A month ago, Notre Dame was being touted as a potential national championship contender.

Now after three loses in its last four games, the Fighting Irish are just trying to hold on a respectable season.

And with games left against Louisville at home Saturday and at USC on Nov. 29, Notre Dame is staring down the barrel of a potential 7-5 season.

Some alarming things popped up in the Fighting Irish’s 43-40 overtime loss to Northwestern Saturday night.

Notre Dame (7-3) gave up 43 points to the Wildcats (4-6) who are last in the Big Ten Conference in scoring offense averaging just 20.5 points per game.

Northwestern is 11th in the Big Ten in total offense, averaging just 345 yards per game. The Fighting Irish allowed the Wildcats a whopping 547 yards, including 263 rushing.

Notre Dame head coach Brian Kelly almost seemed lost for how to explain the loss to the Wildcats.

In the simplest terms, turnovers and the inability to stop the running or passing game was the downfall of the Irish.

In the view of many, the decision to go for two points instead of kicking the extra point that would have put Notre Dame up 41-29 in the fourth quarter, was the difference.

I do not believe that is true. It did not make the difference in the final outcome because the Fighting Irish just could not stop the Wildcats’ offense.

But what that decision did do, is breath life into Northwestern and gave the Wildcats a shot at coming back and tying the game with a touchdown, 2-point conversion and a field goal instead of making them have to score two touchdowns.

And that is exactly what Northwestern did, aided by a huge touchdown when Notre Dame could have taken a couple of knees, punted and left the Wildcats with less than 30 seconds to drive down the field.

That decision is on Kelly and his coaching staff. In the post game press conference, Kelly said they did the math and decided to run the ball and try to use up more clock.

Well I can tell you this, he should send whichever assistant coach did that match back to school because fans and members of the media had a different outcome when we did crunched the numbers.

Fans who were a month ago packing their bags for a potential trip to the NCAA’s “Final Four” can unpack and prepare themselves for a lesser bowl game.

If Notre Dame beats both Louisville and USC, which I doubt it can beat both of them, then the Fighting Irish could play in a New Year’s Day bowl game.

If they lose both games, which I can see them doing at this point, they will be playing a December bowl game in a place many fans probably do not want to spend the holidays.

But remember this Fighting Irish fans, this is a young football team that will improve. I just do not know if that improvement will come over the final two regular season games and a bowl game or if it will have to wait until spring football and the 2015 season.

 

Scott Novak is sports editor for Leader Publications. He can be reached at scott.novak@leaderpub.com.