2 things. For everyone who keeps saying that the next team we play will stack the box and beat ND that way, easier said than done. ND faces probably a top 10 defense in Michigan and they were stacking the box. Pretty much all of last year they stacked the boxes against ND and they still were pretty successful. It’s not as simple as 8 guys in the box will just cause ND to do nothing.
Second thing, if ND doesn’t play better than this week they will be run off the field by Vandy. They aren’t an SEC powerhouse, but they have a 4th year starting QB who’s one of the better QB’s in the SEC (not elite but pretty darn good). They have SEC athletes on that 3-4 defense that are way way better than Ball State had and even a few comparable athletes to Michigan’s vaunted defense. Bottom line is ND needs a fire under their butts and not think of this game as a gimme cause clearly after the first touchdown, ND thought that they had the Ball State game in the bag. This is probably a bowl-bound SEC team and the way ND looked against Ball State this game looks a lot more uncomfortable.