Script-perfect

 Of course Mario Cristobal thinks his guys got zebra-ed. It's Notre Dame. It's Miami. What would it be if someone's nose didn't wind up out of joint?

It would be Notre Dame-Wake Forest, is what it would be. Or Miami-Wofford. Or some other matchup without history and bad feeling draping it like Spanish moss.

So, yeah, here we came down toward the end last night in amped-up Notre Dame Stadium, and the Hurricanes were comin' on. Down 24-3 in the third quarter, Miami quarterback Darian Mensah finally got his mind right. He started throwing, and Elijah Lofton and Cooper Barkate started catching, and the Miami defense started smacking the Notre Dames in the mouth the way the Notre Dames had been smacking the Hurricanes in the mouth all night, and ...

And suddenly it was 24-17. And then 31-17. And then 31-24.  And Miami was at the Irish 18 with 3:43 left and fourth down coming up.

 Mensah threw to the end zone. Lofton, his big tight end, went up,  grabbed the football in both hands and came down with both feet in bounds. Then, almost instantly, his momentum carried him out of bounds, where Irish defensive back Luke Talich -- a former walk-on, how's that for a storyline? -- smacked the ball out of Lofton's hands.

Incomplete pass. Ball goes over. Notre Dame survives, 31-24, knocking off No. 1 Miami in a game it absolutely, positively had to have, and which will now enter its extensive pantheon of mighty lore-hung Ws.

"Luke Talich did what Luke Talich does," Notre Dame coach Marcus Freeman said.

This being Miami-Notre Dame, of course, his counterpart had a somewhat different take.

"Really, really disappointed that they negated Elijah Lofton's touchdown with two hands on the ball and two feet in bounds," Cristobal said. "I'm pissed off. It's bull****, and I'll leave it at that."

So was it a touchdown?

At the risk of incurring the wrath of the Domer legions, it sure looked like one to me.

Lofton had both hands wrapped around the football. His feet were both on the ground well inbounds. What happened after that, in the Blob's opinion, shouldn't have mattered.

However ...

However, as usual with these deals, what the Blob thinks is irrelevant. And in real time, the play doesn't look nearly as cut-and-dried. Lofton catches the ball, he almost immediately turns, Talich almost as immediately slaps it loose. So ...

So, nothin'. Notre Dame 31, Miami 24 it will be, forever and ever, world without end.

Biggest Irish win in quite a while, given everything. The fact it was against a No. 1, undefeated opponent; the fact it was Miami, with all that history; the fact it was payback of sorts for Miami's win in Miami last season, which pretty much knocked Notre Dame out of the College Football Playoff right out of the gate and elevated Miami, which went on to fall to Indiana in the national championship game.

Oh, yeah. And one more thing: The fact that last night likely sealed a CFP bid for the Irish, who are 8-1 now but who were ranked 11th in the first CFP poll, on account of they'd lost to BYU in the only significant game they'd played this season. 

Pretty much made everything script-perfect. But then, when Miami and Notre Dame play a football game --  hell, when Notre Dame plays any No. 1 team with desperation in the air -- when is it NOT script-perfect?