Another school-year start means football is back! Whether you watch the NFL, root on your favorite college football, or play football yourself, you know that this is one of the best times of the year. And to start off the college season with a bang, the mighty Notre Dame Fighting Irish fell to the Northern Illinois Huskies of the MAC (Mid-American Conference).
But the main question is, can Notre Dame bounce back and still make a deep run into the playoffs? We all know that the Fighting Irish are usually a football powerhouse, but they still are an Independent school which means they can’t grab one of those four first round byes reserved for those schools who play within and win one of the Power Four conference championships. Even if they manage to get into the new 12-team playoff, they are forced to play in the first round, resulting in a possible early exit.
The Irish won in an absolute bloodbath 66-7 over the Purdue Boilermakers this past Saturday, the largest win in school history since 1996, so how in the world did they manage to lose to a school that has no four or five star commits on their roster? First, against Purdue, Notre Dame quarterback Riley Leonard was unstoppable on the ground for the Irish with 11 carries for 100 yards and three touchdowns. It looked like he was stuck in the mud against NIU, but his wheels finally showed up for this game. The second thing was the defense was imposing their will against the Purdue rushing attack and a very good young running back in Devin Mockobee. The Fighting Irish did not allow a play on their side of the field until the second half, something they needed to do to be able to stay in the race for the playoffs.
The main question: Do I think we are overreacting? Yes, yes I do. They showed great signs of strength in the win last weekend and fixed things they heavily struggled with against the Huskies. The Irish have a relatively easy schedule through the rest of the season with two ranked opponents in Louisville and USC, so I do think they can slide into the tenth or eleventh spot in the playoffs, but once they start having more heavyweight opponents things will get interesting for the team in South Bend.