Your Notre Dame Fighting Irish are, remarkably, still 2-0 after surviving a hideous home opener against the Toledo Rockets. The Irish offense, which spent most of the day hemming and hawing about whether it even wanted to play football, trailed inside of two minutes before finally bearing down. Jack Coan executed an efficient final drive and found Michael Mayer for the go-ahead touchdown, and a J.D. Bertrand fumble recovery sealed the deal. And there was much rejoicing.
If week one’s narrow escape felt exactly like Notre Dame’s 2016 loss to the Texas Longhorns, this one was tracking almost as closely with the 2014 loss to the Northwestern Wildcats.