Let's look at Freeman's first three games, maybe not totally objectively but maybe with objective optimism, if such a thing exists.
His first two games, he went up against two legitimate top-5 teams that Notre Dame stood toe-to-toe with and had a chance to win both well into the 4th quarter.
Last year's ND squeaked by 7-6 Toledo 32-29 and wasn't even competitive against Cincinnati. I could argue that the Toledo win was a worse game than the Marshall loss when you consider Marshall might actually be good, perhaps at least 10 points better than last year's Toledo.
Which begs the question...has Notre Dame football REALLY regressed from this same time last year under Marcus Freeman? I would argue it's hard to make the case that it has.
Of course there are problems. Bryan Driskell highlighted some pretty serious ones in his podcast. But serious problems existed last year at this time, too. The question is, can the coaches get them fixed, or at least mitigated to an acceptable degree?
Finally, and I admit I can be wrong here (but since there's no way to tell until it happens, you naysayers' opinions on this are no better than mine right now), but I believe Drew Pyne is our best game-day QB. He had a horrid INT, but what QB hasn't thrown one? He's been pretty good at quickly spotting the open receiver and delivering the ball accurately. For those who say the coaches know better, that they saw Buchner and Pyne every day...if I'm right, this would hardly be the first time a coaching staff picked the wrong guy to start. Maybe these staffs (again, not necessarily saying ND's right now) get too enamored with physical talent or practice performance, or who they "should" start. Game performance and having quality intangibles are what makes winners. We'll see if Pyne rises to the occasion. I'm not saying he definitively will...that would be foolish. But equally as foolish as saying he definitively won't four days before he even plays.