If Notre Dame can't beat Northern Illinois, does that make Texas A&M really really bad?

Just one week ago, the then-No. 7 Notre Dame Fighting Irish marched into College Station and handed the then-No. 20 Texas A&M Aggies a 23-13 loss.

Because of the Week 1 victory, Notre Dame moved up to No. 5 in the nation, according to the AP Top 25, and the team's Week 2 matchup against the Northern Illinois Huskies was supposed to be a cakewalk for the Irish.

After putting the first points on the board with a quick touchdown in the first quarter, Notre Dame almost immediately began to struggle against the Huskies defense. In fact, Notre Dame lost the lead just over six minutes later.

At halftime, the Irish trailed 13-7 but a rushing touchdown by Jeremiyah Love put Notre Dame back on top with 8 minutes and 34 seconds remaining in the third quarter.

The fourth quarter was slow for both teams. Neither offense could put points on the board until, with just 31 seconds left in the game, Northern Illinois' kicker Kanon Woodill put a field goal through the uprights to give his Huskies the lead once again.

Notre Dame couldn't get down the field quickly enough once Northern Illinois was up 16-14 and the Irish ended up losing to the unranked, MAC football squad.

Not to mention, the Fighting Irish paid Northern Illinois $1,400,000 to play them in South Bend this week. Yes, the Huskies just earned over a million dollars to upset a top-five team in the country.

With Notre Dame losing to such a massive underdog, how bad does that make the Aggies look? Luckily for Texas A&M, the Aggies did demolish the McNeese Cowboys 52-10 in their Week 2 game but still, the team looked useless against the Irish defense.

Now, with Notre Dame failing to put up three touchdowns against the Huskies, Texas A&M's case for redemption becomes that much harder to defend.

Read more: