It’s no shock that Notre Dame is falling hard in the rankings put forth by various experts after the Fighting Irish lost to Northern Illinois on Saturday.
The Irish were favored by four touchdowns and lost to the Huskies 16-14. Not only did they lose, but they looked awful doing so. The offense was disjointed for most of the day, the defense struggled in the first half, two field-goal attempts were blocked and the playcalling didn’t seem to make sense at times.
Football is, of course, a week-to-week sport. Notre Dame may have been ranked a bit too high after a gritty, ugly 10-point win in the hostile environment at Texas A&M. Similarly, they may take a bit too much punishment for having an awful day against an unranked opponent at home.
The rest of the season will help determine if the Irish are overrated or are a College Football Playoff contender that simply had a bad day and/or overlooked an underdog opponent.
For now, though, Danny Kanell doesn’t have the Irish in his top 10. Nor does Joel Klatt. CFB Kings puts the Irish at 22 in their top 25 — just ahead of an Illinois team that upset Kansas Saturday night.
Klatt’s top 10 is Georgia, Ohio State, Texas, Ole Miss, Miami, Tennessee, USC, Alabama, Penn State and Utah. Kanell’s top 12 are Georgia, Texas, Miami, Tennessee, USC, Penn State, Oregon, Ohio State, Ole Miss, Missouri, Alabama and Louisville.
Stewart Mandel from The Athletic now believes the Fighting Irish won’t even make the college playoff. Just a few days ago pundits had the Irish penciled in for a home game in the first round.
Notre Dame can play its way back into the pundits’ good graces. But it will need to win just about every game and look good while doing so.
https://twitter.com/dannykanell/status/1832738095042572627
https://twitter.com/joelklatt/status/1832666710325055991
https://twitter.com/cfbkings/status/1832779523290538063
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