Two for the loss

I got the chance to shoot the Notre Dame-Northwestern game on Saturday. The game was hugely exciting as the Irish came in ranked No. 18 and while their playoff hopes were dashed they were still hoping to win out and possibly get in the mix for one of the big bowl games.

The Wildcats had other ideas. In the midst of their disappointing season, NU came in at 3-6 but were determined.

The Irish jumped out to 20-9 lead but the Wildcats fought back and with some late turnovers from the Irish and a questionable decision by Notre Dame head coach Brian Kelly to go for a two-point conversion when they scored to make it 40-29. The Wildcats forced overtime with a game-tying field goal with 19 seconds left and won on a field goal in overtime after the Irish kick went wide on the first possession.

It was a great game to be a part of and a lot of big plays happened on the side of the field I was on. Matthias Farley’s interception happened in the opposite endzone from me but thanks to the 300mm lens I borrowed from South Bend Tribune photographer Robert Franklin I was able to get some decent photos of it. Later in the game I got a photo of Will Fuller’s third touchdown catch of the game. I also got some fantastic photos of Chris Brown’s goal line fumble early in the fourth quarter, which happened right in front of me. I also got a great sequence of Austin Collinsworth’s fumble recovery TD (above and below).

However, I missed two other pivotal plays: Fighting Irish cornerback Cole Luke’s interception late in game happened as I swapped lenses and Cam McDaniel’s fumble with under two minutes left in the game. On that play my shutter happened to fire whenever the ball was obscured by a player. As the old saying goes, no ball, no shot.