Notre Dame’s 24-17 Win Over Michigan Was Perfect With Imperfections

It’s already been a late night, but I have one quick thing to pass on before we all overanalyze the 24-17 Notre Dame Fighting Irish win over the Michigan Wolverines over the next few days. Notre Dame just won a big game at night against a ranked opponent. Call it any way you want — but don’t shrug your shoulders.

For most of the offseason, we have discussed the 2018 season with a major emphasis on playing Michigan. It was reported by just about every news outlet within shouting distance of the internet, that the Wolverines had one of the best — if not THE best defense in the country. It was unquestionable.

Once Shea Patterson became eligible to pay this season at Michigan, he too got the same type of treatment that the Michigan defense received. All of a sudden, Patterson was the savior and a major player for the Heisman. People couldn’t stop themselves from throwing heaps of praise his way.

So, was Notre Dame THAT good tonight, or was Michigan completely and utterly overrated?

The answer is that it’s a little bit of both. Notre Dame wasn’t perfect tonight. Many believed that they were going to have to be perfect to beat Michigan, and yet... here we are. A perfect 24-17 win with a thousand imperfections.

Brandon Wimbush exemplifies that sentiment “perfectly.” With all of the struggles that he had last year, and with the many doubts that were hanging around during the month of August, he played a perfect game. It was the perfect game to win a football game. He made all the throws he struggled with last year, and he missed some of the throws as well. The point is that Notre Dame gameplanned for what Wimbush does, and that resulted in a win.

How perfect is that?

Brandon was 12-22 for 170 yards with a touchdown and interception each (77 yards rushing). His counterpart wearing white was 20-30 for 227 yards and 1 interception (-21 yards rushing). Patterson was supposed to make a name for himself tonight, while many were expecting Wimbush’s to disappear. Neither happened — how perfect is that?

It was football game. There are no football games that are perfect throughout, but there are many that end up being perfect because of the final outcome. This was one of those games.

There is something to be said about all of that, but unfortunately, we are still 4 weeks away from really knowing what kind of team both Michigan and Notre Dame can and should be this season. It’s an imperfect judgement right now, on what was a perfect night.