Sean Gallagher

Following an embarrassing 16-14 loss at home to Northern Illinois in Week 2, writing off Notre Dame sounded logical.

How did a team that got a huge win at Texas A&M manage to lay an egg against an NIU team that would go on to have a mediocre season?

Well, head coach Marcus Freeman and his team had to live with that the whole week leading up to their next game at Purdue. In that game, one that had a very low over/under total and a small spread that still favored Notre Dame, the Irish destroyed a bad Boilermaker team 66-7. While some may have seen it as a one-off butt-kicking of a team that just finished its season getting buried 66-0 by Playoff-bound Indiana, the Fighting Irish knew that they had to win-out to get in the 12-team tournament.

Not only did they win out, but they did it in convincing fashion.

During the 10-game winning streak to finish 11-1 and lock in a home game in the first round later this month, the closest margin of victory for Notre Dame was 7 when they defeated Louisville at time where they had picked up wins over Purdue and Miami (OH), but was the first real test after the NIU debacle.

In 10 of their 11 wins, the Fighting Irish margin of victory has been by multiple scores…

at Texas A&M: 10 points

at Purdue: 59 points

vs. Miami (OH): 21 points

vs. Louisville: 7 points

vs. Stanford: 42 points

at Georgia Tech: 18 points

at Navy: 37 points

vs. Virginia: 21 points

vs. Army: 35 points

at USC: 14 points

While strength of schedule did not favor them as the season continued, Notre Dame did exactly what it had to do: Win in style. That included having no shame running up the score on the like of Navy and Army, who Notre Dame has high-respect for. It’s not personal, but simply business.

The two interceptions returned for a touchdown helped them go from being up 7 and possibly being tied at USC to a 21-point advantage late in which the Trojans scored a garbage time touchdown to narrow it down to 14.

The combination of having two strong running backs, a quarterback in Riley Leonard, whose confidence was shattered after the NIU upset and had to be rebuilt week-by-week, and a defense that has been strong all season despite injuries has helped Notre Dame run the table, as they now exhale for a second, sit and wait to see who makes the trek to cold (and possibly snowy) South Bend the third weekend in December.

The competition will be better, and the odds won’t exactly be in their favor to win the national championship, but when you’re on this kind of streak, anything is possible. Especially with this expanded playoff.