All week, I couldn’t shake the thought that Notre Dame was going to win comfortably over Indiana. (And they did. 27-17, final score, and it wasn’t that close.)

It’s not the Hoosiers’ fault. The idea some will probably start trumpeting that IU didn’t belong in this playoff because their schedule was too weak was, in my opinion, mostly silliness. The best at-large team that was left out was, depending on your point of view, 9-3 Alabama or 10-2 Miami. Miami didn’t play anyone either (and probably should’ve been 9-3, maybe even 8-4), and Alabama lost to two mediocre teams the likes of which IU crushed all season. The Hoosiers should’ve been in, full stop.

However, the unavoidable, undeniable problem they faced in this matchup was one Notre Dame fans are familiar with in Playoff matchups: The other team just flat-out had better players at every position.

It did not take very long for that concept to bear fruit.

From there, ND largely controlled the game on the ground and on defense, with an occasional nice pass play mixed in. It didn’t have to be exotic tonight, because it all worked. However, the Irish did pull out a couple of new special teams tricks, running a reverse on the second half’s opening kickoff that helped start a drive in IU territory and tricking Curt Cignetti into wasting a timeout with some fake field goal weirdness.

Some thoughts on ND’s biggest postseason win of my conscious life:

This is a tough program, and especially a tough defense

I haven’t actually looked up to see if anyone else in the playoff is dealing with the injury concerns Notre Dame is, so I won’t say for sure the Irish have the lead in that unfortunate category. I will say that if ND is NOT leading that category, whoever is is damn impressive, because what we are seeing is well past ridiculous at this point.

Rylie Mills, Rocco Spindler and Bryce Young were added to the walking wounded during the victory; their status is unknown at this point. They join a list that includes (and I’m just listing guys who I know are done for the season) two of ND’s best pass rushers, its best cover corner, a projected starting offensive lineman and probably more key guys I’m forgetting. That also doesn’t include guys who were injured for large chunks of the year and are now back.

And basically none of that mattered, because the newly-extended Marcus Freeman has built a tough program. No way the Notre Dame of 2018 and 2020 survives that kind of rotten injury luck. Heck, we know the ’18 team didn’t; it only took one cornerback getting hurt for Clemson to junk whatever its game plan was and target his replacement over and over and over again for touchdowns.

This group, particularly the defense, just keeps burying teams. IU was basically never able to do much on offense – they averaged 2.3 yards per carry – until the late stages, which didn’t technically count as garbage time but certainly wasn’t NOT garbage time. Kurtis Rourke is not particularly mobile, and that proved to be an issue against a ND pass rush that did a very good job getting home throughout most of the game.

Riley Leonard

It again was not a game full of dimes and exceptionally pretty stats from the quarterback. That’s not his game and almost certainly never will be. But it was damn effective. He completed 23-of-32 – and probably should’ve had a couple of more – and included some clutch third-down conversions. Leonard wasn’t a big factor in the run game this time, with only 30 yards, but his mobility was an asset again at a few key moments.

And while the stakes weren’t particularly high by the time he made his deep throw to Jordan Faison to precede ND’s final touchdown, it was probably his most impressive play of the season all things considered. There’s no way in hell he makes that throw in September. He’s a different guy now.

If you haven’t read Riley’s Players Tribune essay, do yourself a favor. It’s longer than it needs to be, but it’s full of good anecdotes. Leave it to him to sum up what we all love about our head coach in one sentence: “He makes you feel like you’re not playing for him, you’re playing with him.”

(And a tip of the cap to Faison, the day’s top receiver for both sides. I’m not sure he’s ever looked quite like the guy from the second half of last season, and to whatever extent that’s true we can blame the high ankle sprain from the Texas A&M game, but he made several really nice plays tonight, and he’ll absolutely be needed going forward.)

A statement program win

While I, as mentioned above, was not a fan of Sean McDonough’s “gee, I don’t know if IU should’ve been here” routine towards the end of the game – we’ve been there, Hoosier bros, trust me – it was sure nice to be on the other side of that discussion for once. Notre Dame was a physical, overpowering, dominant football team Friday night, and they left no doubt. But for IU’s window-dressing scores at the end of the game, it was every bit as dominant a win over them as Ohio State administered in November, and there were no terrible punt snaps or blatantly self-inflicted wounds needed for this one.

Too much cyber-ink has been spilled about the previous Notre Dame coach and comparisons to Marcus Freeman. This is Freeman’s program now, and it has been for some time. He just delivered ND’s first CFP win, and its biggest postseason win in 31 years. And he did it decisively. Only the clowniest of clowns on the Internet is skeptical of Notre Dame’s place in college football now.

(This is where I weigh in on the “Curt Cignetti is kind of a gasbag” conversation that is starting to pop around a bit. It is definitely more than a little annoying, just from a football fan perspective that he coached like a doofus at times Friday after popping off with the “we beat the s— out of Top 25 teams” comment on GameDay – there was simply no acceptable explanation for punting the football early in the fourth quarter already down 17 – but I really don’t care if he’s mouthy. It’s not really my cup of tea, but he’s coaching a program that has no history of success to lean on. I think programs like that need guys who maybe come off as gasbags sometimes to imbue some confidence into the fan base. Hopefully, IU is back in the playoff sooner than later.)

We have a kicker again!

Mitch Jeter needs to kick the ball higher, but him drilling that 49-yard field goal late in the first half was such a load off. It was easy to tell how much that moment meant to both Jeter and Marcus Freeman by their celebrations.

He’s probably still not the automatic guy ND thought it was getting – see the block – but at some point ND is probably going to need him to drill a clutch kick late in a game, and there’s evidence again that he can do it.

Three more

The friends in the desert have installed Georgia as slight favorites – by a point – in the Sugar Bowl. I hope we hear some good injury news before then, because ND may need it in order to win.

Georgia is as talented as any team in the country, whether the Bulldogs have their starting quarterback or not. I don’t know if Notre Dame will win.

But the great thing is, there is really no legitimate reason at all to think they can’t.

Hope is a good thing. Maybe the best of things. See you on New Year’s night.