The #8 Notre Dame Fighting Irish battle the
Miami Hurricanes Saturday night at Soldier Field in Chicago as part of the
annual Shamrock Series. The Irish enter the game as heavy favorites, as they
should. The Hurricanes have a respectable 4-1 record, but have not beaten a
ranked team and was destroyed by #7 Kansas State. They have a porous defense
that ranks 116th in yards allowed and 100th in points
allowed. That, along with a middle-of-the-road offense, creates a team that is expected
to be overmatched by Notre Dame.
Many Irish faithful are worried this could be the game that ends Notre Dame
winning streak. I really do not understand the apprehension. Notre Dame is
clearly the better team. Miami has beaten some decent teams, but it’s not like
they have any secret weapons that the Irish won’t be expecting. Their wins have
come against teams with a combined record of 6-8 and their last two wins came
by a combined point total of just 12.
Keys
for an Irish Victory
Pressure
Stephen Morris- The junior quarterback is averaging over
300 yards passing per game and is really taking control of his young team. His
only downfall so far is his four interceptions. Morris could be considered a
mobile quarterback but should not scare the Irish. In fact, that should scare
Morris since Notre Dame’s defense completely shut down Denard Robinson, one of
the best running quarterbacks in the country. Morris likes to throw the deep
ball, so the Irish will need to get to him quick before he can pick apart the
young secondary.
Open
up the Offensive Playbook- The Hurricanes’ defense is the worst
the Irish have faced all season. They’re even worse than Navy who the Irish
hung 52 points on. They have also allowed more points than any other opponent
so far this season. This is the perfect game for Golson to prove that he is the
sole quarterback and leader of the Irish offense. He has had two weeks to
prepare for the Hurricane defense and should be ready for anything they throw
at him. Coach Brian Kelly has said the same. He is hoping to expand the
playbook and have more variety in the plays that are called. It’s imperative
that the offense gets into sync because the next three opponents on the
schedule all have defenses ranked in the Top 15 nationally in yards allowed.
No
Turnovers- This has not nearly been the kind of
problem that it was last year when the Irish committed 15 turnovers in the
first four games. This season the offense has only turned it over four times.
They have been helped out a ton by the defense who has forced the opponents to
commit 11 turnovers. As for Miami, this season they’ve turned the ball over
nine times and forced 12 turnovers, six of those coming last week against North
Carolina State.
This game comes right before a big matchup
against the #18 Stanford Cardinal. You could consider the Miami game a “trap
game” because it comes after a big win against a Michigan and is right before
the Stanford game. I’m not buying into that though. The Irish and the coaching
staff are mature enough to focus on this game and this game alone. They aren’t
going to be looking ahead until the clock says 00:00.
Prediction: Notre Dame-31. Miami-6
National
Preview
Last Saturday appeared to be a good week to
go outside and enjoy the fall weather due to the lack of quality Top 25
matchups. However, there turned out to be quite a few good games. None was more
exciting than the Baylor-West Virginia game though. The final score was 70-63
and nearly every offensive record for each school was broken.
This week you don’t have to look hard for
big time matchups. There are four Top 25 games with two of those involving Top
10 teams going head to head. There is also a plethora of supplementary games
that are just as enticing as the games garnering national attention. With all
that being said, it’s disappointing to say that outside of the ten games I’m
picking there aren’t any games that I would worry about missing. Onto the
picks!
Games are in order of scheduled start time.
Winners in bold.
#24
Northwestern Wildcats (5-0) at Penn State Nittany Lions (3-2)
Virginia Tech Hokies (3-2) at North Carolina Tarheels (3-2)
#4 LSU Tigers (5-0) at #10 Florida Gators (4-0)
#17 Oklahoma Sooners (2-1) at Texas Tech Red Raiders (4-0)
Michigan Wolverines (2-2) at Purdue Boilermakers (3-1)
#5
Georgia Bulldogs (5-0) at #6 South Carolina Gamecocks (5-0)
#8
West Virginia Mountaineers (4-0) at #11 Texas Longhorns
(4-0)
Miami Hurricanes (4-1) at #9 Notre Dame Fighting Irish
#21
Nebraska Cornhuskers (4-1) at #12 Ohio State Buckeyes (5-0)
#23 Washington Huskies (3-1) at #2 Oregon Ducks (5-0)
I went 7-3 last week in picks which puts me
at 42-10 over the whole season. This week there are a few games that could go
either way. Will Northwestern’s offense be able to move the ball against Penn
State’s defense? LSU has not beaten any quality team and this will be their
chance to prove themselves worthy of being in the BCS conversation. The Sooners
are really struggling on both sides of the ball and Texas Tech is playing great
right now. I believe Purdue is the most underrated team in the country and this
is their chance to go out and get a big time win. Georgia and South
Carolina will be your typical SEC heavyweight bout and the winner will end up
with an easy path to an SEC East championship. It will be interesting to see if
quarterback Geno Smith can put up insanely good stats against a solid Texas
defense. The Buckeyes are ineligible for postseason play but that isn’t slowing
them down. Nebraska is a very balanced team and will give Ohio State and Urban
Meyer a run for their money.
No comments:
Post a Comment