Notre Dame Football vs Alabama Crimson Tide: 3 Things We Learned

The Notre Dame football lost to the No. 1 team in the country in the Rose Bowl, and here are three things we learned in the defeat.

The Notre Dame football team’s season came to an end this past Friday with a 31-14 loss to the Alabama Crimson Tide in the semifinal of the College Football Playoff. With that loss, the Irish will finish the season with a record of 10-2, their third ten-or-more win season in a row, and fourth in their last five seasons.

The final result was not all that surprising considering the Irish entered the game as a nearly 20-point underdog. Notre Dame covering the spread was a small victory; however, that likely only resonates with those who bet on the Irish.

Naturally, the narrative surrounding Notre Dame is their inability to win one of the big New Year’s Six bowl games. While that storyline will, unfortunately, continue to haunt Irish fans for at least another year, we should still take time to appreciate the accomplishments of this football team during an unprecedented season.

I am going to reserve final judgment on Notre Dame’s performance against Alabama until January 12th, which is the day following the National Championship Game.

I am doing this because it is possible that – just as we saw during the 2018 season – the team that defeated the Irish in the semifinal will go on to win by a larger margin in the National Championship Game. Will that ease the pain of Friday’s loss? Not really. What it can do, though, is provide us with some perspective on how good this Alabama team is.

As I mentioned, the final result of the College Football Playoff semifinal game between Notre Dame and Alabama was not a surprise. Despite that, the game did teach us some things about this year’s Notre Dame team and the state of the program in South Bend.

Here are three things we learned from the Rose Bowl game.