Notre Dame opened the season a 21-point favorite over Wisconsin and looked overmatched for a half. Sean West's viral punt and Big Cat's gripe about the refs precede Notre Dame grinding out an ugly win.
BigCat predicts a 40-point blowout loss for Wisconsin to Notre Dame. BigCat sets up the narrative that Wisconsin is overmatched against #4 Notre Dame but hopes for long-term competitiveness.
“I think they lose by 40 today, but maybe within two to three years they're back to competitive.”
Wisconsin's defense comes out flying, then hands Notre Dame a score anyway. DoubleVodkaDon is the first to say the quiet part out loud: this is not the tune-up game everyone expected, it's a real dog fight, ugly uniforms and all. Three minutes later Wisconsin undoes its own hot start by handing Notre Dame a free score, which is the first sign that this scare will be self-inflicted as much as earned.
This Wisconsin defense is flying around right now. I think we have a real dog fight on our hands. Bad uniforms but good, physical ball.
Big Cat blames the refs as a loaded, 21-point-favorite Notre Dame still can't pull away. Notre Dame is favored by three touchdowns and stacked with talent, and Big Cat is already furious about the officiating instead of the scoreboard, which tells you how the vibes inside Barstool actually feel. It's the first real crack in the preseason confidence, coming before Wisconsin has even done anything on offense to justify it.
What the fuck are these refs doing? It’s not enough that Notre Dame is a 21 point favorite and loaded? Pieces of shit
Sean West's punt goes instantly viral across every Barstool account at once. Within a single minute, barstoolsports, Barstool Gambling and Pardon My Take all post the same clip, Chief calls it the best punt of all time and pencils West in as a future second-round pick, and Big Cat comes back around a few minutes later to credit it with setting up Notre Dame's own touchdown. For one punt, it's an enormous amount of company real estate.
Wisconsin answers right back, and Barstool admits it's a real ballgame. All that punt hype lasts about five minutes before Wisconsin scores again, and DoubleVodkaDon drops the confident predictions for a flat concession that this is now a game. CaptainCons piles on with a joke rather than a stat, which says just as much about the mood shifting inside the group chat.
Touchdown Badgers! We got a ball game folks!
Portnoy puts a number on the punt: net 12 yards, not the miracle everyone sold. After Chief and company crowned it the best punt ever, Portnoy is the one voice pumping the brakes with an actual figure, and pairs it with a warning that Notre Dame can't play scared into a major upset. It's the first hint that the celebration a few beats up was getting ahead of the actual game.
Net 12 yards on that Wisconsin punt. Cant play scared and pull a major upset
Barstool concedes Wisconsin is outplaying Notre Dame through a flat, physical first half. The whole crew piles on at once: Big Cat is thrilled Wisconsin looks physical again, NjTank99 says Notre Dame is lucky to even have a lead, and Chief tells the Heisman-favorite offense to start slinging it. DoubleVodkaDon goes furthest, saying Wisconsin dominated the line of scrimmage and calling it an 8-9 win team through Chief's own words, a real walk-back from the 21-point-favorite line two beats ago.
Big Cat calls out Notre Dame for an unnecessary shot late in the game. After a whole first half of Big Cat admiring Wisconsin's physicality, the tone flips once his own team is the one accused of taking things too far. It's a small moment, but it's the pivot from worrying about losing to being annoyed about how the win is being closed out.
That felt unnecessary by Notre Dame. Have some class
Big Cat and Chief close it out: Notre Dame survives ugly, 1-0 heading into December. Big Cat calls the second half ugly but insists Notre Dame is for real, exactly what he says he believed all offseason, while Chief gives Wisconsin real credit for giving Notre Dame haters a fun first half on Twitter. Both land on the same note: it wasn't pretty, but 1-0 is 1-0 and the best teams win out.
Notre Dame caps the scare with a Lambeau Leap into the Green Bay crowd. Both barstoolsports and Pardon My Take post the leap within 15 minutes of each other, the celebratory bookend to a night that started with a real dogfight and a ref gripe. It's the visual proof that, however ugly it got, the favorite still walked away with the win.
