Notre Dame Football: This Irish team is not a Playoff contender
A very tough second half for Brian Kelly and Notre Dame football looked like a vastly different team on the field than against the Michigan Wolverines.
It’s as simple as this if Notre Dame football continues to play moving forward like it did in the Week 2 home win over the Ball State Cardinals the College Football Playoff will not happen. The Week 1 victory over former Ole Miss Rebels transfer quarterback Shea Patterson and the Michigan Wolverines was huge.
However, head coach Brian Kelly led a Fighting Irish squad that looked very different in Week 2 than it did in Week 1. Ball State could wind up being one of the better Group of Five teams this fall, but that’s no excuse for what happened here. Notre Dame was a very heavy favorite entering the game and couldn’t do much of anything to pull away in the second half.
The weird part about Week 2 for both Notre Dame and Michigan was the outcome for each team against Group of Five opponents. Michigan dominated what could be a pretty solid squad in the Western Michigan Broncos, by the final score of 49-3. Notre Dame rounded out by beating Ball State by the final score of 24-16.
On the day, Notre Dame quarterback Brandon Wimbush tossed three interceptions and no touchdowns. Wimbush also wasn’t able to do anything on the ground and Notre Dame’s defense was forced to keep them ahead on the scoreboard.
The running back duo of Tony Jones Jr. and Jafar Armstrong were the lifelines of the offense by racking up all three touchdowns. Although, wide receiver Miles Boykin had a nice game too with more than 100 receiving yards to lead the team in that major stat.
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It took way too much for the Irish to fight to hang on to win this game. Notre Dame has a very long schedule ahead that promises to be one of the toughest in the nation. If this is the Wimbush that Notre Dame can expect to get on a weekly basis from here on out, it might be time to explore the options of starting either Ian Book or true freshman Phil Jurkovec.