Three keys and prediction: Notre Dame-Boston College

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1. Explosive plays, explosive plays, explosive plays. Notre Dame can expect to be hit for no gain or a loss of yards on plenty of plays against a Boston College defense that allows and average of 3.9 yards per play, tops among FBS teams. Notre Dame’s offense has been prone to these zero-sum or negative plays this year, especially on the ground, but has largely balanced them out with loads of big-chunk plays. If the Irish offense can successfully take shots downfield to Will Fuller and get C.J. Prosise and/or Josh Adams loose on the perimeter, it’ll negate plenty of Boston College’s defensive advantage.

2. Don’t let BC’s offense beat you. Notre Dame’s defense held Wake Forest to seven points last week thanks to an ability to clamp down on third/fourth down and in the red zone. Boston College has a much worse offense than Wake Forest — it’s one of the worst at the FBS level — and only has generated three plays of 40 or more yards. Notre Dame’s defense has been shaky at times and dominant at others, and should be expected to clamp down against an Eagles team without much of any talent on offense.

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3. Don’t look ahead. Boston College is 3-7 with only one win over an FBS team (a 17-14 squeaker over Northern Illinois). But the Eagles’ defense is good enough to give Notre Dame’s offense fits if it starts thinking about that showdown at Stanford after Thanksgiving. The Irish didn’t exactly play well against Wake Forest, but still managed to win by 21 despite only gaining 282 yards of total offense. Boston College presents a tougher challenge, especially on defense, so if Notre Dame wants to cruise to California it can’t take a win over the Eagles for granted. A win somewhere in the two-to-three-touchdown range sounds about right (Clemson beat BC by 17) in a game that, if all goes right for Notre Dame, shouldn't feel that close. 

Final score: Notre Dame 27, Boston College 13

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