Notre Dame Vs Northwestern

Outside of Steve Spurrier, no one dislikes Notre Dame more than Pat Fitzgerald and this is his game of the year. Beating ND ranks above a Super Bowl win for him. He will have his team jacked up to nth degree and the sad thing for ND is this could be the beginning of a 3 game losing streak.

Northwestern is currently 3-6, but most of their games have been very close with nice wins against Penn State and Wisconsin. On a 4 game losing skid having just lost to Michigan 10-9, they are ready for a rebound.

They really do have a decent team, but have been hampered by erratic QB play. They have a golden nugget in Frosh RB Justin Jackson and seeing how ASU gashed ND running right up the middle is a real cause for concern. As I said, the QB just cannot seem to help them at all outside of throwing 5 yard passes.

On defense, which is the strength of this team, they have experienced players with really very solid play by their defensive backfield. On defense they mostly play bend/break but with their record and after watching ASU blitz ND silly all game they just might go all in and just follow the ASU defensive game plan – hell I would.

Now ND is a really talented team on offense, but really hasn’t been able to run the ball with much authority and the best way to keep Folston off the field is to blitz.

I’m losing confidence in this ND OL. It seems we start every game running on the right side and get stuffed. Then the goal line running game where McDaniel had 4 short yardage attempts twice against ASU – one of which he scored by the length of the ball with no real push from the ND OL.

Notre Dame is ripe to get knocked off again. Take Northwestern and the points.

Because I’m a homer I pick ND to win… Barely.

Notre Dame 31 Northwestern 27