Notre Dame received more mixed reviews, beating Louisville 31-24. Are the Irish really that good?

SOUTH BEND, Ind. — Playoffs’ best and worst contenders college football He returned to work Saturday at Notre Dame Stadium.

And things were going well, bad, good and bad for the 16th-seeded Fighting Irish, who edged 15th-seeded Louisville 31-24.

What’s in this team? He can win at Texas A&M, then lose to Northern Illinois at home. He can hang 66 points against Purdue, then fight to break the chains against Miami (Ohio). He started a big game against Louisville by missing the opening kick and immediately falling into a 7-0 hole, then played like a world champion as he jumped out to a 21-7 lead in the first quarter and all but shut down the offense.

Irish 4-1. It will be in their favor to win their next game against Stanford in two weeks, and then it’s all the rest until the regular season finale at USC, at which point we may have a different perspective on the Irish, or perhaps still agree. Be astonished by them. They are miles away from perfection, but most teams in the country would switch places with them in a heartbeat; That’s it.

“We’re going to have to get better, but it feels great to come into this week with a big win,” coach Marcus Freeman said.

Louisville (3-1) made up for Devyn Ford’s fumble in the opening run. Three plays later, Tyler Shough threw a 10-yard touchdown pass to Isaac Brown, Cardinals fans in the upper rows of a sold-out house came alive and the Irish came back.

“You want to yell and scream and the player feels terrible, but you have to reload and refocus on the next play,” Freeman said.

They achieved this in dramatic fashion; They got the ball back and went 75 yards in 12 plays to tie the game. Quarterback Riley Leonard threw his fourth pass to Jayden Thomas among five completions to four different receivers. Do the Irish have a passing offense or not? It appeared that way on that drive and the next that ended with Leonard’s 34-yard strike to Jaden Greenhouse.

The Irish scored on the one-play possession on a 4-yard Leonard run after Louisville lost 45 yards on a hilariously botched punt. It was 21-7, revenge for last year’s 33-20 win over Louisville was in the air, and all signs were extremely encouraging.

Who knew the Irish offense was about to go flat? Or maybe the Irish just left them at that.

In the second quarter, Jadarian Price fumbled the ball on the first play of the possession, which started inside the Irish 10-yard line. Another quick pass of Shough TD changed the complexion of everything. From there, the action began with the Irish getting the ball. After throwing for 132 yards in the first period, they gained 60 yards combined in the second and third quarters.

Luckily, Freeman had tremendous security as Xavier Watts made one key defensive snap after another. Watts’ interception in the second quarter set up Mitch Jeter’s 48-yard field goal. On fourth-and-1 for Louisville at the Irish 15, Watts teamed up with Donovan Hinish to come just short of the win on a crucial stop. In the third quarter, on fourth-and-2 near midfield, Watts pressured Shough and forced a completion. Finally, on Louisville’s final drive of the game – on fourth-and-6 from their own 49-yard line with less than a minute left – Shough took a deep snap and Watts was there for the breakaway.

If Louisville had tied, Freeman would have had a hard time accounting for his team’s last real possession before switching to a winning formation. After the Cardinals out of a timeout scored a touchdown to make it a seven-point game with 5:17 left, the Irish needed a first down to ice the ball. Instead, they went into a conservative possession and allowed Leonard to run the ball three times. The Cardinals regained possession of the ball with 2:44 remaining.

“They had no breaks,” Freeman explained. “We said, ‘We have to be smart.’ ”

Was this wise? It didn’t seem like it at the time.

The Irish prevailed in the air and on land. They had eight fewer debuts. They took the lead and from then on Freeman relied – perhaps too much – on his very good defense. Sure, it was a recipe for victory, but was it the sign of an elite team? It wasn’t like that.