A Doomerville too far

 Mid-September in South Bend, Indiana, and the saints already are rending their garments. Saint Lou of Holtz is saying he's scared to death of Rice (again!). Saint Frank of Leahy is moaning, "Oh, lads." And Saint Knute of Rockne is wondering if it's time to make up another story about George Gipp.

Heard the news?

 It's mid-September, and the Fighting Irish of Notre Dame are 0-2.

Lost on the road at Miami. Had two weeks to prepare for their home opener against Texas A&M, and lost again.

This means Domerville is now Doomerville, or something akin. Or maybe it doesn't.

Consider, first of all, that the Irish lost by three on the road against a Miami team that's now ranked fifth by the Associated Press. Consider, also, that they lost by one at home last night to another ranked team when A&M quarterback Marcel Reed threw a touchdown pass on fourth down with 13 seconds to play.

So what does this mean?

It means Notre Dame, at the moment, is not quite as good as it was a year ago. It means the Irish aren't quite as deep in certain places, particularly on defense, and that they're breaking in a redshirt freshman at QB1,and that the combination of the two are going to make it a lot harder to beat teams like Miami and Texas A&M, both of whom brought experienced quarterbacks to the table with Swiss-knife skill sets.

None of this should shock have shocked anyone. But of course it will, because it's Notre Dame, and because the Irish blew two 10-point leads at home last night, and because when you're ranked as high as sixth in the notoriously value-thin preseason polls, you're supposed to be better than that. Also, again, you're Notre Dame.

Except sometimes you're not. Or at least you're not that Notre Dame, the one that rode a crushing ground game and a suffocating defense to the national title game nine months ago.

And so Not That Notre Dame traveled down to Miami, which was waiting with Chip Beck, last seen starting at quarterback for Georgia. And then they came back to Notre Dame Stadium to face 16th-ranked A&M, which had Reed, a sophomore who threw for 1,834 yards and 15 touchdowns and ran for 547 yards and seven sixes last year  as a redshirt freshman.

Last  night, Reed averaged 5.3 yards per carry on seven totes and threw for 360 yards and two scores, including the clutch pitch to tight end Nate Boerkircher to pull out the 41-40 win.

Notre Dame quarterback C.J. Carr, meanwhile, was 20-of-32 for 293 yards and a touchdown to running back Jeremiyah Love, who once again carried the bulk of the offensive load: 94 yards and a touchdown on the ground; four catches for 53 yards and a touchdown as a receiver.

Carr, meanwhile, made some big throws. He also missed a few, and threw a pick. Still, the Irish churned out 23 first downs and 429 total yards, which should have been sufficient for the W had the D been able to stop Reed and Co.

Alas, it couldn't. The Aggies dinged the Irish for 488 total yards, averaging 7.07 per snap. It pushed Notre Dame around up front, where Le'Veon Moss gashed the Irish for 81 yards and three sixes on 20 carries. And the A&M wideouts absolutely flamed the Irish secondary -- particularly Mario Craver (seven catches, 207 yards, one score) and KC Concepcion (four catches, 82 yards).

Conclusion: Notre Dame has enough weapons on offense. It doesn't yet have enough on defense.

Other, less gloomy conclusion: It's still going to be good enough to beat everyone else on its schedule, starting with Purdue next week. USC might give the Irish pause, but the Trojans don't come to South Bend until Oct. 18. Ditto Arkansas on the road in two weeks. Ditto, I don't know, North Carolina or Pitt or Syracuse, none of whom the Irish play until November.

Call this Doomerville a Doomerville too far, in other words. At least right now. Remember, in the meantime, last Sept. 7, when Doomerville was up in arms after the Irish jacked around and lost to Northern Illinois in their 2024 home opener.

Notre Dame never lost again until the national championship game.