYU would have scored one less touchdown, which would have flipped the result. It was a good way to prepare for his absence if an injury popped up, same thing for Bryce Young on the other side. Freeman did say that the coaching staff needed to be prepared better for those situations.

Notre Dame still has plenty of confidence

“Our guys won’t lack confidence,” as Freeman reiterated that his team is in a good mental position. Sure, losing isn’t anything that this team wants to feel, but “we can use this to make us better,” which is exactly what Notre Dame should be doing. You have to learn from your mistakes, correct them, and move forward, which Freeman is leading the charge on.