Areas Where Notre Dame Must Improve: Week 2 vs. Northern Illinois

The Irish are not a finished product. Even after the win over Texas A&M, there are plenty of areas to improve.

Aug 31, 2024; College Station, Texas, USA; Notre Dame Fighting Irish quarterback Riley Leonard (13) throws a pass under pressure from Texas A&M Aggies quarterback Conner Weigman (15) during the first quarter at Kyle Field. Mandatory Credit: Maria Lysaker-Imagn Images / Maria Lysaker-Imagn Images

Notre Dame got a huge win over the Aggies, but there's still work to be done

Notre Dame picked up its biggest win of the Marcus Freeman era last Saturday in its upset win over the favored Texas A&M Aggies in College Station. This win is exactly what Freeman and the program needed to create momentum on the field and on the recruiting trail.

The Irish had a game plan vs the Aggies, executed it wonderfully, and walked away with a hard-fought, perception-shifting win.

But there's still work to be done.

Notre Dame is not a finished product and has many areas of the team it needs to continue improving if it'll have true expectations of making a deep CFP run.

I wrote an article yesterday claiming that if Notre Dame is a legitimate Top 5 team as the AP Poll suggests, it should win by 40.

Vegas has Notre Dame as a -28.5 favorite and -10000 ML favorite.

Apologies to the NIU fans that I offended for suggesting this will not be close pic.twitter.com/QjvjLyXcaO

— Mason (@MasonPlummer_) September 4, 2024

NIU Provides Opportunity For Growth With Less Pressure

The Irish cannot take NIU lightly.

They are always a target and always get every team's best shot. That being said, this game is against a much less skilled roster and is in the friendly comforts of Notre Dame Stadium.

This provides the Irish plenty of opportunities to get better as a team without feeling as though anything less than perfection on any given snap could end in a loss.

Notre Dame's offensive line simply needs to play more snaps together. The more it does that, the better it wll will get as a unit. It's that simple.

Tangentially related to this is the Irish passing game. Deep passes were not on the menu last week due to the Aggies' relentless defensive front.

This week is a different story, and it'd be nice to see Riley Leonard open things up downfield against the Huskies to pair up with another relentless defensive performance from Al Golden's electric unit.

If Notre Dame can do these things in route to becoming 2-0, it'll be deemed another successful week.

NIU Head Coach Thomas Hammock's Mad Respect for Marcus Freeman, Notre Dame

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