Notre Dame football is starting to look more like Notre Dame football

SOUTH BEND − They’re right there where they need to be, where they hoped to be, where the No. 14 Notre Dame football team had to be.

No amount of wondering will erase one dumbfounding day against Northern Illinois. It's going to remain deep in the background of whatever comes for this group for the rest of this regular season. It lingers at times. It stings at others. It serves as a season-long reminder of what might have been for an Irish outfit that was built to win and win big this season. College Football Playoff big.

Whether that stays on the table is something nobody can answer. Not as October arrives. Not as November nears. Nobody has a clue what these final seven games have in store for coach Marcus Freeman and company. Thanks to Northern Illinois, that’s out of their control.

What can the Irish control? That’s as simple as blocking and tackling and scoring touchdowns and coming up with big plays on defense. Notre Dame, as coach speak goes, controls only what it can control. For these Irish, for this season, that’s winning. Prepare as if their collective lives depend on it during the week, then go into another Saturday and turn it all loose. Block and tackle. Make plays in the run game. The pass game. On defense. Make special teams again special. They haven’t been.

Deliver four quarters of focused and fundamental football and tally another notch in the win column before doing it all again the next week and the next and the next.

Like Saturday at home against No. 17 Louisville (3-1). It started about as poorly as it could for those guys in the green jerseys, who fumbled the opening kickoff and found themselves down 7-0 barely 90 seconds in. A team less certain, a team more shaky than solid, may have allowed that failure to fester. That 7-0 deficit grows to 10-0 or jumps to 14-0 and then, everything else from the starting quarterback’s job to the head coach’s ability to head coach – goes up for grabs.

That wasn’t Notre Dame on Saturday. The Irish stared down early adversity and offered answers. That Irish offense looked and felt and played like the Irish offense we thought we’d see since August. That defense? How many superlatives can we lob in the direction of coordinator Al Golden’s group? Guys go down with injuries, some minor, some major and others step in and deliver. That group did it again Saturday. New faces in new places played like old guys. Played like the Irish had to have this one.

Notre Dame got it, 31-24. That’s growth. That’s progress. That’s potential.

“You find a way to get it done when it mattered most,” Freeman said. “We found a way.”

Saturday wasn’t perfect. Notre Dame lost its patent on perfection when it lost that first game. Perfect’s again a myth for this program. It now must be good enough to still chase perfection, or some form of it. Perfect now is 11-1.

After Saturday, that’s still in play. Doesn’t mean they’re going to get there. Doesn’t mean they’re not. That’s college football. Win and reevaluate and move on and do it all again in a week. For the Irish, make that two.

Notre Dame needs this bye week in a bad way. To get healthy. To get the starting quarterback out on the golf course (he was kidding, we think). To get the psyches (of players and coaches) right. To get ready for what’s coming, when only winning matters.

It didn’t matter how Notre Dame did it Saturday, it had to win a third consecutive game and get to 4-1. It had to get to the bye week feeling buoyed. Now it must get into the trainer’s room and get some guys healthy because when all this gets back on track in a week, it must look a lot different.

If Notre Dame is indeed CFP-worthy, it better look like it did earlier this month in West Lafayette. It better look like it did at times against Miami (Ohio). It must look like it did in Saturday’s first quarter, when the Irish erupted for three scores – boom, boom, boom – in a scary 4:42 stretch.

That’s what this Irish offense should look like. What Riley Leonard should look like. What those game-breaking wide receivers should look like. What Jeremiyah Love should look like. Well, really what Love has looked like from the season’s start. He just keeps on keeping on. Offense sputters? Quarterback struggles? Give it to No. 4 and all is well.

It cannot be underestimated – or understated – what a confidence boost Saturday should be for this program this season. For this coaching staff. For this stretch run. Seven games to go with another bye thrown in for good measure in November. Notre Dame is 4-1. Notre Dame is getting better.

“We’re starting to roll,” Leonard said. “We’ve got a lot of potential.”

“I think we’re in a good spot,” said safety Xavier Watts.

Notre Dame can salvage this season, but only if it gets better coming clear of this one. Get some treatment, get some rest, get the minds right and get this season going back in the direction it was headed when everything opened with such promise and prosperity deep in the heart of Texas over Labor Day Weekend.

This program can do that again. This program can be that again.

Let’s see it, but after the break.

The Irish need one. We all need one.

Follow South Bend Tribune and NDInsider columnist Tom Noie on Twitter: @tnoieNDI. Contact: (574) 235-6153.

This article originally appeared on South Bend Tribune: Notre Dame football must move foward getting what it got Saturday - a win