Early CFP Chaos: Northern Illinois Went Into Notre Dame Stadium and Stunned the No. 5 Irish

Wow.

I have to admit, I'm one of the people that was beating the Notre Dame drum coming into this year. I had the Irish going 12-0 before the season started and felt even more strongly about that after they went into Kyle Field and took care of Texas A&M. So much for that.

The ND defense did its job for the most part up until NIU's final drive, but the offense was just never able to get anything going. The Fighting Irish were outgained by the Huskies by more than 100 yards, turned the ball over twice to NIU's none and only managed three third down conversions. The offense didn't look incredible against the Aggies in Week 1, but you can obviously explain that a bit better, particularly when you lead a game-winning drive on the road.

I'm stunned by this result, though I guess I probably shouldn't be. Marcus Freeman lost to Marshall at home in his first season and now pulled this stunt with a team that seemed poised to have a relative cakewalk into the College Football Playoff. Maybe this is just something that's going to keep happening to Notre Dame.

As for the Irish's CFP hopes, 11-1 definitely gets ND in, but now with no room for error and some obvious flaws, I'm not sure how confident I am that the Irish make it through the rest of the year without another loss.

Tough scenes.