Notre Dame Football: Make-or-Break Game for Irish Against Wake Forest

There are multiple ways to respond after a bad loss the previous week. The way that the Notre Dame Fighting Irish responded, last week against Navy, was the way that well-coached teams respond. 

If Notre Dame was falling apart, as it was suggested by USC, as they said the team quit in their game two weeks ago, then they would have not played in as well as they did against Navy. 

But, even after all of the great praise and highlights from the Navy game, it was against a 2-5, now 2-6 Navy team, that did come into this game ranking 103rd in average points against. Against Navy, they were supposed to run the score up, which they did scoring 56 points, while gaining 442 yards of offense. 

Last week’s game was not a real test for Notre Dame, to see how good this Notre Dame team is this year. 

This week, against a much better Wake Forest team is.

Wake Forrest this week brings in an exact opposite team than Navy, as Navy is run-first pass-never compared to Wake Forrest’s dangerous passing attack. 

As in two of the Irish’s three losses this year, they have come against teams that currently rank in the Top 30 of passing yards per game (South Florida 26th and USC 24th), like Wake Forest, which is ranked 30th. 

The Irish have struggled this year against the pass, as they come in at 56th in team sacks with 16, with only six interceptions in their eight games this year. They have to get to the quarterback this week, and if they do not, Wake’s QB Tanner Price will eat them up like he did against Florida State, when he went off for 233 yards and three touchdowns. 

This week, a win will put the Irish at a comfortable 6-3, and make them bowl eligible. The win will do nothing in terms of improving which bowl they would be invited to, since any bowl would love to have the Fighting Irish and their passionate fans fill up their stadium.  

The game against Wake Forest is for the fans of the program. The fans need this game, so that they can build that confidence back up, since it was crushed after the USC game.

The blowout win against Navy was good, but expected. This week, if the Irish have the same result as they did last week, it will make Irish fans puff their chests out again. 

A win this week and blow outs against Maryland and Boston College, will set in motion a wave of momentum that will carry this fanbase and team into Palo Alto, for the Nov. 26th night game against Stanford. 

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