Notre Dame Football: Assessing Notre Dame’s Lackluster Win a Day Later

For Notre Dame football fans, waking up the day after the Irish’s convincing win over Michigan was a great feeling. One week later, the vibe is a little different after the Irish beat Ball State 24-16.

Notre Dame football has had its fair share of clunkers against weaker opponents in years past. Despite the way the Irish were able to dispatch Michigan to open the season, they weren’t able to bring the same attention to detail against Ball State.

On the bright side, the Irish defense was pretty spectacular, holding a vaunted passing attack in check. After Ball State moved the ball into the Irish red zone on its first drive, the Irish defense tightened and adjusted. The timing patterns and hitch routes that were open for quarterback Riley Neal early in the game weren’t open late in the game.

Ball State is a team that wants to move the ball in big chunks. For the most part, Notre Dame limited those chunks, forced field goals, and even took the ball away on two occasions. It’s hard to find much to complain about on the defensive side of the football.

It was the offense that didn’t do the Irish any favors.

While it’s easy to find places to point the fingers (the offensive line, the quarterback, etc.), the truth is that the blame should be spread fairly equally among position groups. While the offensive line wasn’t dominant in the running game, there were lanes the running backs didn’t hit. While Brandon Wimbush didn’t have loads of time to throw, there were throws he missed and bad decisions he made.

In all, Notre Dame’s offensive performance could best be described as the Irish executing well for a couple plays, but being unable to establish consistency.

The best and most honest assessment of this game was that the Irish were just a handful of plays away from turning a 24-16 win into a 41-16 win. The latter would have been enough to have Irish fans leaving mostly satisfied.

No one likes excuses, but it’s not difficult to see how it would be possible for the Irish to have a let-up against Ball State.

All offseason, they heard the talk about how well they would have to play against Michigan. All offseason, they knew they’d be playing in the marquee matchup of week one of the college football season. All offseason, they knew that if they survived a battle in week one, lesser opponents would follow. For Notre Dame, human nature took over.

But there a few truths about Notre Dame that remain true, despite their lackluster performance: The Irish still have a talented football team that has the experience and maturity to overcome a sloppy performance early in the season. That is what Irish fans should cling to moving forward. There are more answers for this football team right around the corner.