Notre Dame Fighting Irish vs Wisconsin Badgers NCAAF 9-25
It’s a very rare meeting between the Notre Dame Fighting Irish and Wisconsin Badgers Saturday at Soldier Field in Chicago, IL. #10 Notre Dame has started the 2021 season 3-0, but have a big hurdle in their quest to get back to the CFP in the form of #15 Wisconsin. The Badgers were idle this past Saturday, and have had two weeks to gameplan for this matchup. Let’s take a closer look at the Fighting Irish vs Badgers.
Notre Dame Scraping By
The Fighting Irish are undefeated and in the top 10, but they have looked far from dominant so far this season. Notre Dame needed OT to get the win in Florida State as touchdown favorites, only beat Toledo by 3 in the home opener, and were only up 17-13 against Purdue last week going into the 4th quarter before pulling away with a 27-13 win.
Kyren Williams has yet to have a 100-yard rushing game for the Irish this season, and he shouldn’t plan on one this Saturday as the Badgers are tops in the country allowing just 33.0 yards/game on the ground. ND has a versatile offense though, and Jack Coan put the team on his back throwing for 366 and 4 TD in the opener vs. the Seminoles. Coan started the 2019/20 season for Wisconsin, so he’ll have extra incentive to win this one.
The Notre Dame defense is coming off their best performance of the season last weekend, They held Purdue to 57 yards rushing on 25 carries, and the 291 yards passing the Boilermakers put up came on 54 attempts. FSU ran for 264 yards on the Irish in the opener, and that will be the Badgers’ game plan on Saturday.
Still a Lot of Questions Facing UW
The Badgers were able to get into the winner’s column two weeks ago with a 34-7 win over Eastern Michigan but that was expected as -26 point favorites. Wisconsin fans are still disappointed in the 16-10 season-opening loss to Penn State when the Badgers had three red-zone turnovers and had an FG blocked.
Wisconsin has played both of their games at home this season and although Soldier Field is technically a neutral site, there’s a big contingency of Notre Dame fans in Chicago with South Bend just a little over an hour away.
The jury is very much still out on UW QB Graham Mertz, who threw 2 INTs and had a fumble in the week 1 loss to the Nittany Lions. Mertz was just 14/17 last week vs. Eastern Michigan, but expect Paul Chryst to rely on the running game as Clemson transfer Chez Mellusi has gone for 120+ in each of the first two games.
Notre Dame vs. Wisconsin Pick
Strangely enough the Fighting Irish are +5.5 underdogs in this one despite being ranked #10 in the country and likely having an abundance fo fans in the crowd. Jack Coan puts that chip on his shoulder even more here.
Notre Dame 26 – Wisconsin 20
Notre Dame +5.5