Highlights: Notre Dame 21, Duke 14 — A breakdown of the game-winning Irish drive led by QB Sam Hartman

A week ago, two stellar plays from Ohio State defensive end J.T. Tuimoloau stalled Notre Dame’s attempted four-minute drill to upset the Buckeyes, giving Ohio State’s offense enough time for the dramatic comeback.

What goes around, comes around.

Just like last week’s postgame praise focused on Buckeyes quarterback Kyle McCord for a gutsy play on a late down with a mile to go and on running back Chip Trayanum for the game-winning touchdown, Irish quarterback Sam Hartman and running back Audric Estimé bask in the headlines of Saturday night’s 21-14 win at No. 17 Duke (4-1). But someone had to get them the chance in the first place. Notre Dame (5-1) needed a defender or two to channel Tuimoloau’s clutch plays.

Enter Howard Cross, JD Bertrand and Xavier Watts. Mostly Howard Cross.

“It just comes down to our defense,” Hartman said. “... The defense has to give us a chance to get the ball back and score.”

Duke’s attempted four-minute drill was actually an attempted eight-minute drill, taking over at its own 32-yard line with 7:58 left and a one-point lead to protect. Five straight rushes had the Blue Devils at the plus-37-yard line with a 1st-and-10 with 4:17 on the clock. One more first down and Notre Dame would need to start burning its timeouts. Two more first downs and the game would be over.

Fifth-year defensive tackle Howard Cross stood up a first-down carry, meeting Jaquez Moore in the backfield and soon joined by sophomore defensive end Joshua Burnham. Including his game-clinching forced fumble, Cross finished with 13 tackles, including 3.5 for loss and two fumbles knocked loose.

On a second-down quarterback draw, fifth-year linebacker JD Bertrand stayed disciplined to tackle Duke quarterback Riley Leonard for a modest gain, creating the most pivotal defensive snap for the Irish all night.

Senior safety Xavier Watts hit the read-option before Leonard could even commit to giving or keeping the ball, forcing the fourth-down pooch punt that gave Hartman his chance at a 95-yard two-minute drill.

No individual tackle was as dramatic as Tuimoloau’s highlights a week ago, but without Cross, Bertrand and Watts, Hartman and Estimé would never have had their chances to star.

“I just feel so grateful for this team, we battled all night,” Hartman said. “The defense, coach (Al) Golden, I just want to buy him a Ferrari or something, if I could. He kept us in this game, and that defense played their hearts out and gave us that chance.”

And then it was a two-minute drill that may define Notre Dame’s season. Let’s run through each play, through the words of the players that made them happen, the only highlights most will remember from Saturday night, even if those defensive stops were the reason they were possible.

“When Sam Hartman is your quarterback, you have a lot of faith,” Irish head coach Marcus Freeman said. “He’s been in those moments. He’s not a first-time quarterback. The moment wasn’t too big for him. I don’t want to just give credit to one person, but the plays he made on that series were huge.”

1st-and-10, 5-yard line, 2:35 to go — What would be more difficult than a 95-yard drive with only 2:35 to pull it off? How about a 97-yard drive courtesy of a false start from sophomore receiver Tobias Merriweather? The Irish racked up 70 yards on 12 penalties Saturday night, including five false starts.

“Give Duke credit for the crowd noise,” Freeman said. “We could not — we were trying to go on a clap, we were trying to go on first sound, it was pretty loud out there. That was something that whenever we travel, we have to be prepared for, we have to do a better job there.”

1st-and-12, 3-yard line, 2:35 to go — Hartman catches the shotgun snap two yards deep into the end zone and is immediately pressured by a blitz from his right side, throwing up a pass toward freshman receiver Rico Flores, one perhaps hoping to simply draw a pass interference flag, as it did.

1st-and-10, 16-yard line, 2:29 — Hartman checks down to Estimé, a pass that was not only almost intercepted but also would have better served Notre Dame if it was incomplete, a 0-yard gain instead costing 28 seconds.

2nd-and-10, 16-yard line, ball snapped with 2:01 to go — A back-shoulder fade for Flores never stands a genuine chance, the absence of junior Jayden Thomas looming large. With Thomas and freshman Jaden Greathouse both sidelined for the week by worrisome hamstrings, and junior Deion Colzie out for at least a few weeks following a knee scope this week, the Irish had three receivers available, not including freshman Braylon James, yet to be targeted on a Saturday.

“We didn’t have much depth,” Freeman said. “... What you see over the course of the game, you can’t rotate wideouts. They get tired. I’m so proud of the gutsy performance that they did have out there.”

3rd-and-10, 16-yard line, 1:57 — Hartman finds junior tight end Mitchell Evans coming across the middle for a 19-yard gain, Evans’s eighth and final catch, finishing with 134 yards.

“We’ve executed pretty much every two-minute drill that we’ve had this season,” Evans said. “We practice it a lot. We do it every Wednesday. Our two-minute mentality is we can execute whatever we have to.”

Evans is right. Notre Dame has gone 3-for-3 in two-minute drills this season, all coming at the ends of first halves. Freeman emphasized getting those chances during blowouts of Navy and Tennessee State, getting reps for a moment where that urgency would matter most.

“[Hartman] is the best in the business,” Estimé said. “When the pressure’s on, he’s at his best.”

1st-and-10, 35-yard line, ball snapped with 1:34 to go — Hartman has time to find Flores settled in the middle of the field. Then, in a sign of maturity unexpected from a freshman, Flores did not try to do too much with the ball, striding forward and going down once hit, not risking ball security.

“We just needed some guys to step up, some young guys to step up,” Estimé said.

1st-and-10, plus-41-yard line, ball snapped with 1:16 to go — Hartman took a deep shot for Merriweather along the left sideline. Even with a step on his defender, Merriweather pushed off to create more separation, proceeding to drop the pass, regardless. An offensive pass interference penalty set back Notre Dame, creating the need for Hartman’s dramatics.

“We’re a little limited on receivers right now,” Hartman said. “Those guys had to play the entire game, but it’s just a resilient mindset.”

1st-and-25, 44-yard line, 1:11 — Hartman checks down to Estimé, a quicker progression than usual for a checkdown, the Irish trying to get back a chunk of yards in four-down territory. They then call timeout with one more remaining.

2nd-and-16, plus-47-yard line, 1:02 — Estimé picks up a blitz only for another defender to get access to Hartman, who throws up a jump ball for Evans, one that falls incomplete.

“That D-line is one of the best D-lines in the country,” Hartman said. “Those guys better be in that locker room with their heads up high. That was as tough as I’ve played, even up front — we were talking about, walking off the field, that’s a really good football team.”

3rd-and-16, plus-47-yard line, 0:57 — An unblocked blitz up the middle flushes Hartman to his left. He throws against his body toward Evans, barely getting it into range. If Hartman had gotten any more behind the throw, it likely would have been intercepted, his version of a near miss comparable to McCord’s dropped pick to DJ Brown a week ago.

4th-and-16, plus-47-yard line, 0:51 — Duke sent three to pressure Hartman, allowing him to spend nearly five full seconds with his eyes downfield.

“In hindsight, maybe we just should’ve kept pressuring,” Blue Devils head coach Mike Elko said.

Hartman could not find anyone open, despite repeatedly trying to coax their scramble-drill routes. He took off on his own, not appearing to be at a full sprint, but rather gauging just how far he could get before the game would be at risk.

“It was a lot of just run and shoot,” Hartman said. “There’s not a lot of good calls for fourth-and-that long.”

There aren’t good calls for any fourth down. A week ago, two failed 4th-and-1 attempts cost Notre Dame, both of them in promising territory, both of them failing because Hartman was stopped. Jumping for this first down in Durham a full yard before the line to gain, Hartman was clearly making sure he was not so stopped again.

“The ability to pull that ball down and run for it, I truly believe in my heart, he learned from last week on 4th-and-1,” Freeman said. “We thought we got it (a week ago), we didn’t. There can’t be a maybe in that situation.

“I don’t care if it’s 4th-and-1 or 4th-and-18. If you’re going to take off, you have to make sure you get a first down, and that’s what he did.”

1st-and-10, plus-30-yard line, 0:39 — Hartman spikes the ball to stop the clock with one timeout remaining in the back pocket, presumably intended to give kicker Spencer Shrader time to take the field with the rest of the field-goal unit in about 37 seconds.

“We were drawing it up to run the ball, get the clock down, call timeout, kick the game-winning field goal,” Freeman said.

2nd-and-10, plus-30-yard line, 0:38 — Notre Dame appeared to be struggling to get the play call in, only getting to the line of scrimmage with eight seconds left on the play clock. Hartman hands off to Estimé, with sophomore tight end Holden Staes coming across the intended running lane to block a linebacker. Estimé cuts back, as appears to be designed, following Staes.

Senior receiver Chris Tyree seals off defensive back Brandon Johnson, the block that sprung Estimé to the end zone, his newfound speed enough to go from deliberately finding a hole to sprinting toward the end zone quickly enough to end Duke’s upset hopes, also reviving those hopes by actually scoring.

“We probably should have gone down (at the one-yard line),” Freeman said. “People will say, don’t take points off the board, (but) you probably should go down right there at the one-yard line.”

The logic is simple: A 19-yard field goal is a near sure-thing. Shrader has made 121 of 122 point-after attempts in his collegiate career, including his last 108 attempts. If Estimé takes a knee inside the five-yard line, Notre Dame could call a timeout with three seconds left and put the game on Shrader’s leg with no worry of Leonard staging his own heroics.

“Not going to lie, I wasn’t (going down),” Estimé said. “I just saw it, saw an opportunity and took it. … I’ve never put out a game like that, never scored with a couple seconds to go.”

Giving Duke the ball back with 31 seconds remaining may be more than “a couple seconds to go,” but that was where Cross’s second forced fumble came in.

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