Notre Dame Vs Duke Predictions

Duke currently at 1-2 has played tough in both losses to Wake Forest (24-14) and Northwestern (24-13) and they are coached by David Cutcliffe who has taken them to 5 Bowl Games – I think.

Cutcliffe was set to join Charley Weis as QB coach when he had to bow out due to open heart surgery. They have a 215 lb RB who is averaging 5 yds a carry.

They also have a nice young QB Daniel Jones who averages 266 passing yds per game – that’s 800 yds in 3 games. He has a group of talented receivers who will fight for the ball. So look for a lot of passing as well as the deep ball from Duke.

On defense Duke is decent, they have a good DL and currently rank 3rd in the country in sacks. 14 sacks in 3 games. ND has 0. So these guys will not just come in and give it up.

ND Stadium has long since lost its mystique and scares no one anymore. Too many losses in big games, playing disinterested and uninspired to alleged pushovers. So I fully expect Duke to take it to them.

ND has big problems on both sides of the ball. On offense they just run the same plays over and over which I think makes a defensive co-coordinators game plan easy.

ND must protect Kizer at all costs. Duke will jam the box and put an unrelenting rush on Kizer, they want to be disruptive and deceptive.

So far the ND OL has not looked overly imposing, certainly not impressive. So there is hay to make by Duke if they play aggressive.

Everyone knows the ND defense is basically a disaster. I’ve never seen so many befuddled players on the field at the same time.

That entire defensive coach group really has to step up – this is not all BVG’s fault. Finally, can these guys just play hard for an entire game and not for just a couple of plays.

I expect this to play out as similar past games.

Notre Dame 27 Duke 17