Notre Dame football puts together a disgraceful performance during home opening loss to Northern Illinois
It was an incredibly frustrating game for Notre Dame football. The team, who had a extremely strong 23-13 road victory over the Texas A&M Aggies, had very little juice in the home opener. Notre Dame limped to a 16-14 loss to the Huskies, which was an absolutely embarrassing overall performance. It’s hard, but even with […]
It was an incredibly frustrating game for Notre Dame football. The team, who had a extremely strong 23-13 road victory over the Texas A&M Aggies, had very little juice in the home opener. Notre Dame limped to a 16-14 loss to the Huskies, which was an absolutely embarrassing overall performance. It’s hard, but even with any bad game, there are some positives and plenty of negatives to talk about.
Here are the assuring aspects of this loss, and the troubling. It’s going to be a long week of practice leading up to Notre Dame’s matchup against the Purdue Boilermakers. This team must start to find some answers, or their season is just about over.
The assuring
Sophomore running back Jeremiyah Love is a stud. After an impressive performance during the team’s 23-13 victory over Texas A&M last week, the St. Louis speedster once again put his talents on display. That included a highlight reel long touchdown, and hurdle, in the third quarter. Despite the frustration around the offense, Irish fans know who the most dynamic weapon that is on that side of the football. Love is special.
The troubling
Notre Dame came out incredibly flat against Northern Illinois. Marcus Freeman and the Irish staff did a tremendous job during his second year in 2023 to not play down to competition, which was great to see. That was not the case on Saturday night. When you are the better and more talented team, you have to bury the inferior opponents.
The passing attack for the Irish is an issue right now. There isn’t one problem right now. Some will blame quarterback Riley Leonard, and he certainly deserves his share of blame. Some others will blame the wide receivers, and they sure need some as well. The lack of separation is a major issue. We also can’t just look past offensive coordinator Mike Denbrock. We were promised a more dynamic passing attack, and we just haven’t gotten that.
We saw a lot of positives on defense overall, but the linebacker position is one that left a lot to be desired. There were some very good moments for sophomore Jaiden Ausberry, but otherwise, it was very underwhelming. Northern Illinois running back Antario Brown had a huge day, and a lot of it was due to the lack of discipline on the second level. Notre Dame needs that talented group to grow up quickly.
