Notre Dame vs NC State: What Should Concern Irish Fans?

Notre Dame cannot look ahead to USC

Plenty of Notre Dame fans and media, myself included, are thinking and talking about Notre Dame's matchup with USC that comes next week in South Bend. While there's nothing wrong with Irish fans and media doing this, I sure hope the team has its focus on the task at hand this week.

Marcus Freeman and his program must be mature enough to stay in the moment and focus fully on the Wolfpack or the USC game everyone is thinking so much about may not carry the same CFP weight it looks like it might should Notre Dame win this week.

Do you fully trust the Notre Dame defense?

After the first couple of awful defensive performances to start this season, all that could be asked for moving forward was incremental improvements from Notre Dame's defense. To Chris Ash and his unit's credit, the Irish defense has done more than that.

After surrendering a whopping 41 points to Texas A&M, the Irish have allowed 50 total points in the last three games combined. The Notre Dame defense seems to have found its footing and has been playing much better football lately.

While Notre Dame has begun to gain back some defensive credibility it lost early in the season, I'm not fully sold that the Irish defense is "back". I'm still scarred by some of what took place just a few weeks ago and need to see more good defense against NC State and USC to start buying back in heavily.

Slow starts allow teams to hang around

For whatever reason, Notre Dame has a history of slow starts in afternoon home games against mid to low-tier opponents. This is very dangerous.

The one thing the Irish cannot give an opponent like this is hope. The longer a team stays in a close game in Notre Dame Stadium, the more likely it is that a bad outcome may take place.

Notre Dame must get off to a fast start and shut down any NC State hope of an upset early. Games like this can be tough to get up for as the home team, and Notre Dame cannot afford to play this dangerous game.

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