This is the Depth Dossier: the Notre Dame Fighting Irish, Week 7.

Notre Dame's sixteen-game winning streak didn't end with a blowout. It ended because the Irish lost their best defensive player before the first media timeout, and the defense never recovered.

Final score: BYU 28, Notre Dame 24. Edge rusher Boubacar Traore got ejected for targeting just two and a half minutes into the game. From there, Notre Dame finished with zero sacks and only two tackles for loss, and BYU piled up 360 yards. Quarterback CJ Carr threw for 261 yards and actually pulled the Irish ahead, 24 to 21, in the fourth quarter. But BYU answered with a late touchdown pass, and Carr's final throw into the end zone fell incomplete as time ran out, on a drive that had reached BYU's nine-yard line.

Let's start with that Traore ejection, because it's the whole story. Notre Dame came into this game as a defense built around its front four, and losing its top pass rusher a hundred and fifty seconds into a top-ten road game against a mobile quarterback is about as bad a break as you'll see. Zero sacks, two tackles for loss, and a BYU offense that moved the ball whenever it wanted. That wasn't bad scheme. That was a numbers problem Notre Dame never solved.

And then there's the ending. Carr's last pass fell incomplete in the end zone with one second left, officials waved the game off without a review, and the Big 12 later admitted the clock should have still been running. So Notre Dame may have been denied at least one more play. That's not a moral victory, but it's worth knowing.

The self-inflicted wounds hurt just as much. Trailing 21 to 10 late in the first half, with the ball at BYU's six-yard line, Carr fumbled while trying to spike the football, wiping out a near-certain field goal. Special teams handed Notre Dame two more chances, a muffed punt and a stopped fake punt, both deep in BYU territory. But the Irish only came away with field goals both times, with kicker Spencer Porath going three for three. Three scoring chances, six points. That's basically the margin of the game.

BYU quarterback Bear Bachmeier also had himself a day. He threw for a touchdown, ran for one, and caught one, the first quarterback to do all three against a ranked opponent since Steve Young back in 1983. And zoom out: this was one of five top-seven losses nationally on the same Saturday, a chaotic day in college football that Notre Dame got caught up in.

Now, what does this mean for the depth chart going forward? The injury situation is actually the biggest storyline. Traore's targeting ejection came in the first half, and under the rules, that means no carryover suspension. He's fully available for week nine against Navy. The flip side is what Saturday showed about life without him. Edge rushers Keon Keeley and RJ Oben both saw expanded snaps trying to fill that gap, and they'll likely keep seeing more work going forward, because a real pass rush needs more than one name attached to it.

On offense, nothing at the top changed. Carr is still the clear starter. Wide receiver Jaden Greathouse is locking down the top receiver job after a season-high eight catches for 125 yards. Running back Nolan James Junior is now the lead back, with Jonaz Walton working more as a change-of-pace and goal-line option rather than a true co-starter. In the secondary, cornerback Jayden Sanders keeps making his case as a weekly starter, picking up the team's only takeaway of the night alongside cornerback Leonard Moore. And safety Joey O'Brien, who had a tackle for loss and a pass breakup, is someone to watch for a bigger role.

Navy is up next. With Traore back at full strength, the question is whether a week off changes anything about how this front rushes the passer, or whether BYU exposed something deeper.

This was the depth dossier. For everything college football, be it depth charts, data or dossiers, head over to C F B Depth dot com. We will be back next week. This was an AI-generated podcast from content developed by real human beings passionate about college football.