- Notre Dame has only played weak teams so far. Any mediocre team could beat the teams that Notre Dame has beaten, and by the same margin.
- NC State is clearly not as good as advertised, since Notre Dame handled them easily in their own stadium.
- Central Michigan lost to Notre Dame as expected. Clearly, Notre Dame has its way against weak teams, but they don't stand a chance against Ohio State.
- Notre Dame was lucky to beat Ohio State by 21. But this also means that OSU was one of the most overrated teams in CFB, clearly very far from the top-five team that "experts" said they were. Next week, a 4-0 Duke team with a win over Clemson presents a classic trap game. Notre Dame will be burned out after its win over OSU. We're predicting the upset here.
- Notre Dame squeaked by Duke, winning by a mere 11 points and failing for the first time to cover the spread. Perhaps Notre Dame is beginning to self-destruct.
- Notre Dame fails to cover the 21-point spread at Louisville. Failing to cover twice in a row suggests that they are ripe for a defeat at home against a battle-tested and undefeated USC.
- USC's offense is great. The 27 points they put up is more than anyone else has been able to manage against Notre Dame. Notre Dame's offense did manage to put up a record 66 on USC. If a mediocre offense like Notre Dame's can put up a number like that, the USC's defense is simply terrible, and they are not the team we thought they were. Notre Dame plays Pitt next week, and we expect that to be a close game that could go either way.
- Notre Dame made short work of a Pitt team that obviously isn't as good as advertised.
- At 7-1, Clemson was thought to be a team much improved since their opening loss to Duke, with convincing wins over Florida State and a top-25 Miami. But it would seem that they haven't improved much at all, since a no-better-than-decent Notre Dame team went into Tiger Stadium and had its way with them.
- Notre Dame beat up on a weak Wake Forest team, as expected.
- Notre Dame beat up on a weak Stanford team, as expected.
- So, Notre Dame wrangles its way into the playoffs, courtesy of a much weaker than expected schedule and some criminally sloppy play on the part of its opponents. However, Notre Dame is playing with the big boys now. This team has never won a playoff game before, and we do not expect it to prevail against Washington's top-10 offense, either.
- Notre Dame finally wins a playoff game, courtesy of six turnovers and some unusually terrible defense by Washington. We do not expect Georgia to extend Notre Dame the same courtesies.
- Sam Hartman proves to be the difference in Notre Dame's win over an overconfident Georgia team. It would seem that the stars have aligned and Notre Dame has finally won a national championship, but it has the feel of a one-off fluke. A strong schedule turned out to be a weak one, opponents executed poorly, and gifted Notre Dame with a +5 turnover margin. With Hartman gone, we expect Notre Dame to to its usual 8-4 or 9-3 mediocrity in 2024.
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