Notre Dame got off to an awful start in 2022 but the Fighting Irish are finding form just in time to send college football into madness down the stretch.
For a team that began the season ranked inside the Top 5, it was truly jarring to see how precipitously the perception of the Notre Dame Fighting Irish dropped early in the season, though rightfully so.
In his first season as the head coach in South Bend, Marcus Freeman stumbled horribly out of the gates with an inept offensive performance against Ohio State in a 21-10 loss and a more shocking upset loss at home against Marshall the following week. And it’s been a mixed bag since then with a narrow victory over Cal, a huge win over UNC, a stunning loss to Stanford and then a comfortable win over UNLV last week.
So on Saturday with the Irish going on the road to the Carrier Dome to face a No. 16-ranked Syracuse squad, it was anyone’s guess what was going to happen. But Notre Dame stepped up and delivered a relatively dominant showing — albeit with ‘Cuse losing its starting quarterback midway through the affair — in a 41-24 win over the Orange.
After that, it appears that Freeman is starting to find his team’s mojo. And that’s just in time to cause a lot of trouble in the college football world.
Notre Dame can cause chaos in College Football Playoff picture
Make no mistake, the College Football Playoff hopes of Notre Dame have long been dead. But they can undoubtedly ruin the party for a couple of other teams when it comes to their remaining schedule.
After the win over Syracuse, the Irish head back to South Bend to face a Clemson team that was ranked No. 5 coming into this week and that has legitimate Playoff aspirations. But that is also a team with offensive problems of its own that this Notre Dame team could potentially cause problems for.
The next two weeks thereafter feature contests against Navy and Boston College but the Irish then wrap up their season against rival USC. The Trojans suffered their first loss of the season two weeks ago, but still have an outside shot at the Playoff if they can win out. This is also a team, however, who has been stifled by good defenses at times already this season and has plenty of defensive issues as well.
All of this is to say, this is the best time from an entertainment perspective for Notre Dame to be hitting its stride. They have the opportunity to play CFP spoiler not once but twice to finish their season and, if they keep improving, you can bet on chaos ensuing.
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