The Notre Dame Fighting Irish flirted with heartbreak yet again, but last-minute heroics by Sam Hartman and Audric Estime helped them pull out a season-saving win against the Duke Blue Devils. Immediately reflecting upon this game, I (like my OFD colleague Hayden Adams) immediately thought of the 2019 and 2021 games against the Virginia Tech Hokies, both of which saw an Irish team coming off a crushing loss take the field against not only a game ACC opponent, but their own demons from the previous week.
As they did in those seasons, the Irish managed to triumph on Saturday night in Durham, and one can only hope that winning has a similar effect now as it did in those seasons, where the painful win was succeeded by a perfect remainder of the regular season.