"Does history repeat itself?" What history? The only thing a PSU loss would have in common with a NIU loss would be the mark against the record. Your other point was "Lots of travel and injuries."
Anyone with a grade school reading comprehension would interpret your points this way:
Author is worried ND will lose to Penn State. Author is comparing NIU loss to Penn State loss. Author brings up the physicality and emotion as another link to NIU loss. This point may have relevance, but is not supported by his second point. Author brings up injuries and travel as reasons ND could lose, even though those were not reasons ND lost to NIU. ND travels as well as any other team, and NIU was a home game! Injuries were a non-factor between the TAMU and NIU games, as there were no injuries suffered in the TAMU game.
ND admitted to losing the NIU game because of focus and respect gaps, pure and simple. I seriously doubt they do that with Penn State.