(Miami Gardens, Fla) — Achilles has his heel. Superman has Kryptonite.

Notre Dame has Miami.

For the seventh time since their last win there in 1977, Notre Dame lost a road game at Miami.  Despite a valiant comeback in the fourth quarter, the 6th-ranked Irish dropped the season opener to the 10th-ranked Hurricanes Sunday night, 27-24.  Carter Davis drilled a 47-yard field goal with 1:04 remaining to provide the game-winning points.

It’s the second season-opening loss in the four-year Marcus Freeman era.

“You’ve got to give credit to their team,” said Freeman of the Hurricanes. “Both teams played hard. We had some self-inflicted wounds that we can’t have. But I think our guys played well.”

After a scoreless first quarter, Notre Dame cornerback Christian Gray was injured breaking up a pass early in the second quarter. Miami exploited that on the very next play, as Carson Beck found receiver Malachi Toney behind Irish defender Karsen Hobbs for a 28-yard touchdown to make it 7-0 Miami.

Notre Dame’s offense sputtered much of the first half, but found some life from running back Jadarian Price midway through the second quarter.  On a third-and-goal from the seven, Irish quarterback CJ Carr scrambled all the way back to the 30, before finding Micah Gilbert with a no-look pass for a touchdown, tying the game at 7.

Miami then took a page from the 2024 Irish, cashing in on drives on both sides of halftime. CJ Daniels made an incredible one-hand grab of a Beck pass from 20-yards out with 12 seconds remaining in the first half.  On a 2nd and 3, Beck lobbed a pass between Notre Dame’s Leonard Moore and Adon Shuler, and the LSU transfer Daniels snared it with a huge stretch to give the ‘Canes the lead.

Then, Miami pounded the ball down the field on the first drive of the second half, chewing seven-a-half-minutes off the clock and getting the payoff on a Marty Brown 5-yard touchdown run.

Notre Dame’s offense was stagnant in the second half until Carr started clicking in the passing game late in the third. Then on the first play of the fourth-quarter, he hit Jordan Faison on a 1-yard touchdown toss in the right flat to narrow the gap to 21-14.

Carr’s biggest mistake of the game came when he threw a wide receiver screen in traffic early in the 4th. The ball was tipped by Damari Brown, kicked into the air and picked off by Rueben Bain, Jr.  That set up Carter Davis for a 38-yard field goal to give Miami a 24-14 lead with 9:42 left.

“That was an RPO (run-pass option) and I should have handed off to Jeremiyah (Love),” confessed Carr afterwards. “I need to get a getter feel for what the offense needs and do it at the right time.”

The Irish kept plugging away. This time, Love used his receiving and running skills to help Carr move the ball downfield. Noah Burnette booted a 39-yard field goal to cut the deficit to 24-17.

After a three-and-out by the Irish defense, Carr hit Eli Raridon for a 65-yard gain. Two plays later, Carr executed a quarterback draw for a seven-yard touchdown and the game was tied at 24 with 3:21 remaining.

That proved to be too much time for the Canes offense, which used a pass interference call on Gray and a series of runs from Brown to move the ball into field goal range. Davis, a transfer from Florida Atlantic, had no problems knocking it home. from 47 yards.

Carr and the Irish offense had one last opportunity, but after a first-down pass to Raridon, the offensive line gave up two sacks to end the game.

“Obviously disappointed with the outcome,” lamented Freeman. “There’s obviously a lot out there we didn’t do well, but there are things we did do well and we’ve got to build on the things we did do well. Defensively, we’ve got to do better. We weren’t as high performing as I would like.”

Carr was 19-of-30 passing in his first collegiate start, throwing for 221 yards, two touchdowns and the interception. The Irish rushing game was dormant, though, only amassing 93 yards on 28 carries.

“We’ve got to block better on the perimeter and the one interception we can’t have,” noted Freeman. “But there are times we have to just take away the read and say hand the ball to your running back. He’s going to be a really good quarterback. His ceiling is so high. He’s a gamer, man.”

Meanwhile,  the Georgia transfer Beck was efficient, completing 20-of-31 for 205 yards and two touchdowns. Mark Fletcher, Jr. led the Miami run game with 66 yards on 15 carries.

“It’s the first game of the year against a heckuva opponent and we’ve got to be better,” summarized Freeman. “We’ll get back to work, utilize this bye week and get ready for our next opponent, A&M”