Paul Finebaum: Notre Dame has 'chance to recover' after shocking loss to Northern Illinois

Northern Illinois went into South Bend and stunned Notre Dame on Saturday, giving the Irish their first loss of the season. It’s a loss that would have ended Notre Dame’s hopes to make the College Football Playoff in the four-team era, but that may not be the case anymore.

As Paul Finebaum explained on SportsCenter, while the loss to Northern Illinois wasn’t ideal, the Irish still have the ability to recover from it this season.

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“This is more about Northern Illinois than Notre Dame,” Finebaum said. “You can’t be any more despondent if you’re an Irish fan all over the country today. You just went into College Station and beat a respectable team, but this is not as bad as some of the other losses under Marcus Freeman. I think they have a chance to recover from this if they can find some offense.”

In the loss, the Irish struggled on offense, in particular. Notre Dame gained just 286 yards on the game while converting just three of 10 third downs. In the end, Notre Dame scored just 14 points in the loss.

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Despite those struggles, Finebaum does believe that Notre Dame is going to be able to bounce back from the game.

“I do, and I think what Trevor [Matich] said about Riley Leonard, it’s still early. Now, again, I realize he’s been around for years at Duke. This isn’t his first game out of high school. But I just think this is a hangover effect. Sometimes, you come off a huge win like this and you’re just not on all cylinders. This happened a couple years ago to Notre Dame against Marshall,” Finebaum said.

“The most interesting part, and I know fans are tired of hearing about this Playoff, but you have to listen, if this had been last year, Notre Dame could not recover from a loss like this. They can recover. They don’t have a lot of wiggle room but they could conceivably lose one more game and still make the Playoff. Their season by no means is over. They’re in better shape than some of the other teams that have already been upset this year.”

Notre Dame is going to look to bounce back quickly and re-establish itself among the top teams in the country. That starts next week when the Irish make a road trip to Purdue.