Notre Dame Football: 3 hot takes from ugly win over Louisville

1. Notre Dame is barely a top-10 team right now

Ranked No. 4 in the country heading into Saturday’s game with three straight double-digit wins to start the season, Notre Dame looked justified being a playoff favorite.

But then you start to think about the quality of opponents and dominance of wins. The Irish won by just two touchdowns against a 1-5 Duke team to open the year before blowing the doors off a bad South Florida squad. Then the Irish pulled away in the second half against a mediocre Florida State team.

Sure, the Irish had an average win margin of 27.3 points, but it was deceiving based on that quality of opponents and one 52-0 win over South Florida.

One could argue that Louisville was the toughest test to date for the Irish despite a 1-3 record and they gave Notre Dame all it could handle, nearly pulling off the road upset. Notre Dame won 12-7 in the end, but it was ugly. And it showed that maybe the Irish haven’t really been tested yet.

Right now, Notre Dame is barely one of the 10 best teams in the country and one could argue that the Irish are no threats to Clemson in the ACC.

This could all change, but right now, I wouldn’t bet on the Irish to make the playoff.