Although it was far from a pretty game, Notre Dame will take the victory. Few would have predicted a close, low-scoring clash with Louisville in South Bend on Saturday, but that’s what we got. Notre Dame needed every bit of the luck of the Irish to squeeze out a 12-7 victory.
The fourth quarter was a whole lot of blah, but at this point, all the Irish (4-0, 3-0) needed to do was run out the clock on the Cardinals (1-3, 0-3), who were resilient all afternoon. They might have pulled off the upset had they not hurt themselves with eight penalties for 65 yards. Alas, it wasn’t meant to happen.
The Irish are going to need to make some serious adjustments before traveling to play Pittsburgh next week. Whether it was the effect of the wind at Notre Dame Stadium or the unexpected resilience shown by Louisville, it wasn’t nearly the effort most expected and hardly one worthy of their No. 4 ranking. It will take a real show of empathy by the voters to maintain that stature. Whatever we saw Saturday, that’s not what we’re used to seeing or what we should see.