Lullaby in Louisville

 Sunday morning, and guess what time it is, boys and girls?

(At least in some precincts)

It's time to rev up the Notre Dame-Ain't-Nothin' Mobile and get that puppy rollin'.

It's time to haul out all the old favorites ("Typical Notre Dame, always overrated" ... "Notre Dame's the most over-hyped program in the country"), because the Irish flat-out got flattened in Louisville last night. Lost 33-20, and the only reason it wasn't 33-13 is because Sam Hartman threw a garbage-time touchdown pass to Mitchell Evans with 1:35 left.

By that time, the game was over. Hartman had committed five turnovers -- two lost fumbles and three picks. The usually robust Irish ground game had been squashed, mustering a puny 44 yards and 1.6 yards per rush. And a Louisville running back named Jawhar Jordan had left treadmarks all over the heretofore stout Notre Dame defense, rambling for 143 yards and two scores and averaging just shy of seven yards per carry.

In short, Notre Dame didn't look anything like the 10th-ranked team in the country. That would have been 25th-ranked Louisville, now 6-0.

The Irish are 5-2 now, and looking down the barrel of 5-3 when USC comes to town next week (although the Trojans barely survived Arizona in three overtimes last night). So, yeah, haul out the overrateds and over-hypeds. Might actually be legit this time.

Or ...

Or,  the Irish just didn't show up last night, for maybe the same reason USC didn't show up in L.A.

Maybe they were looking ahead. Maybe.

I say this because I didn't see remotely the same football team I saw against Ohio State, and Ohio State is presumably a better football team than Louisville. The defense that played so well against the Buckeyes for so long got pushed around like a stroller. The offensive front that provided all that push for Audric Estime -- aka, the Baby Bus -- and his pals couldn't move a footstool; Estime finished with 20 yards on 10 carries. And Hartman was sacked five times.

Oh, and then there were those five turnovers. Where was the Hartman who didn't commit a turnover against the Buckeyes, and who engineered a 96-yard go-ahead drive in the fourth quarter? Or the Hartman whose fourth-down, 17-yard scramble for a first down saved Notre Dame at Duke last week?

Either those were a mirage or last night was. Either the Irish defense that held Ohio State to 14 points and 126 rushing yards was a false front, or the defense that was a screen door for Jordan and Co. was.

I'm picking the latter in both instances. 

I'm thinking what I saw last night was a football team taking a nap in prime time on national TV.

You've heard of "Sleepless in Seattle"?

 This was the Lullaby in Louisville.

And I guess the only thing you can say about that, with USC coming, is this: At least they'll be well-rested.