Northwestern-Notre Dame
Time: 3:30 PM ET
TV: NBC
Spread: ND -17.5
Total: 51
Betting Odds courtesy of Bovada
Notre Dame enters this week’s matchup against Northwestern with a 7-2 mark on the season. The Fighting Irish will host the Wildcats in a game college football oddsmakers are setting the line 17.5-points in favor of the Irish.
Notre Dame has dropped two of its past three contests, with the lone victory against Navy. On Oct 18, Notre Dame fell to then- No. 2 Florida State, while losing to then- No. 9 Arizona State last week. by a score of 55-31. Despite having more yardage than Arizona State, the Irish lost on account of having five turnovers, four of which were interceptions. It was out of character for Everett Golson, who’s done a great job under center all year for the Irish.
Taking care of the football had to have been a point of emphasis for the Irish in preparation for what should be an easy victory this week against Northwestern. The loss dropped Notre Dame from No. 10 in the nation to No. 18.
The Irish have averaged 306.3 passing yards per game, and the offense has been good overall, averaging 34.9 points per game. Notre Dame’s defense is typically good, but following the 50-43 victory over North Carolina on Oct 11, the Irish have surrendered 31, 39 and 55 points to opponents, with only one of those games having been a victory (49-39 over Navy). The Irish are strong enough offensively to compensate for a lot of this, and Northwestern won’t be a problem.
Notre Dame will close the season with Louisville and USC, before determining which bowl the team will end up at.
Northwestern is 2-4 in Big Ten play despite having a strong defense. The problem has been getting points. Over the last two weeks combined, the Wildcats have scored just 16 points. The team hasn’t scored more than 17 points since Oct 4th in its improbable victory over then- No. 19 Nebraska.
The Wildcats senior QB Trevor Simian has been fairly bad. He’s thrown just 57.5 percept for completion at a 57.5 percent clip, while throwing more INTs than TDs (8, 5). He’s been sacked 28 times and has just a 104.2 passer rating.
It wouldn’t be as crippling if the Wildcats had more options in the backfield. Justin Jackson has had to do over half the carries for the team, with 761 yards on 175 attempts. He’s scored five TDs on the season and still averages 4.3 yards per carry, but it’s too much of a workload and the WRs aren’t big enough threats that team’s can’t sag a little to prevent Jackson from getting much. The top-4 Wildcat receivers have four TDs combined, and only Kyle Prater and Dan Vitale have over 30 receptions and over 10 yards per attempt.
