Apologies

[RealStateBird]

After watching ND and Duke I was totally wrong thinking either will roll the Cards. Both have above average defenses, but their offenses are not good. ND played a clean game and barely scored 21 points and we saw how anemic Duke was. I am not saying Louisville will beat either, but I think ND game will be fairly close ether way and we beat Duke. Looks like Miami, UK may be the better teams on the schedule, but no way ND is top 10 in this country. STILL WORRIED ABOUT HANDLING BLITZES.

 

[Louis III]

I think ND deserves to be in the top 10 when you look around college football. No one has dominated every week to the point where they stand out. Maybe Michigan but they havent played anybody, yet! ND dominated NCSt, lost to OSU on the final play of the game and beat a very gritty Duke team. Most years I think they are overrated but I think they are pretty damn solid this year.

 

[RealStateBird]

If you can’t score you don’t deserve to be in the Top 10 because sooner or later you’re going to start losing some.

 

[KozmasAgain]

It’s funny how you down play our competition even when they are ranked. Have you ever thought that maybe the offenses from both teams looked limited because they were playing against good teams.

 

[2330859]

I was going to say the same thing Koz; what is the purpose in denigrating UL’s opponents? Parity in college football is evident; look no further than UGA’s narrow victory over Auburn, or UF‘s beatdown of Tennessee, only to lose to UK.

ND lost one game, it was to Ohio State, and any objective observer would acknowledge that it could easily gone the other way.

IU, GT, BC and NCST have each exhibited brief periods where they looked like formidable opponents, only to further demonstrate just how pedestrian they are over the course of the game. A fumble here, or an interception there ……. It is easily the difference between winning and losing; it does not necessarily reflect the quality of an opponent on your schedule.

We have at least 3 teams on our schedule that are capable of finishing in the top 10; ND, Duke and UK. Depending on how we perform, we have a shot to reach that level as well.

 

[NDAFArly]

After watching ND and Duke I was totally wrong thinking either will roll the Cards. Both have above average defenses, but their offenses are not good. ND played a clean game and barely scored 21 points and we saw how anemic Duke was. I am not saying Louisville will beat either, but I think ND game will be fairly close ether way and we beat Duke. Looks like Miami, UK may be the better teams on the schedule, but no way ND is top 10 in this country. STILL WORRIED ABOUT HANDLING BLITZES.

ND was coming off a gut punch loss.
Many experts picked Duke to win.
Duke was 17th at home.
ND was missing 4 WRs & a TE.
They had 3, yes 3, scholarship WRs who played against Duke, thus why they were in 2 RB sets or 2 TE sets most the game. One of the starting WRs who did play (because he had to) had an injured hamstring & only played limited snaps. The other two WRs were a true Freshman & a RS Freshman.

ND was limited on options to say the least, & killed themselves with 12 penalties.
But still won.

And ND’s offense is ranked 8th nationally (on FPI & Efficiency rankings).

And I would say a team giving op 12 ppg playing ND’s schedule is better than above average defense.