How Notre Dame's upset loss impacts their College Football Playoff hopes

After jumpstarting its season with a 23-13 win over Texas A&M at Kyle Field, Notre Dame suffered a stunning Week 2 loss to NIU. On Thursday, Blue and Gold‘s Tyler Horka explained how the loss may affect Notre Dame’s chances to reach the College Football Playoff.

“You got to win out,” Horka said. “The loss is bad and the CFP committee takes that into account. Who have you beaten that’s really good? Maybe who have you lost to that’s not so good? And look, NIU’s ranked now No. 25 in the country. If that holds, maybe this loss isn’t as bad as we would believe. NIU could end up winning the MAC and get into the playoffs themselves.

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“[Marcus Freeman] was in a position last year where Notre Dame had to run the table — it felt like — to try to get into the CFP, and they ended up losing to Louisville pretty early on, and that was over. Now, it feels like you have to run the table with 10 games remaining, and that’s a daunting task.”

In the 16-14 loss, Notre Dame’s offense was lackluster, only amassing 286 total yards while committing two turnovers, both of which were interceptions. The Fighting Irish’s offense wasn’t alone in the blame. Notre Dame’s defense gave up 366 total yards to the Huskies.

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Although Notre Dame’s performance was less than ideal, the Fighting Irish’s season is far from over. The team still has high-level opponents such as No. 19 Louisville, Florida State and No. 11 USC ahead on its schedule.

Nonetheless, Horka knows the Fighting Irish can’t allow themselves to look too far ahead.

“It’s a week-by-week thing for Notre Dame right now, but they can easily get back to a point where they still only have this one loss,” Horka said. “There’s a chance that this team, late in November, is back in the College Football Playoff consideration, but that’s only if it just keeps winning all of its games because I do believe the next loss might be a death punch.

“At the beginning of the season, we were asking ourselves, ‘Is this Notre Dame schedule good enough for the Irish to get into the playoff at 10-2?’ Now that you lost to a team that you thought was a given to beat them, it feels like it’s 11-1 or no College Football Playoff for Notre Dame.”

On Saturday, Notre Dame will look to bounce back in a showdown against Purdue at 3:30 p.m. ET. The game will air live on CBS.