Watch: Sam Hartman's improbable fourth-down conversion leads Notre Dame over Duke
The Duke Blue Devils were less than a minute, and only one play, from scoring another major upset this season and likely earning what could have been their highest ranking in decades.
It all fell apart when they allowed Notre Dame quarterback Sam Hartman to scramble for a 17-yard run on fourth-and-16 to keep the Fighting Irish drive alive.
One play later, Audric Estime broke through up the middle for a 30-yard touchdown run to give Notre Dame a 21-14 lead and cap off a 95-yard drive in under two minutes.
The big question Duke is going to have to ask itself here is why it did not bring any pressure on Hartman on the fourth-down play. For the entirety of that last drive, the Blue Devils were relentless in their blitzing of Hartman and it was clearly disrupting him and forcing some bad throws. That includes one that was nearly intercepted just before his fourth-down conversion.
Then, for some reason, the normally aggressive Mike Elko decided to only rush three defenders on the fourth-down play and gave Hartman enough time and room to actually run for 17 yards. It was just a really bizarre call given the circumstances and especially considering how the drive had been unfolding before that play.
Why stop doing what was working? Obviously, Duke did not want to be too aggressive in that spot and risk giving up a big play, but the Blue Devils ended up doing that, anyway, because of how passively they played the down.
Hartman was not at his best for Notre Dame on Saturday, but he still managed to make the biggest play of the night when the Irish needed him most.
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