BYU vs. Notre Dame against Air Force

Offense     #23-BYU  #5-ND 
Total Yards   411     383 
    Passing   258     207* 
    Rushing   153     176 

Comp-Att    23-31   14-19 
Yards/pass    8.3    10.9 
Rush-Att       34      27 
Yards/rush    4.5     6.5 
First Downs    22      19 
Possession  31:01   21:25 

Defense 
Total Yards   229     405 
    Passing    39     205 
    Rushing   190     200 
First Downs    16      24 
Turnovers:     +2      +0

So Notre Dame got run over by Air Force, but comes out with more points because of big plays (TDs of 24, 51, 76, and 23). Beats Air Force by about the same margin as BYU, but BYU's defense is far stronger than ND's. And that's a reason to move ND up? Because it equaled BYU vs. Air Force on offense, but looked terrible with its defense?

How's that? Notre Dame is looking like a #20 football team. It's playing as well as the best of the MWC. Hardly something in the top five.

*About 175 yards of this was all in four hail-mary passes. ND used the Hawaii offensive scheme...