Sure, we could be measured in discussing today’s 42-3 Notre Dame victory in Dublin, the opener of the most-hyped Irish team in some time. But what fun would that be?

Why not dream big?

All the usual caveats apply about a game against a much less talented opponent. Nevertheless, there was a whole heck of a lot to like.

Sam Hartman was as advertised

It wasn’t just that Hartman was on point in his Notre Dame debut, though he was. (19/23, 251 yards, 4 TD – and one of the four incompletions was a straight-up drop.) It was that he was never in anything less than complete command of the proceedings.

Free rushers? Step one way, step the other, find the open guy. Blitz? Who’s the first guy I can find? Is he open? Yep. Ball’s out.

For a fan base that spent so much of last year watching Drew Pyne be so unsure of himself, watching a quarterback that just always seems to know what to do was quite a pleasure.

The clear highlight was when Hartman got out of the pocket, raced for the line of scrimmage to draw up the secondary, then flipped to a wide open Jaden Greathouse for the latter’s second touchdown catch of the game.

His later TD to Deion Colzie, another one of those blitz-attackers, was less highlight-worthy but maybe equally impressive a play. A QB that effective at countering an opponent’s moves on defense will be tough for anyone to outmatch.

Offensive line shines

Last year’s second half against Navy was a horror show, with only one first down achieved. This year’s team, breaking in new players on the interior, had no issues. ND caved in the Midshipmen front time and time again. The couple of times they didn’t, Hartman was there to bail them out. That’s team football.

Run blocking was pretty tremendous too. One early play saw Zeke Correll simply throw his Navy counterpart out of the way. Textbook technique? Maybe not. But quite effective.

Talent and depth

I received a text from my mom after ND went ahead 28-0, which read, “You know what I love? Four different players have scored TDs.”

Besides being a far more insightful comment than anything Jason Garrett said in the booth, it was an undeniably positive sign. I’d add that two of those four players were freshmen – Jadarian Price and Jaden Greathouse. We’ve heard great things about both of them for a long time now, especially Price, and both players delivered.

And in addition to those two, we saw Jeremiyah Love do some cool stuff (and holy crap does he look like a brick house), Joshua Burnham get a sack, and Gi’Bran Payne look the part of a solid #2 back. While the recruiting jolt hasn’t been quite what ND fans had hoped when Marcus Freeman took over the job, the Blue Chip Ratio of the team has undeniably increased under his watch, and the Irish are starting to see the results.

A strong team defense

Navy results are, almost uniformly, not transferable to other games, but as you’d expect in a game when a Surrender Field Goal (TM Dino Babers) provided the only opponent points, the Irish defense was solid. The Midshipmen had their share of frustratingly effective gains, but not a single game-breaking run was among them. And when ND needed stops, they got them. Navy ended up with only 171 total offensive yards and 12 first downs.

You can’t ask for any more than that from a Navy game.

Three more to Ohio State

Much has been made of how the Irish, unlike pretty much every other season of our lives, are in a situation where there is effectively no excuse to lose the first four games. (All due apologies to NC State, a game that, for the record, still scares the bejesus out of me.) One down.

In a Week Zero, cross-the-ocean, tons-of-potential-distractions type of matchup, the Irish were all business. That bodes well for the other three games that now sit between Notre Dame and the titanic clash against the Buckeyes Sept. 23.

ND will be an underdog that day. But why not dream big?