Notre Dame vs Central Michigan: Pick Your Narrative
Notre Dame officially accomplished their biggest initial goal of the 2023 season. Entering the Ohio State matchup undefeated. In fact, when looking at scores alone, none of the first ramp-up month of games ended that close. Notre Dame has taken care of business. They’ve allowed next week to become in reality what it’s been in theory for literally years. A good old-fashioned midwestern war on the national stage.
As I’ve been saying for years in my videos, nothing is ever black and white with Notre Dame. There’s always room for nuance, always. I ask Irish fans the following question. Do you feel better, worse, or the same about Notre Dame’s chances to take down Ohio State after seeing the Central Michigan game?
41-17
Was this game pristine for Notre Dame? No. Did it go to plan? Absolutely not. Did their performance make Irish fans feel much more confident entering next week’s game-of-the-week battle? Likely not because I feel that the expectation by most was that this game would be over by halftime and that wasn’t the case.
That being said, Notre Dame won the game 41-17. Any complaints that there are are currently valid but need to be recognized as high-class problems. Not long ago with this coach and the one before him, the Irish were losing games like this or barely sneaking by with ugly wins. That isn’t the case this year, and that’s progress. How much progress? Check back with me in a week.
The Game Within The Game
Notre Dame is to the point where they are expected to win games like this by a lot, and early enough that a player as critical as Sam Hartman can be out of the game by halftime. You could hear A pin drop in the stadium when his leg moved awkwardly. This was the number 1 issue that had to be avoided. Hartman got hit much too often against Central Michigan for my liking.
What caused the somewhat overall sluggish start? Hangover from a physical battle at NC State? Overlooking Central Michigan? Looking ahead to the Buckeyes? A little bit of all of this? None of it? Who knows? All I know is it’s great to be asking these questions in a 41-17 win. That may be the biggest takeaway of the week. Sure there are complaints. But of a much more pleasant kind this year.
What About Ohio State?
After pondering this topic on the drive home from the game, I’ve decided that I don’t think Irish fans should be too concerned that the way the team played this week is an indicator of what they will look like next week. This week’s contest was a game. Next weeks is a 4 quarter war.
Notre Dame will be ready to face Ohio State. They will get “up” for it. These players know what’s on the line and will come prepared. I have no doubt about that. The fans will be fully engaged. Will it be enough to win though? We’ll find out soon enough.
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