Notre Dame won a wild back-and-forth game against Toledo on Saturday, and they did it in pretty dramatic circumstances.
The 8th-ranked Fighting Irish struggled to put away Toledo all day, and actually fell behind with 1:35 left when the Rockets capitalized on a Kyren Williams fumble to score a touchdown. Trailing 29-24, Notre Dame needed a touchdown to avoid a massive home upset.
The Fighting Irish were moving the ball well, but with 1:13 left, quarterback Jack Coan appeared to dislocate his finger on a pass attempt that led to defensive pass interference. Undeterred, Coan rushed to the sideline as the penalty was being announced and had a staffer pop his finger back in. He proceeded to rush back out to throw the game-winning touchdown.
from having a dislocated finger to throwing the winning touchdown pass in 20 seconds pic.twitter.com/AfHxz0Vu9C
— Timothy Burke (@bubbaprog) September 11, 2021
Notre Dame converted the two-point conversion and held defensively for a 32-29 win.
Coan, a transfer from Wisconsin, was rotated in and out of the game as dual-threat backup Tyler Buchner seemed to be outplaying him. That final drive will do him a world of good. After all, it’s not as if it’s easy to just pop a finger back in and act like nothing happened.
