Is it time to panic for No. 8 Notre Dame? originally appeared on The Sporting News
The Notre Dame Fighting Irish opened the season 0-1 two weeks ago with a road loss to No. 10 Miami, at the time. Since, Miami has moved up to No. 5 and Notre Dame has dropped to No. 8.
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However, now the Fighting Irish welcome No. 16 Texas A&M to South Bend on Saturday, and a loss could leave them winless through the first three weeks on the season – a recipe for disaster if they want to return to the College Football Playoffs.
Notre Dame is an independent football program, meaning it is not part of a conference. Therefore, the Fighting Irish don’t have the luxury of winning an auto-bid into the CFP with a conference championship; they need to earn an at-large bid.
Is It Time To Panic In South Bend?
Not yet. However, if Notre Dame can’t rebound at home this week, you can push the panic button.
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The Fighting Irish did exactly that, fight, in their opener, coming back from a 21-7 deficit to tie the game, but ultimately lost to Miami. It wasn’t a terrible outing, but there were definitely things that needed to be addressed.
“Notre Dame gave us a pretty conflicting impression in Week 1’s narrow loss at Miami. Quarterback CJ Carr was decent but unspectacular in his debut start, while the defense limited Miami’s big-play potential but allowed a 49% success rate, which means it currently ranks 126th in that category,” ESPN’s Bill Connelly wrote. “The offensive and defensive lines performed worse than expected, and the run game was first underwhelming and then forgotten.”
The Hurricanes out-rushed the Fighting Irish by 26 yards and Miami sacked Carr three times. Notre Dame’s two-headed monster of Jeremiyah Love and Jadarian Price in the backfield combined for just 78 yards, and Love averaged 3.3 yards per carry.
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The Fighting Irish will need their running game to be more effective against the Aggies if they want rebound at home. In addition to the run game, Notre Dame’s passing game was heavily around the line of scrimmage.
Carr completed just three passes for more than 10 yards, and 15 of his 19 completions were caught no more than five yards downfield.
Notre Dame’s defensive front will need to step up as well. Texas A&M’s running backs are averaging 6.6 yards per carry through two games, and quarterback Marcel Reed has thrown zero interceptions and been sacked once in his 74 drop backs.
“It’s easy to see this game becoming one of trench warfare, though random chunk plays could tell the tale. One way or another, the Irish really do need a win here,” Connelly wrote. “Even if they were to lose and then win out to finish 10-2 — not a given considering how good future opponents like USC and Arkansas have looked thus far — their résumé might feature only one or two wins over ranked teams, and they could find themselves at the bottom of a pile of 10-2 teams. That’s really not where you want to be.”
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Saturday’s game is pretty close to a must-win for Notre Dame if it wants to return to the College Football Playoffs. If the Fighting Irish fall to 0-2, they’d be relying on a lot of other teams to make mistakes, and need to run the table themselves.
Notre Dame and Texas A&M kickoff at 7:30 EST on NBC.
