There are so many questions that Notre Dame fans will be impatient to get answered after Saturday’s 32-29 Houdini act over Toledo.

First of all, let’s not sugarcoat this: While Toledo is better than it will get credit for, this was a very very bad day for Notre Dame. Like, a D or worse grade. (The offensive line obviously gets an F-minus-minus.) What we still presumed to be a likely 10-win team when the day began now has the specter of a rough year looming over it.

But as with last week, Notre Dame was able to do enough to win, coming alive for a game-winning touchdown drive in the final minutes (aided by Toledo deciding to unleash the ‘they can’t call them all’ defense only to find that yes, they can).

Let’s go over a few of the storylines from this game.

Tyler Buchner!

If there was one unabashedly good thing that came out of today, it was the excitement created by the debut of Tyler Buchner. While the Peacock broadcasters had been tipped off that Tyler would enter the game, we hadn’t, and his appearance on the ND 4-yard line generated all kinds of buzz. Not nearly as much, though, as did his succeeding 96-yard touchdown drive, which showed off a few of the gifts that have Irish fans so fired up about the freshman.

While he was clearly working with a limited play set, Buchner opened things up for ND in the running game when nothing else was working, and when Toledo cheated up on that later, Buchner whipped a great pass to Chris Tyree for a touchdown that injected some fire into the decidedly non-sellout Notre Dame crowd.

In the spirit of today’s broadcast, I envisioned Buchner doing this whenever Jack Coan came in for him later in the game:

I don’t know if ND has a full-blown quarterback controversy on its hands – the Irish probably can’t run a full complement of plays with Buchner taking the snaps – but the glimpse of Buchner will create demand for more, and it’s clear he’s got the tools to be the guy within the next 12 months.

We’ve got a big, big problem up front

Of course, the reason Buchner’s presence was so needed was because the Notre Dame offensive line was absolutely atrocious. No consistent push led to an inability to run the ball much, an inability to protect Coan and as a result, an inability to sustain drives the way ND fans are used to.

Left tackle Michael Carmody in particular struggled, then he got injured and former highly-touted recruit Tosh Baker took over the position and struggled even more. I have no idea what the Irish can do with the personnel they have up front, and maybe they don’t yet either, but they’ll have to figure this out or ND isn’t going anywhere except maybe the Fenway Bowl. Time to earn your paycheck, Jeff Quinn.

Defense still uneven

For three quarters and change, the Notre Dame defense was…fine! They’d given up 9 points, and really it should’ve been 3 (I guess ‘indisputable’ is not in the replay official’s vocabulary, and it’s not the D’s fault ND can’t get 4th-and-1 at its own 40). They weren’t creating havoc plays left and right, but Toledo did very little in the 3rd quarter and the Irish seemed to be one offensive score away from being OK.

Then the offense (Buchner) got that score, and…ND gave up another massive run that looked almost identical to the one FSU had last week. And then a TD. And then another. (Admittedly, giving up 6 points was probably better than 6 yards on that last one, as Toledo could’ve just run out the clock and kicked a game-winning FG otherwise). The D did its job on the final possession, but man…just like the offensive line, there are a lot of things to fix and it’s not even clear where they go first.

Stop fumbling, Kyren

Just a quick note here. I love Kyren Williams. He’s got to stop fumbling. Especially when ND doesn’t have much of an offensive line to give him running room, priority one has to be not doing that, and even more so when you’re trying to run out the clock and end the game.

Peacock

For what it’s worth, Peacock streamed quite nicely for me. (I luckily have a sibling who is a Comcast Internet customer, so I didn’t have to pay any extra for this.) Only two instances of buffering, both very brief. It’s good that it worked because I assume this is going to keep happening in future seasons.

Drew Brees was pretty much exactly what you’d expect from him: Completely milquetoast. Not actively annoying like Doug Flutie, but a clear downgrade from Tony Dungy. I don’t think he ever said anything that made me say, “Yep, he nailed that” the way Dungy did a few times last season.

And yet, after this messy game, whatever dumb streaming platform is airing Notre Dame games seems like the least of ND’s issues. Purdue is next week, and another effort like this would probably result in the black and gold side coming out on top. Hopefully next week is better.