Notre Dame's dominance of the Navy shows how the Irish have evolved since the upheaval in northern Illinois

EAST RUTHERFORD, NJ – Marcus Freeman always recoiled at the mention of Northern Illinois, seemingly offended that no one could miss the defining moment of his defining third season. The light in Freeman's eyes dimmed a little as questions arose about how a College Football Playoff contender could lose at home to a mediocre MAC program and how big investments at quarterback could pay such a small dividend. These were unanswerable questions, at least not on the record.

Notre Dame's head coach didn't want everything this season to be influenced by Northern Illinois, but he couldn't stop the stain from spreading. Freeman talked about Notre Dame needing to handle success better, playing more complementary football, reaching the team's full potential every day and about a dozen other talking points that coaches bring up when they want to change the subject.

It turned out that Freeman was never able to fully overcome the worst loss of his term.

Instead, he turned it into fuel.

As Freeman prepared to play the role of hunter for Navy's Bambi at MetLife Stadium, he reminded the team of what happened in the home opener, when Notre Dame's season was still evolving. He played clips around the facility. Freeman still defends these practices as necessary physical, even after that boxing match at Texas A&M. He may never let go of the fact that Notre Dame didn't take mental preparation for Northern Illinois as seriously as everyone needed to.

“I don't want to lose the pain of this game because sometimes we are motivated by fear. “Sometimes we are motivated by not wanting this to happen again,” Freeman said. “And so sometimes I have to remind them of that pain so we can make sure we don't forget it. We have to use that.

“I said we will be grateful for it if we use it and learn from the lessons it teaches us.”

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When Northern Illinois happened to you, you better live in some kind of fear that it could happen to you again.

If Saturday proved anything for Notre Dame, if the 51-14 win over undefeated Navy was a signal, it was that the Irish are learning as they move forward. Suddenly a team you can't entirely trust looks like a safe bet. There was no reason for Navy to compete with Notre Dame and Notre Dame gave Navy none, a dynamic that can be applied to any game in November. Yes, those six turnovers made the glaring lead inevitable, but the way the Irish attacked the Midshipmen left Navy little chance, even when they played well.

Notre Dame scored touchdowns on its first two possessions. Navy fumbled their first two. When Blake Horvath scored a 47-yard touchdown in the second quarter, he added some drama to the game and cut the Irish lead to 14-7. That tension lasted the entire 65 seconds of the game before Jeremiyah Love burst from behind a Pat Coogan block for a 64-yard score. Navy never threatened to keep the ball close again, which was undone by errant pitches and James Rendell punts.

Notre Dame has now won a modest six games in a row, the longest streak of the Freeman era. This is both a sign of how much Notre Dame's head coach had to learn to do this job and a reminder of the potential that still exists under the third-year head coach. Sure, Freeman's 10th win against an AP-ranked team matches Frank Leahy's track record as Notre Dame head coach in his first three seasons. This is a trifle for a cocktail party, a historical curiosity with no relevance to the present. What matters is how Freeman can make Notre Dame more predictable every Saturday and string the performances together instead of making them seem random.

“The result is what you wanted, but the mental approach we take this week is so crucial, right? How we can improve, and that has to be difficult,” Freeman said. “I just told these guys that you don’t improve by doing the same thing you did the week before.

Notre Dame has won six straight since the NIU upset. (Vincent Carchietta/Imagn Images)

“In human nature, gravity takes over. You'll feel even worse. So we have to prepare mentally, physically and physically for the next opponent if we really want to improve and improve. So that’s the mindset that we have and hopefully that’s why overall we’re able to have the success that we’ve had over the last couple of weeks.”

The biggest challenge here might be managing the incoming praise. Notre Dame doesn't play again until the first College Football Playoff rankings are released on Nov. 5, and the Irish are almost certain to be in it. You are number 7 The athlete's updated forecasting model with an 84 percent chance of making the field. The story of Notre Dame football is about to move from what happened in September to what could happen in December.

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And optimism can be a damn good drug.

It will all create a different kind of stress, although the Irish seem to be better able to deal with it every week. Notre Dame feels mature enough to acknowledge Northern Illinois' failure without being deterred by it. Riley Leonard revealed he's been meeting with former Notre Dame quarterbacks to figure out how to do that, including connecting with Sam Hartman. The former Irish quarterback told Leonard to just let it rip. That's exactly what Leonard does.

Jack Kiser addressed the lessons from Northern Illinois more succinctly.

“Every day we know what could happen if we come in and don’t try to reach our potential or live up to the standard,” Kiser said. “We just used that as motivation. Either you get better or you get worse. We have to work hard every day and make sure something like this doesn’t happen again.”

Week after week, Notre Dame looks like a program more comfortable in its skin, perhaps college football's most confident playoff contender.

Notre Dame is hardly perfect. The Irish know this, which is perhaps more of a feature than a flaw.

“I am not satisfied. Nobody in this locker room is happy. We are greedy. We want more,” Freeman said. “We want perfection, and that's why we let others tell us what a victory this was. We're going to celebrate it because a lot of people in this room put in a lot of work to make this happen. So we have to celebrate it.”

After the second idle week, Florida State and Virginia play at home, then Army at Yankee Stadium and USC at the Coliseum. The Irish will be heavily favored in the first two games and should be in the third game. The final is a tougher decision, as even eliminated USC teams seem to cause problems for the Irish.

On the other hand, Navy should be a potential trap door this season as well. Instead, the Irish let the Mids walk out of MetLife Stadium with minimal fuss.

This version of Notre Dame appears to be able to remember what it felt like to lose to Northern Illinois without allowing the season to become a failure. It's difficult to recall the worst day of the season without condemning Notre Dame to a repeat game.

“But when you succeed, sometimes you forget the pain that NIU left in all of our hearts and guts,” Freeman said. “And there are moments when I want to think about it, and I don't want them to lose it, and then I use it as motivation.”

(Top photo by Jeremiyah Love: Joshua Sarner / Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)