Last week was the primary time as a Notre Dame analyst this season that I felt fully not sure of methods to handicap one of many Fighting Irish’s video games. Bringing my Notre Dame handicapping report all the way down to 6-2.

Notre Dame entered final week’s recreation in the course of one of many extra brutal stretches in College Football. They performed Ohio State, then traveled to Durham to tackle a very good Duke squad, adopted up with a highway recreation to tackle ACC Championship hopeful Louisville, and concluded by internet hosting the Pac-12 runners-up USC. All and not using a bye week to get their staff mentally and bodily reset. Brutal

USC at Notre Dame | Spread: Notre Dame -2.5 | Total: 60.5

As talked about, Notre Dame has gone by a brutal stretch of video games. The scheduling alone is sufficient to make any staff stop. However, in these video games, all of them have been hard-fought battles, mainly till the sport’s final play.

It doesn’t matter how gifted the staff is; there’s an expectation that harm and fatigue are because of set in with powerful scheduling like that. Against Louisville, they regarded drained. Their entrance seven, which has had their approach with groups all season, wasn’t getting almost sufficient strain. And their stout offensive line couldn’t get sufficient push to run for greater than 60 yards on the bottom.

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USC isn’t with out its flaws this season. They have arguably the very best offense in all of College Football, led by the very best participant in soccer. Led by Heisman trophy winner Caleb Williams, they’re second in EPA offense and first in scoring offense this season.

However, the problem over the previous two seasons has been their protection. So far this season, they’re 61^st in defensive success fee. The greatest difficulty they’ve confronted is permitting groups to seemingly rating at will. Being a National Championship contender and ranked 88^th in web factors per drive on protection won’t get the job accomplished.

When betting on this recreation, wanting to put factors with Notre Dame feels nearly irresponsible. Their staff has been by it. Not solely are they in a troublesome schedule state of affairs, however they haven’t been buzzing alongside offensively.

Sure, that would all change towards this horrible protection of USC. However, this recreation is a coin flip. I don’t imagine on this state of affairs, on a impartial subject, that Notre Dame is a 1-point favourite over USC.

This USC staff solely has two losses over the past season and a half. One to a wonderful Utah staff. One on the highway, a spot the place Utah by no means loses. The different was within the Pac-12 Championship, the place Williams bought harm.

To beat this Trojans staff, you want perfection. I don’t suppose that with the state that Notre Dame is in proper now, they’ve that perfection.

We may see the poor climate issue within the end result, even making the sport much less high-scoring. Hence, the explanation the full got here down from 62.5 to 60.5. I don’t suppose the wind gusts can be excessive sufficient to make this an entire floor battle dogfight.

So, I’m placing my belief in Williams and this offense. Give me USC ML +125 towards Notre Dame.

Odds offered by BetMGM Sportsbook

Bet: USC ML (+125)

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