Notre Dame coach Brian Kelly realizes that his Fighting Irish have to win the rest of their three games on the schedule for a BCS bowl.

Don’t count on it. A major scare against Navy on Saturday showed Notre Dame how vulnerable they are and that winning the next three games to get a 10-2 record to the postseason BCS will not be easy. The Irish made Navy’s offense look much better than it actually is.

Allowing Navy 35 first downs and 331 rushing yards is inexcusable. One can perhaps assume Kelly will have his offense much more ready to play for the rest of this month when it has NCAA-football games at Pittsburgh and Stanford, plus a home test against Brigham Young. All three opponents will be tough and right now, it’s hard to imagine that the Fighting Irish will come out unscathed for the rest of the season.

Tommy Rees remains a talented enough quarterback to help the Irish have a chance to win its next three.

If Notre Dame can regroup from the near disaster against Navy and come back with three wins over impressive opponents, then the Irish deserve to be in the BCS. It’s not that Navy, at 4-4 is the worst team in the country. It’s a team that can’t be taken lightly. But it’s also a team that Notre Dame shouldn’t lose to at home if it wants to be BCS worthy.

Yes, the Irish won and that’s what counts. But Kelly right now can’t be feeling good about his team’s future prospects if the defense plays again like it did against Navy.

 

John Raffel is a writer for www.RantSports.com. Follow him on Twitter  @JohnCarlRaffel, “Like” him on Facebook or add him to your network on Google.

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