The Louisville Cardinals thoroughly defeated the Notre Dame Fighting Irish and man was it bad. Notre Dame tonight faced their third of three straight ranked matchups and man did it not go well. The Cardinals tonight beat up the Irish in what I can only describe as a hard nosed "bully ball" bashing. While watching this game I began to ponder and my mind began to wander. This is now the third game in a row in which Notre Dame has struggled. Why was this happening? And was it actually as bad as it appeared? To start, yes it's very bad and let me try and show you just how bad it is. Through the first four games Notre Dame was 4-0 averaging 45 points per game with +137 point differential. These stats are hands down flat out elite, and with these great team stats Sam Hartman the transfer star from Wake Forrest was averaging 3.25 touchdowns per game. In comparison over the last three games the Irish have averaged just 17 points per game with a -9 point differential leading the Irish to a 1-2 record in this stretch. The contrast between these two stretch's are day and night, if I didn't know better I would say these are two different teams. In these games Sam Hartman has disappeared, averaging only one touchdown pass per game and he only has that one because of a garbage time TD tonight. Before that he was averaging .67 TD passes per game. So why is this happening? Often times the answer is right in front of our face. And that answer is the opponent's, the combined record for their first four opponents was 12-10 good enough for a 54% win percentage. None of which were ranked, and none were power five programs. Meanwhile their last three games all of which were ranked, and have a combined record of 15-1 (93% win percentage) with the one loss being Duke against Notre Dame. What this says to me is Notre Dame isn't ready, this is still a young team with a young head coach. And while they are headed in the right direction, the Irish are not there yet. This is not a team that can compete with high level ranked teams, and this is not a team who will be competing for the CFB Playoffs.
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