Notre Dame will be lucky to beat Duke

Also from ESPN, summarizing quite well how abysmal the Irish offense is this year. 0-8 seems likely, 0-10 (which would including loses to Navy and Air Force), is possible.

The NCAA rankings are probably enough. When one sees that Notre Dame ranks dead last among 119 Division I-A schools in scoring (4.3 PPG), offensive touchdowns (0), rushing yards (-14), total offense (115.0 YPG) and sacks allowed (23), one can come to the conclusion that the Irish offense is, well, not so good. But a little comparative perspective might be needed to truly appreciate how bad it has been for the Irish.

Perhaps a trip to Charlie Weis' home state of New Jersey would do the trick. That's where you'll find former longtime punching bag, Rutgers University. There was a time -- let's say from around the late 19th century to the early 21st century -- when even uttering the words Notre Dame and Rutgers in the same sentence was rather ridiculous. Then this weekend came along.

Against Norfolk State, the Scarlet Knights scored a Big East-record 42 points on six touchdowns and 277 yards … in the second quarter. As fellow ESPN researcher Adam Reisinger so deftly pointed out, that one quarter of offense sure matches up quite favorably with the 12 quarters of "offense" produced by Notre Dame this season.

Want some more perspective? How about this: On Saturday alone, 17 quarterbacks in Division I-A produced more yards of total offense than the entire Notre Dame offensive unit has put up this season. Ouch."