(Notre Dame) — Marcus Freeman didn’t take any questions about his team suffering a letdown this week after beating #1 Miami last Saturday.

He brought it up himself.

“It’s easy to say that’s not going to be us,” Freeman noted of a possible let down facing Boston College this week. “But it’s a real thing. If you do enough studying on it, there’s an issue after big wins, teams having a letdown the next week. It’s our job as coaches to make sure we’re prepared. You don’t blame the players. You mandate that we prepare in a way that doesn’t allow us to have a letdown. When I say a letdown, I’m not talking out come of the game, I’m talking performance and the way you play.”

Longtime Irish fans remember Notre Dame knocking off #1 Florida State in 1993, only to lose in heartbreaking fashion the following week. The opponent that week: Boston College.

This Eagles squad isn’t as talented as that one was, but at 4-5, the Eagles have shown enough to be dangerous.

“You look at Coach (Bill) O’Brien and in his three years, they’ve played their best football in November,” recalls Freeman. “We saw that last year when it was a 12-10 ballgame in the third quarter. We have to make sure we have a great week of prep.”

Boston College is led by dual-threat quarterback Mason McKenzie. He has thrown for 1,616 yards and 10 touchdowns, with eight interceptions. He’s also BC’s leading ground gainer with 676 rushing yards and five touchdowns.

“There’s designed quarterback runs, there’s QB scrambles,” says Freeman. “So we have to know where he’s at and keep him contained and not let him beat us with his feet.”

Defensively, the Eagles rank 7th among FBS schools in interceptions, while Irish quarterback CJ Carr has only been picked off once this season.

Kickoff for Saturday’s game at Notre Dame Stadium is shortly after 3:30 on NBC/Peacock. Hear more from Freeman’s press conference and a recap of Saturday’s win over Miami on Notre Dame Federal Credit Union’s “Irish Football Fix”. The show airs at 5 pm Monday on Pulse FM (92.1, 96.9 and 103.1) and is made available in podcast form on Spotify and Apple.