Notre Dame Football: 5 overreactions to Georgia loss

With Notre Dame football falling to Georgia in one of the most significant games of the early season, there’s talk of how the loss will affect the former’s season. 

Despite the 20-19 final score, it was a difficult game to witness from the Notre Dame sideline. The offense was frustratingly inept, and it seemed as if it was only a matter of time until Georgia’s offense broke free from the hold of a strong Irish defense.

It was clear that Notre Dame deserved to be in this game from the get-go, but their offense was never quite capable of giving the team what it needed to secure the win. On the flip side, Notre Dame’s defense proved more than capable of keeping the Irish in any game down the stretch.

There were things that looked good and things that looked bad for the Irish on Saturday, but there were also overreactions on both sides of the aisle as the game came to a close.

Here are five of them that surfaced in the wake of Notre Dame’s Week 2 loss.

5. The Irish defense is back to form

Remember when a Manti Te’o lead Irish defense brought Notre Dame to the coveted national championship? It’s been a while since the Irish have witnessed such success, but many were quick to jump upon the Irish’s strong showing against Georgia, claiming the Irish defense had finally returned to its true self.

While there is no taking away from what the Irish did on defense last night, their excellent performance came against a fairly average quarterback in Georgia backup Jake Fromm. However, the dynamic combo of Nick Chubb and Sony Michel was held in check by an Irish team that struggled mightily against the run last season.

There is no doubt that this defense is much improved from the one we saw last season, and they should only get better as the season treads on. While the 191 rushing yards allowed by the Irish appear to be on the higher side, there was never a sense that the defense was incapable of defending the rush at any point in the game.

The Irish defense will look to maintain their strong start as they take on the Boston College Eagles next week. This will be a much easier contest, and should only fuel the fire for Notre Dame’s up and coming defense.