Notre Dame gets first win of the Marcus Freeman era against Cal

It probably shouldn't have been that close. Heck, the first win of Marcus Freeman's Notre Dame career probably shouldn't have come in Week 3.

Still, first-year head coach Marcus Freeman can breathe easy knowing that the elephant in the room has finally left. He's finally gotten his first win as Notre Dame's head coach. 

Now, all he has to do is make that a sustainable, consistent thing, and perhaps the Fighting Irish will have something.

Again, it was closer than it should have been. The Cal Bears actually went into the fourth quarter tied with Notre Dame, 14-14. Cal even had an opportunity to tie the game with under a minute left. 

Three opportunities, in fact. The Irish forced an interception on 1st-and-10 from the Cal 20 that would have iced the game, but a targeted call negated the interception and gave the Bears an extra 15 yards and a first down.

A few plays later, it looked like the Fighting Irish scooped and scored a defensive touchdown to fully ice the game, but Cal's quarterback was called down for the fumble — meaning the Irish had to keep playing defense in order to hold on to their lead.