College football on Saturday night and we will see the Notre Dame Fighting Irish travel to the west coast to take on the Stanford Cardinal. The game has a start time of 7:00 pm (Eastern) and be will televised on FOX. Current odds have Stanford listed as 15 point favorites, while the total sits at 49.
Analysis: Notre Dame managed to make its way back into the Top 25 after an impressive, 23-13, victory over the BYU Cougars last week. The victory was the fifth in six games for the Irish, which has plenty of motivation to improve to 9-3 before the bowl season. Tommy Rees has not been very accurate this season, completing a career-low 54.4 percent of his throws, but he is ranked sixth nationally in yards per completion (16.1), while throwing for 2,739 yards, with 25 Tds and 11 INTs on the year. Notre Dame is coming off a 235-yard rushing performance vs BYU, highlighted by Cam McDaniel's career-high 117. Cam leads the Irish with 603 yards on the ground this year, while TJ Jones leads the WR corp with 986 yards, while also posting a team best 8 Tds. Defensively, the Irish are 43rd in total defense, 21st vs the pass and 35th in points allowed, giving up 22.5 ppg. The Fighting Irish lead the all-time series 18-9, although Stanford had won three in a row before an overtime defeat at Notre Dame last year.
The Cardinal come in with the second-longest home winning streak in the nation, and they are hoping to enjoy a successful tuneup before the Pac-12 championship game, where they will face either Arizona or Arizona State next week. The Cardinal have favored the running attack much more where they average 203.7 ypg to rank 32nd in the nation. The ground game has been led by Tyler Gaffney, who has rushed for over 100 yards in five consecutive games before ending the streak with just 95 yards in the win over California last week. The senior running back is tied for the Pac-12 lead with 16 rushing scores. QB Kevin Hogan has yet to complete 20 passes in a game this season, but he is 14-2 as a starter for his career, including an 8-0 mark against ranked opponents. Stanford's defense is one of the best in the nation as it ranks 23rd in total yards allowed per game (348.9) and 13th in points allowed per game (18.9).
Pick: I will be going with the Under in this game. The Irish will have a tough time scoring on this very tough Stanford offense that is 21st in the nation in total defense and 3rd vs the run. That is key because the Cardinal will stack the box to take away a good Irish ground game and make Tommy Rees beat them. That is not a role he is good at and especially in hostile territory. The Cardinal has allowed just 18.9 pg overall and 18.7 ppg at home and they have shut down high powered offenses like Oregon, UCLA and Oregon State this year, so they should have little problem in shutting down a mediocre Irish offense. For Notre Dame, their defense has not been great this year, but still solid, allowing just 22.5 ppg overall. They are 21st in the nation vs the pass, but they can be run on and the Cardinal would prefer to run the ball anyway. Im sure they would just love to pound the ball at the Irish and use their defense to win this one. Shortening the game would help the Cardinal as they have the PAC-12 title game on deck and getting there healthy is a must. Lots of running and defense, should keep the score in this one below 42 points.
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