I have said this probably about a dozen times on this board... There is a huge number of posters here who simply ignore the state of college football today and continue to feel that Notre Dame should dominate every team they're favored against.
This is not and has not been feasible for a long time. It isn't a Notre Dame thing, it's a college football thing. Many people here need to get it through their heads that the ONLY thing that matters is wins and losses because no game is the same and any team can beat any other team at any given time, period.
Did FSU dominate BC? Yes, they did. Then they proceeded to barely beat 6-5 Miami. FSU lost to Wake Forest earlier in the year. BC beat NC State, a 6-5 team that just beat Clemson, a team that earlier in the season was considered one of the top teams in the nation. NC State also beat UNC, who crushed Wake Forest, who only lost to ND by a touchdown. Notre Dame crushed MSU this year... MSU was a team thought to be the favorite for the Big Ten title at one point. MSU got killed by Nebraska, but beat Wisconsin, the consensus best team in the Big Ten to start the season. Wisconsin lost to OSU, who lost to Purdue. Notre Dame demolished Purdue. UM barely beat notre Dame - they needed several miracles to do so - yet crushed Nebraska.
I can go on, and on, and on, and on, and on, and on... It's exactly the same in every conference also, except for two teams in the SEC - Alabama and LSU, two teams that are head and shoulders above most of the other teams in the nation. Yet even those two powerhouses are capable of being beaten by ANY team in the nation. On any given day.
It's absolutely ridiculous for people to expect Notre Dame to blow out a team every single time they are favored by a large margin. It just doesn't work that way and it will probably never be that way again.
Does that mean you can't criticize the coaches, players, etc.? Absolutely not. But if you're going to criticize, give credit where it is due as well. College football is a gauntlet in this era. The internet allows recruits to gain exposure who never in a million years would've gotten D1 offers 15-20 years ago. There are MANY MANY MANY more diamonds in the rough than anyone ever imagined, and those kids are getting scholarships and becoming great players.
Every single team in the country is capable of winning any game at any time, because every single team in the country has D1 level athletes now.
A "W", in the long run, is the ONLY thing that matters. There is very, very little information to be gleaned from a single game, regardless of the competition or how "favored" ND is, which is ridiculous to go by anyway because Vegas lines are simply not objective.
It is much, much more informative to look at the body of work of a team. Looking at statistical rankings at the end of the season is hands down the best way to judge a team. Obviously watching that team gives us some information also, but only if you literally watch every snap of every game. Even then, the info is limited by circumstance on a game-by-game basis.
USC was trash the first 5-6 weeks of the season, everyone said they were done. All of a sudden they have beaten ND, nearly beaten Stanford and beaten Oregon.
I'm sick and tired of coming here and seeing people constantly bitch about what happens game-to-game. Notre Dame out-gained BC 420-250, had more first downs, ran the ball 39 times, and statistically dominated the game. They won the game by 2 points. Bottom line is they won and if those two teams played 10 times, logically speaking ND would probably win 9 and 6 or 7 of them would be blowouts. This happened to be one of the times they won by two.
But when you look at the body of work for Notre Dame this season, you see they are 33rd in total offense, 28th in total defense. 37th in scoring offense, 22nd in scoring defense. Terrible at punt returns and punting, good at kick returns and kick return defense, terrible in turnovers, average in sacks and amazing at allowing sacks. They are decent at field goals, especially field goal percentage.
There you have it. Notre Dame needs to improve their punting and punt returns, stop turning the ball over and start getting more sacks and tackles for loss. That's it, in a nutshell. People need to stop dissecting every game as if what happens game-to-game is the be all and end all of what Notre Dame is as a team.
Bottom line is, they are 8-3 against a pretty good schedule and are ranked pretty well in a lot of key statistical categories. They need to improve from that to be a NC contender, period. But only beating BC by 2 makes no difference. They won the game, period. ND could come out and beat Stanford next week, then how much does beating BC by two points mean? Jack ****, that's what. Absolutely nothing wrong with debate and criticism of the coaching staff or the team itself, but look at the damn big picture for once.
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