Notre Dame Football is well aware that every game for the rest of the season needs to be a statement. The Fighting Irish don’t have a conference championship game to make their case they should be in the playoffs. So they need more wins like they had on Saturday night.
Yes, Florida State was 1-8 heading into the game. But it was still the Seminoles. They are a team with some talent (even if none of it is at quarterback) and there was always a chance that they might give the Blue and Gold a better game than they expected.
The Notre Dame football team took care of business. They sent a message. The rest of the country could be hoping they don’t face them in the playoffs.
Truth: Notre Dame Football’s defense is only getting better
On thing has been very true for the Fighting Irish this season. If you were going to get their defense, you would have had to do it early. Because right now, it feels like a unit isn’t playing better in the sport.
One week after forcing 6 turnovers against Navy, Notre Dame picked off two passes, sacked the quarterback 8 times and held Seminoles to 88 yards passing. And they did a bunch of that without starting defensive tackle Howard Cross III.
Truth: The offense has found its identity
Earlier in the season, it seemed like the Golden Domers didn’t really know what they wanted to be on offense. Now it’s pretty clear that they’re an offense that can beat you with the run or the pass.
Riley Leonard is just a few yards away from a career high on the ground, he threw for another 200 yards and now has 10 touchdown passes to just 3 INTs and the Irish ran for over 200 yards total.
Leonard ran for another 2 TDs, his 12th and 13th of the season and he’s scored at least one rushing touchdown every game this year.
Lie: Notre Dame played perfectly on Saturday
The craziest part about Notre Dame Football’s 52-3 loss is that they struggled at times. In the first half, Leonard had a couple of misthrows and Florida State had some success moving the ball.
It’s hard to imagine that ND could improve off the performance, but they could. And that should scare the rest of college football.