Irish look to go 8-0 to meet my lofty expectations.

It happens every once in a while. You come face to face with yourself in the mirror, and realize how much of a homer you are. You realize how your love of a team completely prevents you from being within 8 miles of objectivity (8 mile!). Every team I root for has led me to this reality. Heck, the Angels have made me face this fact 80 times since April. The Canucks make me face this fact every time they meet the Blackhawks in the playoffs. And, Notre Dame made me face this fact on Saturday afternoon. As you know, I am a one of those ridiculous Fighting Irish fans, always expecting perfection. I'm the guy who predicted that Notre Dame would get 9 wins in Brian Kelly's first season at the head coach spot (but secretly expected more). I'm the guy who predicted that ND would shock the college football world with a surprise upset of the Cardinal. I'm the guy, who has realized that he has no clue what he's talking about. After a hefty 14-37 defeat at the hands of those braniac hippies from the city formerly known as Palo Alto, I'm staring a dangerous reality right in the face. I'm starting to see through the dense fog that is my über-fandom. I'm starting to realize that the Irish may be less than 3 weeks away from kicking off a home game against Western Michigan with a 1-5 record. I need a drink.

To say that your favorite team's offense was horrible is like a heresy, right? Too bad. We were horrible! The defensive schemes that Stanford showed seemed to completely baffle Crist and company. At times, the Nor Cal kids rushed just 3, and still got the Crist! The most appauling thing about it was the lack of in-game adjustments. Where was the ability to change it up enough to battle well against the Cardinal defense? That's a coaching problem. I'm sorry, but it is. Crist went 25 for 44 for an impressive 304 yards (1 TD and 1 INT), but the offense just couldn't find the end zone. Despite getting three turnovers, and kind of holding Luck to have his worst game of the year, we couldn't covert.

Not only was a semi-down (compared to their other games) Stanford team begging us to get back in the game, but the ND defense was doing everything they could to keep us within striking distance. It was only 6-19 at the start of the fourth quarter, and we finally blemished up Luck's passing stats with the two picks. But, while the defense can stop the bad guys and get the ball back, the offense has to take that ball to pay dirt. If you had to blame the defense in any way, it would be their play on third downs, letting Stanford have way to much of the field to make conversions. 

So, as you can guess, things aren't going well in South Bend. If you listen to the chatter, it seems that we're just another loss away from having the alumni put billboards up indirectly calling for Kelly's head (memories). But, courtesy of my go-to Irish blog "Rakes of Mallow," I give you some perspective:

+The teams we have lost to are a combined 12-0 and are all ranked in the top 25.

+The three QBs who have beaten us are all Heisman buzz kind of guys, and Luck was made to look far less than the other two by our pretty impressive D.

+Stanford only managed 3.8 yards per rush against us.

I appreciate the Rakes for helping me to find reasons to step back from the edge of my 1 story ranch style home, because I'd probably just bruise my spleen or something. However, I feel like the schedule is going to have me stepping right back up to that edge. Saturday has us going on the road for the Holy War against Boston College. BC are 2-1 and most recently got blanked 0-19 by Virginia Tech over the weekend. Prior to that, they beat Weber State and Kent State by the combined score of 64-33 ("Staaaaaaaate Schooooooool"). In my preseason prediction post for this year's Holy War, I enjoyed reliving the 20-16 ND win last season (a win that got us to 5-2 and back into the Top 25 thanks to a late INT to stop a drive by BC with 98 seconds to go), pointed out that BC won the 6 matches prior to last year, and that the Irish haven't beaten the Eagles in Boston since 1998. Adding all that up, I predicted a ND loss, and I'm not really feeling too different about it today. 

Can the Irish steal a win against the Eagles this Saturday? Sure. Will it happen? Probably not. Will I be watching every second and suffering along with my beloved Golden Domers? Sadly, I will.

-- Sent from my Palm Prē