Notre Dame takes a hit after upset loss to Northern Illinois in home opener

SOUTH BEND − Hold on tight and pray. Hold on tight and breathe. Hold on tight and don't let go.

The Irish let go.

Nowhere was any of that expected for Notre Dame, who is ranked No. 7 in the US LBM Coaches Poll, but that’s what we got Saturday at home against Northern Illinois. Just when you think you know this Irish program, you don’t know.

This one was supposed to be easy. Supposed to be a breeze. Supposed to be a day when a lot of Irish got in the game. No one saw Northern Illinois 16, Notre Dame 14 coming. That’s what we got. That’s what the Irish deserved.

Allowing Northern Illinois' Kanon Woodill to kick a 35-yard field goal with 31 seconds remaining in this one was a kick right to you-know-where for Notre Dame. Truth be told, the Irish didn't do enough to deserve this one. Northern Illinois went and took it.

There’s too much money wrapped up in this roster — with the players, with the head coach, with the coordinators, with the support staff, with everything — to watch what we watched in Saturday’s first half, then at times in the second.  Turns out money indeed can’t buy happiness. Or pave a seemingly clear path to the College Football Playoff. Just when you think Notre Dame is good and right and back where it belongs, Saturday happens.

Want some disappointment with that Saturday dinner?

Notre Dame elite? That was a nice storyline for a week. Maybe again in October. Or November. Step away from the national spotlight and get better, if better is possible.

Someone somewhere had to tell somebody somewhere else to start the halftime promo on the videoboard as soon as possible. Like, NOW! Doing so helped drown out many of the boos that followed the Irish off the field, up the tunnel and into the locker room.

They were warranted. What the #$%&$ was that that we watched in that first half? From that team? After the opener at Texas A&M to play like that? Whatever the standard of that squad is, it wasn’t close to being met early. Question is, would it be late?

Whatever those first two quarters were, that wasn’t the fifth-ranked team in the country. Not even the 35th-ranked team in the country. It was uninspired football. Dubious defense. Awful offense. That the first half ended with Northern Illinois blocking a 48-yard Mitch Jeter field goal attempt was fitting.

And to think that Notre Dame looked like it would roll through its home opener after going 75 yards in 13 plays on the day’s opening drive. It felt like it was going to be one of those days when Notre Dame was going to score a lot of points and get a lot of players some snaps.

By halftime, that notion and that drive — Notre Dame’s only freaking points before half — seemed like a week ago. It got late early for the Irish. An enjoyable day, for sure, but not a nice product on the football field. Hey, at least the bookstore made some money, right?

Northern Illinois dominated the rest of the early going. It wasn’t that the Huskies took a 13-7 lead at intermission, but it was the way the Huskies did it. With big plays on offense. With determined defense. With everything on the field that Notre Dame was expected to be. Northern Illinois ripped off offensive plays of 83, 28 and 43 yards. The Irish were lucky to trail 13-7. It should’ve been 21-7.

Notre Dame couldn’t figure out how to sustain any success. Defensive end Boubacar Traore would drop Huskies back Antario Brown for a one-yard loss deep in NIU territory late in the first half, only to let Brown get it all back — and get another first down — with an 11-yard run on the next play.

What could Brown do for the Huskies? Anything. Everything. He was a problem all day.

For the second straight game, we were left to wonder early about the Irish defense. Like, who were those guys? Northern Illinois opened the day with its first drive from its own 2. Safety, many predicted upstairs in the press box. Ninety-eight yards later, it was a tie game. The Huskies racked up 218 yards in the first half. Most of those seemed effortless.

Whispers of 2022 (Marshall) grew louder as this game got deeper. Nobody saw that one coming. We should’ve all seen this one. Anticipated it. Expected it. Then watched the Irish sidestep it. This was supposed to be a more experienced, more veteran Irish team and coaching staff.

Notre Dame football is never not interesting, something we’ve learned only two weeks in. What will next week bring?

Won’t be boring. Maybe we need boring.

This article originally appeared on South Bend Tribune: Northern Illinois upsets Notre Dame: This wasn't supposed to happen