Why This Is the Most Important Week of the 2024 Season for Notre Dame Football

Notre Dame's College Football Playoff life hangs in the balance vs Louisville

Sep 21, 2024; South Bend, Indiana, USA; Notre Dame Fighting Irish head coach Marcus Freeman leads his team onto the field for the game against the Miami Redhawks at Notre Dame Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Matt Cashore-Imagn Images / Matt Cashore-Imagn Images

Notre Dame's back is against the wall before the calendar even reaches October

When Notre Dame slept walked through its home opener against Northern Illinois and lost the game, things changed, and drastically so.

In a few short hours, Notre Dame went from a top five team in the country with one of the best wins of the early year with the inside path to hosting a playoff game to being put in a position to have to win every game the rest of the year to be assured CFP access.

Such is life in college football. Every game matters. Results like this are why games are played on a field and not on paper or simply thorough roster recruiting comparisons.

Notre Dame had a game of leeway to play with to still be considered in a good CFP position. But that game couldn't be the NIU game. That's the issue. Who this loss was to has changed the calculus.

Notre Dame will be playing with urgency on Saturday. Louisville realistically could be the only ranked team they get at home all year, and with a loss already, the margin for error to make the CFP is slim. I asked Jeff Brohm what he expects out of the Irish. To him, it's simple:… pic.twitter.com/OdhGYe7pzj

— Mason Horodyski (@MasonHorodyski) September 23, 2024

Every game Notre Dame plays now is a playoff game

Due to Notre Dame's loss being in Week 2 and to Northern Illinois, the Irish must win the rest of their games to guarantee a playoff spot, and even if 11-1 is the final record, I do not believe Notre Dame would get a home game in Round One seed due to the Northern Illinois loss. A tough road game awaits against a very talented opponent.

Notre Dame allowed this extra pressure to need to be perfect to be placed upon itself. The only way out now is to win one game a week.

That's all that can be done. This week's test is a Louisville team that ended Notre Dame's CFP dreams last season in impressive fashion under the leadership of an underappreciated coach Brohm who will not be afraid of Notre Dame or Notre Dame Stadium.

Notre Dame got itself into this mess, now it must win its way out. One week at a time. Pretty or ugly. "Just win baby". If it wins this week?

A welcomed bye and CFP dreams that still exist are awaiting. And if it doesn't? Irish nation will have to grapple with the brutal realization that CFP dreams have likely been dashed well before Halloween for yet another year.

Spooky indeed.

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