Notre Dame football vs. Cincinnati Bearcats: 3 Surprises in Week 5

The Notre Dame football team suffered their first loss of the season on Saturday, and here are three things that surprised in the game.

The Notre Dame football team went into their matchup with the Cincinnati Bearcats in the driver’s seat in terms of their season. Sitting at 4-0, the Irish would only really have to clear this last hurdle, a battle against the No. 7-ranked Bearcats, the final ranked team on their schedule.

However, Cincinnati came to play, beating the Irish on both sides of the ball, en-route to a 24-13 victory. Here are some surprises from the loss.

Notre Dame football vs. Cincinnati Bearcats: 3 Surprises in Week 5

The Crowd

It was clear from the outset that this would not be a total Notre Dame football crowd, as there was plenty of red to go around. In fact, as the game started to swing towards Cincinnati’s favor, it became clear that the Bearcats fans traveled for this game, making the home field advantage a little less for the Irish.

Of course, the Irish are not used to losing at home, as they saw their 26-game winning streak inside Notre Dame Stadium snapped in this one. For a top-10 matchup against their toughest opponent to date, there was way too much red in the stands, making for quite a surprise on Saturday afternoon.