The Associated Press

SOUTH BEND, Ind. - Disheartening was the way Notre Dame linebacker Courtney Watson described it.

Watson was talking about the Irish defense allowing Boston College to drive for the last-minute, game-winning field goal in a 27-25 loss in Boston Saturday. He could have just as easily been talking about the entire Notre Dame season.

After raising Notre Dame fans' hopes with a 10-3 record in Tyrone Willingham's first year as coach last year, disheartening is the only way to describe the 2-5 season so far.

The Irish need to win their last five games to finish with back-to-back winning seasons for the first time in five years. They need to win four of five to stay bowl eligible.

Frankly, though, they just need a win.

"Most of us are tired with not playing the type of football we can," receiver Omar Jenkins said.

The most disappointing part of Saturday's loss at BC (5-3) is that it appeared the Irish had the game won.

After trailing 24-6 with 3:27 left in the third quarter, the Irish rallied for 19 points on a pair of Brady Quinn TD passes and a blocked punt returned 25 yards for a TD by Carlos Campbell with 3:34 left.

All the Irish needed was their special teams and defense to keep BC out of scoring position. Both failed.

BC returned the kickoff 42 yards to almost midfield, and on third-and-11, Grant Adams caught a 26-yard pass from Quinton Porter to keep the drive alive. Sandro Sciortino kicked a 26-yard field goal with 38 seconds left to give the Irish a loss in what Willingham had described as a "must win."

"When it came down to it, all we had to do is stop them, and we win the ball game," Watson said. "We weren't able to do it."

Now the Irish face No. 5 Florida State (7-1), having already have played two former No. 5 teams. Michigan beat the Irish 38-0, and Southern California won 45-14.

The Irish are 0-5 against teams ranked in the top 5 since beating No. 5 Michigan 36-20 to open the 1998 season.

Watson said the Irish can't worry about anything but Florida State.

"We won't want to look at anything too far down the line. We're looking at the wrong things," he said. "We have to look now at Florida State, and do the kind of things we need to do to win that ball game."

Watson said the Irish shouldn't have to look hard for a reason to try to finish strong.

"At this point, what you're playing for is to win a ball game," he said. "You have a team coming in that's a top 10 team. You have to have some pride when you play the rest of the season, to say we're going to play the best football we can, which is a lot more than we've shown."