The Notre Dame Fighting Irish have had a brutal turn of luck to open the season. From being a top-five ranked team, the Irish have fallen a long way after two losses to ranked teams. They've played a really hard schedule and lost by four combined points, but that still sets them way back.
Unfortunately, as an independent team without a conference, this now puts them way behind the eight-ball. In fact, Joel Klatt believes it will take an undefeated run the rest of the way to even have a shot at the playoffs.
"Are they done? Is Notre Dame's season over? Can they get to the playoffs?" Klatt asked. Without a conference title to play for, the only thing Notre Dame can possibly strive for is the College Football Playoff, and that's now just out of reach.
Klatt isn't quite ready to bury them, though. He said they were two last-minute losses to "two really good teams," so it's hard to think Notre Dame doesn't have it in them to get back into the race. "So is Notre Dame done? The answer is no. The problem for Notre Dame is that there's no margin whatsoever."
9-3 isn't going to get it done, especially without two signature wins they could've had in the first two weeks as well as what's left on the schedule. The first two weeks were Notre Dame's chance to really establish their candidacy, and they missed that chance.
"They do have to run the table," the analyst went on. "They're going to have to run out 10 straight victories." He also noted that the schedule is soft enough to think 10 wins in a row is feasible, but they won't get a chance to beat any "real, marquee teams" to convince the committee they should be in the CFP.