Notre Dame Opens as 20 Point Favorite

[boger2337]

Honestly... I'm shocked. I thought it would be Notre Dame -28 to -31. 20 seems low.

Notre Dame -20
Over/Under 56.5 has since moved to 57.

Notre Dame is getting 63% of the bets, GT getting 54% of the total money as of 1am 10/27. Meaning GT is getting 37% of total bets while holding 54% of total money coming in on the game. Early on saying smart money is on GT. We will see how the line moves over the week.

This "SHOULD" be a bounce back game for GT to try and put together a complete game. Notre Dame is not really a tempo team, so if we can get set and cause some havoc we have a chance to cover the spread.

I never trust a Notre Dame defense. Since Manti T'ao I lost belief in their defense. This year they are playing EXTREMLY well.

I think we can put up

 

[boger2337]

.... 21 points this game. Notre Dame has not played a decent offense to date. They played a completely dismantled USF team struggling to score 10 points per game. A Pitt offense that was missing its QB only scored 3 points. Louisville scored 7 on Notre Dame while holding them to 12 points. Oddly enough FSU scored 26 on Notre Dame. By far the most points of the season doubling the 2nd highest set by Duke at 13.

All in all ND has had a rather easy schedule on defense.

My only concern is Notre Dame is averaging 231 rushing yards per game. We saw what BC did to us after only averaging 66 rushing yards per game... unless we somehow land Aaron Darnold and Kahlil Mack on the Dline before Saturday, I have little to no hope we can stop the run. I am guessing 300 rushing yards and 4 rushing TDs from ND by halftime. They may attempt 10 passes the whole game. They are big and physical on the Oline and have extremely capable backs. We may have to score in bunches to make them throw and pick up tempo which is not their forte.

Overall I think covering 20 is a possibility. Would I take it? No. But anything is possible. If I could take a prop bet on the ND rushing yards I'd grab anything south of 350 yards. I think they hit 375-425 rushing yards.

 

[randerto]

We will not keep this within 20 with our current D unless they transform completely during practice this week - and we have zero turnovers on O. As a longtime GT football fan and season ticket holder, I'll always support the team and watch the games but must admit, I'll probably take TV breaks or change channels when we are on D - just can't watch our D right now...so deflating to watch our LB's get repeatedly blocked out, miss tackles or too slow...they are always chasing the plays X yards downfield...not making plays near the line scrimmage ... And no excuse to have this kind of kicking game at a legit D1 program...coaching accountability is in order to allow this kind of non-existent kicking game coming into a season with no improvement throughout the season...key part of the game being mismanaged by leadership...

 

[Oakland]

Notre Dame is going to try to make a statement Saturday. I wish we would try to burn the clock just to help our defense.

 

[Deleted member 2897]

I was one who said Notre Dame had only played the worst teams. They scored 12 against Louisville. But then they won 45-3 against Pitt. I hope the team who played Louisville shows up.

 

[bke1984]

Notre Dame is going to try to make a statement Saturday. I wish we would try to burn the clock just to help our defense.

That would be nice wouldn’t it? Seems that if you knew you had the worst defense in the history of the program that you might do everything possible to keep them off the field instead of trying to be explosive and score on big plays.

 

[herb]

Look, if you were ever going to catch Notre Dame flat, this is the week. coming off a convincing blowout, seeing our results the last two weeks and looking ahead to Clemson next weekend. You really can’t set it up better than that. i think we can score on them, but who knows if out turnover issue continues?

 

[MWBATL]

If Notre Dame is smart (and they are) then they will simply look at tape and realize all they have to do is run the ball down our throats. They have the best rushing attack in the ACC. We just allowed the WORST rushing attack in the ACC to run for over 250 yards. They should be able to run for 400 easy.

I cannot imagine this game being close. Even if we play better and get lucky, and play a clean game with no turnovers, we should lose by mid 20's to low 30's. Play the way we've played the last two weeks and we should lose by closer to 35-40.

My confidence level for us short term is dim. Long term we shall see.

 

[Augusta_Jacket]

Honestly... I'm shocked. I thought it would be Notre Dame -28 to -31. 20 seems low.

ND often plays down to the level of their opponent. To give them 20 doesn't say much for what they think of us...

 

[stech81]

Look, if you were ever going to catch Notre Dame flat, this is the week. coming off a convincing blowout, seeing our results the last two weeks and looking ahead to Clemson next weekend. You really can’t set it up better than that. i think we can score on them, but who knows if out turnover issue continues?

It's a trap game for us we are looking at next week to get ready for Bye.

 

[Ash]

That would be nice wouldn’t it? Seems that if you knew you had the worst defense in the history of the program that you might do everything possible to keep them off the field instead of trying to be explosive and score on big plays.

No chance. We have an identity to maintain. We are a multiple, pro style efficent offense that gets on a roll and keeps opposing Ds on their back heels. Slowing the game down destroys all of that.

 

[stech81]

No chance. We have an identity to maintain. We are a multiple, pro style efficent offense that gets on a roll and keeps opposing Ds on their back heels. Slowing the game down destroys all of that.

You do understand if our offense is not on the field than our defense is on the field. So let's slow down and think do we really want to see our defense on the field.

 

[Deleted member 2897]

10 days ago Notre Dame scored 12 against Louisville. We scored 46 against Louisville. On paper, you’d expect a game something like 40-16. But Florida State was undefeated, 7-0, we were an injury depleted 2-5 with no shot in the world in 2015. That was 5 years ago last weekend. There is always a chance to win and you have to play the game. I think we really really really need to simplify our defensive approach this week. It’s pretty clear to me that we continue to have problems with people not knowing where they’re supposed to go.

 

[g0lftime]

I wonder which one thing we are scheming to take away. Time to stack the box and get another LB in there. They will be big and physical up front with a good TE. Better strap it up cause it will be physical.

 

[stech81]

I think we really really really need to simplify our defensive approach this week. It’s pretty clear to me that we continue to have problems with people not knowing where they’re supposed to go.

Step 1 first learn to tackle than maybe someone can teach them where to go other than the bench after they score.

 

[Lotta Booze]

The 20 point spread makes sense (and maybe doesn't give GT enough credit) if you just look at the ND games against the 2 teams we beat, Louisville and FSU. It might give us too much credit if you focus on GT's most recent performances against Clem and BC.

One note about the ND vs Pitt game that was so lopsided, even that game was fairly tight early on and didn't get out of hand until ND scored 14 in the last 2 minutes of the 1st half after an INT and a blocked punt returned for a TD. 2 more INT's by Pitt in the 2nd half helped ND go up big. Pitt's QB Yellen was 10/27 for 101 yards and 3 INTs. I'd have to believe whoever we march out at QB will do better than that. I hope.

FSU had success through the air against ND. If they can we can.

If we're only able to sell out and stop one phase of the game I hope it's rushing. Sell out to stop the run and make Ian Book make plays through the air, which he definitely can do. And put a spy on him who is not wearing #6 to prevent QB runs on broken plays.

Limit turnovers and penalties and it could be a good game.

 

[Sheboygan]

We will not keep this within 20 with our current D unless they transform completely during practice this week - and we have zero turnovers on O. As a longtime GT football fan and season ticket holder, I'll always support the team and watch the games but must admit, I'll probably take TV breaks or change channels when we are on D - just can't watch our D right now...so deflating to watch our LB's get repeatedly blocked out, miss tackles or too slow...they are always chasing the plays X yards downfield...not making plays near the line scrimmage ... And no excuse to have this kind of kicking game at a legit D1 program...coaching accountability is in order to allow this kind of non-existent kicking game coming into a season with no improvement throughout the season...key part of the game being mismanaged by leadership...

Exactly !!

 

[Sheboygan]

If Notre Dame is smart (and they are) then they will simply look at tape and realize all they have to do is run the ball down our throats. They have the best rushing attack in the ACC. We just allowed the WORST rushing attack in the ACC to run for over 250 yards. They should be able to run for 400 easy.

I cannot imagine this game being close. Even if we play better and get lucky, and play a clean game with no turnovers, we should lose by mid 20's to low 30's. Play the way we've played the last two weeks and we should lose by closer to 35-40.

My confidence level for us short term is dim. Long term we shall see.

Agreed. They will run on us at will, even if we somehow figure out ( a huge if) how to stack the box. If we figure that out , and use players that have limited , to no, lateral or backward mobility, the TE and RBs will eat us alive on passes underneath the DBs.

 

[stech81]

Agreed. They will run on us at will, even if we somehow figure out ( a huge if) how to stack the box. If we figure that out , and use players that have limited , to no, lateral or backward mobility, the TE and RBs will eat us alive on passes underneath the DBs.

Y'all are missing the point CGC is trying to tell us we will look good in our new uniforms .

 

[Lee]

That would be nice wouldn’t it? Seems that if you knew you had the worst defense in the history of the program that you might do everything possible to keep them off the field instead of trying to be explosive and score on big plays.

Ahh yes, the old play not to lose (by too much) strategy.

Whether people want to admit it or not, the offense is the “strength” of this team. That being said, we are very young at key positions. We don’t have the luxury of grinding out long drives.

-If you’ve watched us play this year, you’ll have noticed a few things. We struggle to score consistently when we get in the redzone.

-We don’t have a kicking game so we have to score tds.

-Our best chance to score points is on explosive plays.

Honestly this offense reminds me of some of PJs teams towards the end of his career. Not in a sense of scheme but that it seemed like we couldn’t sustain drives consistently and needed to hit a homerun to score (against good competition).

We all agree the defense sucks, but we need to score points to win. We aren’t good enough to run 10-15 play drives consistently to do that so we will need to hit big plays.

The issue is we can’t fall behind 3 scores early like we did against Syracuse and BC because we gift them the game at that point.

Collins alluded to the fact that we can only attack one area on defense. We better sell out to stop the run. I don’t think their QB is a great passer (could be wrong), but I’d load the box and put our corners on an island and take my chances.