When games are relatively in doubt, we tend to hate it
Concerns Arise Because of a Close Game and Injuries
The Notre Dame Fighting Irish just completed their 5-game stretch before their Bye Week, culminating with a win this past Saturday against the Louisville Cardinals. This ranked matchup provided an opportunity for the Irish to showcase a true win in a tough test in a revenge game, this time at home. It was not the prettiest win, but they did win. That was what I think a lot of us wanted, was at least to win the game, no matter what happened.
Unfortunately, that is what occurred. The game was weirdly tight even after ND took a 21-7 lead in the first quarter. The game was closer than it probably should’ve been, and there were A TON of injuries. Hopefully the Bye Week will help with some rest, but some of the injuries will last longer than that. Of course, as with most ND games, there were some overreactions. This week, we have some ranging somewhat different topics.
ND vs. L’Ville – Overreactions
Can we please scrap all of these terrible bubble screens to Love? There’s been absolutely nothing doing there all day.
— FrankieV UHND ☘️ (@FrankieV_UHND) September 28, 2024
I throw this in there because I have done this many times (and I am sure many of you have done this too), playing arm chair coach and/or QB. What was funny to me here was that about 20 minutes later, Leonard dumped a screen pass to Love for a touchdown. It was more a dump or slip screen, so not really a bubble screen, but I had to appreciate the irony
You outgained the opponent by 115 yards. You had 8 more first downs.
Don’t want to hear anything about the refs. Louisville just shot itself in the foot over and over and gave that game away.
If you think you’re a playoff team, that kind of performance is inexcusable pic.twitter.com/4GdsFpoaSS
— State of Louisville (@thestateoflou) September 28, 2024
This is one I like because it’s pretty measured, but it has some levels. I think the main overreaction is that we don’t know if Louisville isn’t a playoff team. They are definitely tough-nosed on defense, and the passing game is pretty damn clean for them. Especially with 12 teams and their chance to run through the ACC, you can’t count them out of a playoff spot yet. If the Irish aren’t out of a playoff spot, then they most certainly aren’t either.
On the flip side of this, the outgaining of yards and the stats for this game are always going to be skewed because the Cardinals got two of their three touchdowns on drives starting inside the ND 30-yard line due to turnovers. The score could’ve been worse even with the stats.
This is an unserious team
— Ryan Roberts (@RiseNDraft) September 28, 2024
Yeah, I get the sentiment with almost blowing a lead and having turnovers costing many points. However, the Irish got a ranked win and is still very much in contention for the playoff and an 11-1 record going into the Bye Week (kinda where most of us thought they would be, just with weeks 1 and 2 game results flipped). Even with some quirks, mistakes, and some things to work on, this seems like a serious team to me.