That good feeling Irish fans got out of the win over Michigan on Sept. 1, was blown away last week when the Irish struggled against a 34-point underdog Ball State team. The Irish won, 24-16, and that is about all you could say about the performance of Notre Dame. The only bright spots were on the Irish defense, which set up two of ND’s three touchdowns and rose to the occasion at several points in the game, especially in the second half, when Ball State was in a position to possibly pull off a major upset.

The Irish offense was the biggest disappointment of the day, as quarterback Brandon Wimbush looked anything but ready to turn the corner and be the leader ND needs so badly. Wimbush, in my view, had a horrible game. Although he few for a career-high 297 yards on 17-of-31 passing, he also had three interceptions and a lot of missed receivers and some bad decisions when being rushed by the Ball State defense.

Brian Kelly stayed with Wimbush for the entire game, despite having backup Ian Book warming up at the start of the second half.

Defensively, Te’von Coney had an outstanding afternoon with 14 tackles, three off his career high. That total included three tackles for losses. Drue Tranquill had nine tackles, one for a loss, and also had Ball State QB Riley Neal hurry a throw that was intercepted by Jalen Elliott. Elliott had a good day, finishing with two interceptions. Those interceptions eventually led to touchdown runs by Tony Jones Jr.

The Irish offense was so bad that when they took over possession of the ball at their own 28 with 4:50 left in the game following a missed field goal by the Cardinals, ND moved the ball only two yards and only ran off less than a minute of game time.

Talk of ND going into the Sept. 29 game with Stanford undefeated is now just that, talk. ND faces a tough road ahead with Vanderbilt today and at Wake Forest next week. Suddenly, those games appear to be toss-ups. More on the game later.

Today the Irish and Commodores meet for only the third time. Vanderbilt opened with a win over Tennessee State, 35-7, and won last week, 41-10, over Nevada, for a 2-0 start. ND and Vanderbilt last played back-to-back games in 1995-96, with ND winning both, 41-0 in ‘95, and 14-7 in ‘96.

The start time today is an hour earlier than last week. The kickoff is set for 2:40 p.m. (not 3:40 p.m. like last week), and will be nationally televised by NBC-TV.

IRISH NOTES: Ball State outrushed the Irish, 169-117, in a game that was supposed to be a blowout. In fact, before the game, the South Bend press was saying the game was going to give Kelly and his staff a chance to play a lot of freshmen to see what they could do. With the new NCAA redshirt rule that freshmen can play in up to four games without losing a year of eligibility, it was thought ND would take advantage of that rule. In the Michigan opener, ND used five freshmen. Last week two more were used, a number well below what was anticipated ... Some game stats: Jafa Armstrong rushed for 66 yards on 13 carries and a TD, while Tony Jones Jr. had 61 on 13 and two scores; and Wimbush had minus 11. Receiving, Miles Boykon had six catches for 119 yards; and Armstrong three for 61. Justin Yoon missed a 43-yard-field goal, but made a 46-yarder. We already mentioned the defensive leaders in Coney and Tranquill. Alohi Gilman also had 9 tackles ... The Commodores have not finished better than 6-7 since 2013 ... Junior cornerback Julian Lover had four pass breakups last week that moved him ahead of Cole Luke and Shane Walton and into a tie for third with 27 along with Luther Bradley on the ND career list ... Ball State ran 97 offensive plays last week, the most against a Kelly team ... Yoon’s field goal and three extra points moved him ahead of running back coach Autry Denson for fourth place on ND’s all-time scoring list. Yoon has 287 career points ... Ball State receives $1.1 million in compensation from ND for playing last week in South Bend, and agreeing to no return game in Muncie, Indiana ... The stated time for next week’s game in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, against Wake Forest has been set for noon and will be televised by ABC-TV ... A lot of blame for last week’s offensive performance has been placed at the feet of Wimbush, but upon further review, I must say the offensive line deserves just as much blame. The running attack was almost nonexistent for most of the game, and the line’s failure to protect Wimbush on passing situations also was a big negative factor ... South Bend Tribune notes that ND, and in particular Kelly, has not had great outings after winning a “big game” like the Michigan opener. ND has either struggled or been upset by teams in which they were favored following a notable win ... On the injury front, backup rover linebacker Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah suffered a broken foot in practice this week and will be lost for the season. That puts ND in a spot, as experienced linebackers are not available. Sophomore tight end Cole Kmet, a co-starter with senior Alizé Mack, will miss today’s game with a high ankle sprain that he suffered against Ball State ... TE Nic Weishar has been selected to the Allstate AFCA Good Works Team, one of 11 players in the FBS so honored for “extraordinary commitment to making a lasting impact off the field.” Weishar and his family started The Andrew Weishar Foundation, which was created to honor the memory of Andrew Weishar and his legacy of helping others to live with faith, courage and strength. Andrew, an older brother of Nic’s, died of cancer in October of 2012 ... As I mentioned above. today’s game has a 2:30 p.m. start. ND’s home game with Pitt will also start at 2:30 p.m., as will the Shamrock series game with Syracuse in New York City. The remaining homes games with Stanford and Florida State have 7:30 p.m. starts. It is believed ND requested the earlier start for the games, and NBC agreed ... In my preseason picks, I have the Irish winning today. But after last week’s horrible showing, my confidence in a win today is shaken a bit. ND is a 14-point favorite. Look for it to be close for three quarters, before ND pulls ahead to secure the win.