Notre Dame Debriefing: Week 3 Central Michigan

In their final tune-up game against Central Michigan, the Fighting Irish continued their winning ways by a score of 41-17. However, despite the final score, it was far from a dominant performance by the Irish. Going into the third quarter, Notre Dame was only up by a touchdown. With how Notre Dame had played the previous three weeks, this was extremely underwhelming. Notre Dame should’ve been blowing them out by this point, not have it be a competitive game considering that Central Michigan was without their starting QB Bert Emanuel Jr.

However, in the second half, the Irish took control of the game by outscoring Central Michigan 20-3. This was more of the outcome we were expecting. Now with all the problems people have with how the Irish played, the final score can’t be overlooked. The reason why there are these concerns is because of next week’s game when number six Ohio State comes to South Bend. But, more about that later. Anyway, here are the major takeaways from this week’s game

The Offensive Line Needs to Protect Sam Hartman Better

Every Notre Dame fan’s stomach dropped. Midway through the third quarter, NBC caught Sam Hartman limping off the field. At this point, the entire season hinges on the health of Hartman. If he’s hurt, then any hope of Notre Dame making the college football playoffs is gone. Now thankfully, Hartman just got hit the wrong way and was able to walk it off. He finished the rest of the game and continues to be the explosive talent that he’s been all season.

However, just because Hartman avoided injury doesn’t mean we should just overlook what happened. For the past two games, it has always felt like Hartman was under pressure. He got hit way too much for any Notre Dame fan to be comfortable. Especially as the quality of opponents gets better, will the pass rushes only get worse? Will Hartman have even less time to throw, or take bigger hits that might lead to an injury? These are the questions you have to be asking right now. If Notre Dame thinks they have a chance next week, then protecting Hartman has to be priority number one.

Notre Dame Missed JD Bertland

The biggest loss of last week’s game was linebacker JD Bertland He had to be removed from the game due to a concussion. This turned out to be a major blow for Notre Dame. The defense looked lost out there during the beginning of the game. The ability to line up defensively was the worst it had been this season. They also were unable to complete basic tackles. Overall, the defense looked like a completely different team without Bertland out there.

Now sure, talent eventually took over and Notre Dame was able to stop Central Michigan. But this is because Central Michigan isn’t anywhere close to the same caliber as Notre Dame. Talent won’t be able to save them versus a team like Ohio State. The defense has to play perfectly out there against Ohio State, which is why Bertland needs to get healthy fast.

Big Play Offense Continues

Enough of the negatives. The biggest positive to take away from this game is that Notre Dame’s high-flying offense continued. They continue to pull off big play after big play, something that has been missing from this offense for years. Audric Estime continued his historic start rushing for 176 yards and a touchdown. Next to Hartman, Estime is the most important player on Notre Dame’s offense. He’s averaging 8.3 yards per carry this season, which is just unheard of at this level. They were also able to air the ball out hitting Tobias Merriweather and Chris Tyree for 75+ yard touchdowns each.

If you want to play against the top teams in college football, you need to be able to make big plays like this. Ohio State, Georgia, Michigan, etc. all have guys that can make a huge play and can flip the momentum in a second. It was the biggest thing holding Notre Dame back all those years. They weren’t able to match the big plays those teams could make. However, things seem to be different. It seems like now they have an offense that can finally go big play for a big play against any team.

As mentioned before, Notre Dame has a huge game next week against number six Ohio State. This is the biggest game in South Bend since the game against number one Clemson during the COVID season. Kickoff is set for 7:30 pm and the game will be on NBC.

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