Notre Dame at Michigan St – College Football Predictions
The Game
This is always a fun match-up. Notre Dame is off to a 2-1 start after destroying Temple and Boston College. They battled hard with a REALLY good Georgia team and lost by a single point. Michigan St sits at 2-0 and look to be much improved over last season’s 3-9 mess. They have only played two games so far (vs MACtion teams) so we really don’t know what they are all about as of yet. Big rivalry. Big game. Let’s gooooooo !
The Details
NOTRE DAME -3 MICHIGAN ST (54)
MEGALOCKS LINE – Notre Dame -6
Sagarin Ratings – Notre Dame -2.5
“Vegas” Implied Projected Score: Notre Dame 28.5 Michigan St 25.5
Massey Ratings Projected Score: Notre Dame 27 Michigan St 24
The Match-Up
Notre Dame offense vs Temple defense
Ya ya ya. We hear all about how the Notre Dame QB is not MATRICULATING in the passing game very well BUT he is still young. He will get better. And do not underestimate his running ability as he has 6 TDs in just three games. There is no doubt that the passing game can improve but the Irish have decent targets including WR Equanimeous St Brown and Alize Mack. And don’t forget Josh Adams out of the backfield. Speaking of the backfield – the Irish ran for over 400 (!!) yards vs Temple and over 500 (!!!!!) vs Boston College. They were held in check by Georgia (a 900 STAR MEGALOCKS BOOKIE COFFIN POWER RANGERS CASH SPECIAL) but this Sparty defense is a far cry from the Bulldogs’ stop unit. Michigan St ranks very highly in the FBS defensive stats but we fear that they may be a bit overrated given the match-ups vs Bowling Green (dung) and Western Michigan (no QB, no mobility). The Irish boast an excellent offensive line and Sparty is going to have trouble stopping Notre Dame from rushing for 250-300+ yards.
Michigan St offense vs Notre Dame defense
Sparty has potential to SHOCK THE WORLD more than once this season. We like the look of QB Brian Lewerke but this is his first big game of 2017. Not to mention that he is the team’s leading rusher (!) and RB LJ Scott is only averaging 3.8 yards per carry. Their leading receiver only has 118 yards through two games. Notre Dame has only allowed 16, 20 and 20 points so far this season and new DC Mike Elko just may have the answer. Michigan St has held the ball for an average of 35 (!) minutes per game so far and the recipe for success has to be own the time of possession and do not let the great ND running game win the game.
MEGA-MAZING BITS
TREND GUY will note that the road team is 13-3-1 ATS in the past 17 games in the series….That means for the 90,000th time in the past two seasons CROWD WILL BE ROCKING GUY loses his shirt.
Summary
Can we nail it again ? Last season we bagged a 24712987412908734 STAR LATE PHONE RELEASE winner when Michigan St visited Notre Dame. We are virtually certain that Notre Dame will win the rushing battle by a large margin. When that happens, and you are backing a team at a short price, it is often a recipe for success. Notre Dame has more experience on the roster (although not at QB) and feel that they find a way to win this game by 6+ points. As a Miami fan – this pick is painful – but we have to go with our analysis.
Official play
Notre Dame -3 -110. Play up to -4.