SOUTH BEND, Ind. — Nine final thoughts on Notre Dame’s 41-13 Shamrock Series win over Wisconsin at Lambeau Field:1. Not every Shamrock Series game is a hit. Some feel like a forced matchup. Some are played in anodyne venues. Occasionally, these neutral-site games hit in both categories. This was one of those.My hunch is that when fans come to Notre Dame Stadium for the first time, they feel like I did walking around Lambeau Field. It’s a stadium that’s a museum and an homage to the sport itself. Everything about the place was top-notch, from the press box to the stands to the interview rooms.Even the branding around the game was elite. In Notre Dame Stadium, each end zone has nine lines pointing at a 42-degree angle toward the Basilica across campus. At Lambeau, one end zone had nine lines pointing southeast toward South Bend and the other had nine lines pointing southwest toward Madison. Nice touch.The Shamrock Series probably can’t return to Lambeau Field — this was just the fourth college game played there ever — so if you made this trip, congratulations. You got your money’s worth.2. Unless you tried to watch the game itself, which Under Armour made virtually impossible.Jersey aesthetics aren’t the complaint here. Yes, Under Armour made Wisconsin look like New Mexico. And yes, Notre Dame felt like it belonged in a disco. All that is fine. You do you with your jersey styles.But making jerseys with illegible numbers was a failure of the highest order. Making sure fans (or anyone watching on television) can read player numbers is as basic as brushing your teeth, buckling your seatbelt or writing your name on the test. It’s so fundamental that we shouldn’t have to repeat the lesson. Apparently, Under Armour needed it repeated.3. Notre Dame’s defense wasn’t perfect, but it wasn’t far off.Wisconsin quarterback Colton Joseph made bringing pressure difficult until the Badgers had no choice but to throw it late. The Irish battered Joseph so much in the final minutes that it was clear he wouldn’t have survived four quarters of dropback passing. Two late sacks make for nice box score reading, but the Irish front seven was at its best in keeping Joseph in a cage in the run game.Joseph, who rushed for 179 yards against Indiana last year, finished with 12 carries for three yards. He had a long rush of five yards. He never threatened Notre Dame’s defense because the Irish didn’t overpursue, didn’t take chances, didn’t gamble. Wisconsin wasn’t going to move the ball without Notre Dame helping it get there. Other than Jayden Sanders biting on a double move for the 20-yard touchdown, that never happened.Defensive coordinator Chris Ash hit all the right notes on Sunday night.4. This was Bryce Young’s best game at Notre Dame. For now, there’s not a close second.Young got the pressure on Joseph that led to the errant throw DJ McKinney picked off for a 55-yard touchdown. He finished with four tackles and one TFL. And the staff trusted Young to play a career-high 44 snaps, which wasn’t by accident. That was the Young Notre Dame hoped it had last year when he almost got too big for his 6-foot-6 frame. Down 11 pounds to a listed 260, Young now moves like a former five-star prospect.With Young on one side and Boubacar Traore on the other, the Irish have two ends who can win from the edge. Within a defense that’s already hard to throw against, the Traore-Young combo will create some untenable situations for quarterbacks.Adon Shuler led the Notre Dame secondary with seven tackles less than a week after the death of his father, Don. (Michael Clubb / USA Today Network via Reuters Connect)5. Adon Shuler played like an adult, leading the secondary with seven tackles and nearly removing a Wisconsin player’s head from his body. Less than a week removed from the death of his father, Don, there was never any doubt Shuler would play in the game. His father was a football lifer, a former high school offensive lineman. That didn’t make the decision easy for Shuler, but it helped create a path back to the field.Notre Dame has more talented players in its defense. There’s an argument Shuler is actually the third-best defensive back on the team despite being a two-time captain. But Shuler is the spirit animal of Notre Dame’s defense, which showed against Wisconsin. He made Wisconsin hurt.6. I’m not sure how much CJ Carr enjoyed the game plan, other than the winning part, which trumps all else. Offensive coordinator Mike Denbrock called it tight to both keep Carr upright and take what Wisconsin’s defense gave away. That meant almost nothing down the field. Carr attempted just two passes longer than 20 yards (both incomplete) and just three intermediate throws (10-to-20 yards). He hit all three of those.That meant 24 of Carr’s 29 pass attempts were short stuff, check downs and screens. That’s 83 percent of Carr’s throws, which doesn’t feel like the best use of a future NFL quarterback. And yet, Freeman defended the plan and Carr’s execution of it after the fact, which is exactly what he should have done.With an inexperienced line and a defense committed to keeping two safeties back, pushing the ball vertically was a risk without much reward. Maybe if Notre Dame had a true boundary receiver, that assessment changes. But there’s no Malachi Fields or Chase Claypool on this roster, which means Notre Dame’s pass game might look more like it did Sunday than Carr might like.7. Evaluating Notre Dame’s receivers was difficult. Chances were limited by tight end sets (removing a slot receiver from the formation) and the amount of real estate Wisconsin ceded underneath their coverages. Notre Dame was right to accept that gift, which Nolan James and Aneyas Williams turned into five catches for 78 yards and that final touchdown.That doesn’t mean the receivers get a pass.For starters, whatever receiver depth Notre Dame trumpeted during training camp was a myth, at least for now. Jerome Bettis Jr. played two snaps (Notre Dame’s final two plays). Elijah Burress and Matt Jeffrey, both on the depth chart going in, were DNPs on offense. Even Mylan Graham, supposedly one of Notre Dame’s three best receivers, got 16 snaps and one target. Remember, depth is measured by how much it’s trusted in competitive games, not by how much it plays against Rice.Jaden Greathouse got 30 snaps and one target, extending a curious trend in which Carr seems to look elsewhere first, second and third. In five games with Carr at quarterback, Greathouse has five catches for 79 yards and just nine targets. That was basically Jordan Faison’s stat line against Wisconsin alone.It’s too dramatic to say Notre Dame has a receiver problem. But it’s not clear the Irish have a receiver solution, either.8. Sean West’s 70-yard punt is the greatest punt I’ve ever seen.9. It’s going to be a strange next five games. Notre Dame should be favored by at least three touchdowns against Rice, Michigan State, Purdue, North Carolina and Stanford. In theory, the Irish are about to take a bunch of open-book tests, which makes grading them a challenge. Are we supposed to evaluate Notre Dame compared against what it takes to win a national title? Or should we let the season play out and look for growth points with a team that can still get better? It’s exhausting to compare everything about Notre Dame to what it needs to be on Jan. 25. But there’s got to be at least some long-term projection considering the potential of this team.Sunday night reinforced the idea that Notre Dame can go all the way, but that doesn’t mean the Irish are a perfect team.