About Last Week
Legend has it that death comes in threes, and that seemed to be the case inside of Notre Dame Stadium on Saturday night for the Clemson Tigers. The Fighting Irish laid them to rest in all three facets of the game, burying them, 35-14. On offense, Notre Dame ran the ball for 263 yards (5.6 YPC), including three touchdowns. On defense, Notre Dame limited Clemson to 90-yards rushing while tallying four sacks and two interceptions, including one that was returned for a score. On special teams, Notre Dame blocked a punt in the first quarter and returned it for a touchdown which led the Tigers’ funeral procession.
Key Injuries
Notre Dame
Senior WR Avery Davis and TE Kevin Baumann are lost for the season (ACL). QB Tyler Buchner is out for the season (shoulder). TE Cane Berrong is out indefinitely (knee). RB Jadarian Price is out for the season (Achilles). Tight End Eli Raridon is out for the season (knee).
Navy
Quarterback Tai Lavatai is out for the season (knee).
Betting Trends
- The total has gone over in 4 of Notre Dame’s last 6 games
- Notre Dame is 12-5 ATS in its last 17 games
- Navy is 5-2 ATS in its last 7 games
- The total has gone over in 8 of Navy’s last 11 games against Notre Dame
- Notre Dame is 78-13-1 all-time against the Navy
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Point Spread and Over / Under Total
#20 Notre Dame -16.5 (6-3) (5-4 ATS) at Navy (3-6) (5-4 ATS)
Navy played admirably at Cincinnati last week before falling 20-10. The Midshipmen were limited to 260 yards of offense, including 176-yards rushing on 53 carries (3.3 YPC). Navy’s offense will have its hands full yet again this week against another stingy defense versus Notre Dame.
Meanwhile, Notre Dame shook up the college football playoff rankings as the Irish upset #4 Clemson, 35-14. A pair of Notre Dame’s running backs swapped out Tiger stripes and replaced them with tread marks. Running back Logan Diggs led the running back committee with 114 yards (6.7 YPC), and Audric Estime finished with 104 yards (5.8 YPC), including two touchdowns.
The Notre Dame defense shut out Clemson for three quarters. The superstar of the Irish’s defense this week was freshman defensive back Benjamin (Moe) Morrison, who intercepted two passes, including one that he returned 96-yards for a touchdown. Special teams added its name to the box score as well, with Prince Kollie returning a blocked punt 17-yards for a score. The line on this game has Notre Dame hovering around -17 at most books. The total dropped from 43.5 to 42. How a program handles success is key for any team more so than failure. However, week-to-week preparation has not seemed to be a problem for this Notre Dame locker room. PICK: Notre Dame
Behind Enemy Lines Week 11:
PICKS-WIN/LOSS on the year: (52-43) (48-47 ATS)
Indiana (3-6) (3-6 ATS) at #2 Ohio State -40 (9-0) (4-4-1 ATS)
Last week, Ohio State survived a close one at Northwestern, 21-7. Wind and rain held both teams to under 300 yards of total offense. Buckeyes’ quarterback, C.J. Stroud finished with 76-yards passing and no touchdowns. Meanwhile, Indiana was at home getting spanked by Penn State, 45-14. The Nittany Lions racked up 483 yards of total offense including 304 through the air and 179 on the ground. Indiana is 8-3 ATS in its last 11 games against Ohio State. Indiana is 6-0 ATS in its last 6 games when playing on the road against Ohio State. The total has gone over in 5 of Ohio State’s last 5 games against Indiana. Ohio State opened at -38.5 before climbing to -40. The total dropped a point to 57.5. PICK: Ohio State
Appalachian State -1 (5-4) (3-6 ATS) at Marshall (5-4) (4-5 ATS)
Marshall blanked Old Dominion, 12-0. Marshall held the Monarchs to 209 yards of total offense including four turnovers. Appalachian State lost, 35-28 in a shoot-out at Coastal Carolina. The Chanticleers tallied 476 yards of offense. Appalachian State is 1-6 ATS in its last 7 games against an opponent in the Sun Belt Conference. The total has gone under in 4 of Appalachian State’s last 5 games. Marshall is 2-5 ATS in its last 7 games. Appalachian State is -1 across the board. The total is also firm at 47.5 across the board. PICK: Appalachian State
California (3-6) (5-4 ATS) at Oregon State -13.5 (6-3) (7-2 ATS)
The Golden Bears scored 28 points in the second half last week at USC, but it was not enough as the fell on the sword, 41-35. Trojans’ quarterback, Caleb Williams passed for 360 yards and four touchdowns. It took a late field goal for Washington to finish off Oregon State, 24-21. The Beavers were limited to 262 yards of offense including just 87-yards passing. Cal is 7-3 ATS in its last 10 games against an opponent in the North Division. The total has gone over in 4 of Cal’s last 5 games when playing on the road against Oregon State. Oregon State is 7-2 ATS in its last 9 games. Oregon State is hovering around 13.5, but the total is firm at 49 across the board. PICK: California
#15 North Carolina (8-1) (4-4-1 ATS) at Wake Forest -3.5 (6-3) (6-3 ATS)
North Carolina took care of business at Virginia, 31-28. Tar Heels’ quarterback, Drake Maye threw for 293 yards and two touchdowns. Wake Forest was eaten alive by the Wolfpack, 30-21. The Demon Deacons ground game was non-existent as they managed 17 yards on 25 carries. UNC is 1-4 ATS in its last 5 games when playing on the road against Wake Forest. The total has gone over in 5 of Wake Forest’s last 6 games against UNC. Wake Forest is 7-3 ATS in its last 10 games. Wake Forest is holding steady at -3.5 and the total rose one notch to 77.5. PICK: Wake Forest
BYU (5-5) (3-7 ATS) – bye week
Last week, the Cougars won on the road at Boise State, 31-28. BYU quarterback, Jaren Hall completed 29 of 42 passes for 377 yards including three touchdowns and two interceptions. Next game vs. Utah Tech.
Stanford (3-6) (2-7 ATS) at #13 Utah -24 (7-2) (5-4 ATS)
Stanford suffered from a wild fire against Washington State last week while getting torched, 52-14. The Cougars tallied 514 yards of offense including 208-yards passing and another 306-yards rushing. Time of possession helped Utah cage the Arizona Wildcats, 45-20. Utah held the ball for an entire quarter longer than Arizona. Stanford is 1-12 ATS in its last 13 games against an opponent in the Pac-12 Conference. The total has gone under in 4 of Utah’s last 6 games against Stanford. Utah is firm at -24 and the total is flopping around 54. PICK: Stanford
Fresno State -9.5 (5-4) (3-6 ATS) at UNLV (4-5) (6-3 ATS)
Fresno State stole gold at the end of Hawaii’s rainbow defeating them, 55-13. The Bulldogs racked up a whopping 572 yards of offense. UNLV lost its fifth game of the season at the hands of San Diego State. The Aztecs were held to under 100 yards rushing, but it was enough to lead them to a 14-10 victory. Fresno State is 3-7 ATS in its last 10 games. The total has gone over in 4 of Fresno State’s last 5 games. UNLV is 9-4 ATS in its last 13 games. Fresno opened at -8.5 before moving to -9.5 and the total increased by two to 59. PICK: UNLV
#25 Florida State -6.5 (6-3) (6-3 ATS) at Syracuse (6-3) (6-3 ATS)
It did not take much for Pittsburgh to take down Syracuse last week, 19-9. Syracuse could only manage 145 yards of total offense including 25-yards rushing on 25 carries. Meanwhile, Florida State strongarmed the U in Miami, 45-3. The Hurricanes were held to 188 total yards of offense including four turnovers. Florida State is 5-0 ATS in its last 5 games on the road. Florida State is 7-2 ATS in its last 9 games against an opponent in the Atlantic Coast Conference. The total has gone under in 5 of Syracuse’s last 6 games. Florida State is sitting at -6.5 across the board as well as the total at 51. PICK: Florida State
Louisville (6-3) (6-3 ATS) at #12 Clemson -7 (8-1) (4-5 ATS)
The Cardinals flew circles around the Dukes defeating James Madison, 34-10. Louisville quarterback, Malik Cunningham threw for 223 yards and three touchdowns. Wide receiver, Tyler Hudson caught six passes for 142 yards and one touchdown. Clemson was embarrassed in South Bend by Notre Dame, 35-14. The Tigers were shutout for three quarters. Louisville is 0-5 ATS in its last 5 games against Clemson. The total has gone over in 4 of Louisville’s last 5 games against an opponent in the Atlantic Coast Conference. Clemson is 20-0 SU in its last 20 games at home. Clemson is sitting nicely at -7 and the total rose one notch to 52. PICK: Clemson
Boston College (2-7) (2-7 ATS) at #17 NC State -19 (7-2) (3-6 ATS)
Last week, Duke shot down the Boston College Eagles, 38-31. Even in defeat, Boston College quarterback, Emmett Morehead shined while passing for 330 yards and four touchdowns. NC State shined as well muscling Wake Forest, 30-21. Boston College is 2-4 SU in its last 6 games against NC State. The total has gone under in 4 of Boston College’s last 5 games when playing on the road against NC State. NC State is 1-4 ATS in its last 5 games against an opponent in the Atlantic Coast Conference. The line moved from -18 to NC State -19. However, the total has remained firm at 42. PICK: NC State
Colorado (1-8) (2-7 ATS) at #8 USC -34 (8-1) (5-4 ATS)
USC protected its house last week against California, 41-35. It was an offensive warfare as Cal tallied 469 yards of offense while the Trojans added 515 yards of its own. The same cannot be said for the Colorado Buffalos who were skinned alive by #8 Oregon, 49-10. The Ducks managed 479 yards of offense including 284 yards threw the air and 195 yards on the ground. Colorado is 0-10 SU in their last 10 games against USC. Colorado is 2-7 ATS in its last 9 games. The total has gone under in 4 of USC’s last 6 games against Colorado. USC opened at -32 before climbing up to -34. The total also rose two spots to 66. PICK: USC
*Notre Dame’s 2022 opponents listed in bold.
If we win the last two, and our Bowl game, PYNE will be 9-1…a higher winning percentage than Book, but also than Rockne, Leahy, and ARA.
Coach Freeman will be 10-3, one of the best first season results in ND history.
On the other hand, if we take another loss, ending 9-4, it looks more like Dan Devine’s worst season, 7-4, 1979. That’s where this kind of incosistancy gets you.
GO IRISH, BEAT BC!
BGC 77 82
This stroll down memory lane brought to you by Wether’s Originals….mmmmm, now that’s candy!
It’s been pretty common over the last 15 years especially during Kelly’s run for Notre Dame to make minimal adjustments during Halftime whether winning or losing so today’s second half debacle isn’t really that surprising. Rees is a Kelly puppet and should be demoted or let go at seasons end. Moving forward ND needs to utilize the transfer portal and find a quality QB because we won’t be able to stomach another season of Pyne in 23
The last 15 seasons: 13.3% Weis, 80% Kelly, and 6.7% Freeman (after 2 more games).
Kelly is also noted for having publicly humiliated, confidence sapped, and driven off more highly ranked QBs than anyone I can ever remember.
We all recognize that QB position is incredibly weak.
There are only two ways to improve that for 2023:
Transfer portal….and/or the incumbent gets a helluva lot better.
So all that any OC can do for NOW is try to coach Pyne up into a much more effective QB. Which includes letting him pass the ball….even if it scares the bejeezuz out of everyone, and perhaps ends badly.
You know why we blow on offense today? Audric Estime having only 8 f’n carries. He averaged over 6 yards a carry and had a 30 yard TD catch. But touches the ball 9 times. Our best offensive weapon outside of Mayer has 9 touches. That’s on Freeman. Personnel decisions are always on the head coach.
Well I played golf today which always qualified as a solid plan B. WTF happened today? Saw we were ahead rather comfortably at half but barely squeaked by. Recorded the game but from reading the post game comments maybe I should save myself some aggravation.
ND went into halftime as a team that just played 6 straight quarters of lights-out football.
And at halftime, decided that was enough.
12 yards total offense in 2nd half….that’s a big time ninnymuggins….!
Another blocked punt….surreal.
And an excellent reaction to the surprise onside kick.
Special teams is a core weapon at ND !?!……did Kelly just use a bunch of walk-ons for this stuff ?
The 2nd half offense was disgraceful.
35 in the first half…..and then back to the ND sleepwalking act.
Pyne in the pocket looked like a tackling dummy.
That he made a few solid completions in the first half —including a TD that should by all rights have been a red zone INT — convinced Rees to forget everything he saw form his l’il buddy for the last 5 games.
Dude! The O-line hardly did him any favors today, but Pyne is just NOT a decisive, field-aware QB.
Navy just scorching thru all their TOs almost seemed like their special salute to honor ‘he who lacks honor’.
As I said earlier…
Get the W, sing the songs, get the hell out of Dodge without injuries.
So mission (barely) accomplished.
Freeman has a real problem.
I believe in this guy so I hope he gets some mentoring or learns how to rope the mental shape of this team.
It stinks of Kelly without the fear of an a$$h/le for a coach.
They play a great half, then go into coast mode. The players stop hustling. The coaches go conservative.
And here’s the key. No one screams at the team or encourages them to wake up. The second half was complete passivity as if the outcome was decided by a previous coin flip.
Navy played 60 minutes. The Irish played 30 plus about 5 minutes of decent plays in half number 2
As far as I’m concerned ND came out of this weekend 1-1. W 35-13 L 0-19
Freeman has 9 games experience, and isn’t costing nearly what Kelly’s shyster agent got ND to pay for “Mr. Proven Champion:.
No muffing the pronunciation of “Notre Dame”, no tirades, no player shaming, not a farce of delay of game penatlies (…or timeouts to prevent them), no pompous belittling of the media at his pressers,
….and still a shot at a first season 9-3, versus Kelly’s 8-4.
So far, breath of fresh air.
I don’t mind stale air if I’m smelling it in the Playoffs
LSU doesn’t mind the phony southern accent right now. They care about winning football games. Notre Dame used to too
THey beat a .500 team…..and Kelly did his very best to blow that game in the last 3 minutes.
You effing two-faced POS jabroni.
Agreed for sure. Freeman converted to Catholicism this year while Kelly has said he’s not a real Catholic.
They just gotta cleanse this crap out of the system.
Today was dejavu all
Over again.
This play in the 2nd half is completely unacceptable. Playing down to the competition, it drives me fricking crazy why they do this. Freeman has demonstrated a pattern of not having consistency in the 2nd half. Where is the team from last week. Sure looked the part in the first half. 2nd half, JFC! ND should be boat racing these guys, not barely hanging on for their lives, SMH😡😡😡
The “competition” never gave up, executed their gamepeln very well, and almost pulled out a stunner.
They should be rightly insulted by your “playing down” comment.
It was ND’s job to play UP to their level in the 2nd half…but they blew it.
Maddening to watch for sure…..years and years and years of watching them take foot off gas and go conservative…..NEVER PLAYING AND COACHING FOR THE NEXT GAME…..! REES sucks, period. Never cared for him as QB or Offensive play caller. Give him the hook. Freeman sucks for keeping the bk left over. Defense collapse in 2nd half. Still after all these years, still not ready for primetime….what an ongoing shame.
Marcus Freeman seriously needs to consider getting a new offensive coordinator. This second half performance is a flat out embarrassment.
Not to be an apologist for Rees, but I think its very possible has has too personal a relationship with Pyne, which might be impairing his (otherwise possibly) better judgement.
No one could be that blind to Pyne’s severe limitations.
Notredame is maddening to watch. Tommy gets super conservative, undisciplined play on defense. Pyne getting passes batted down. Watching th I s second half shows you how far away Notredame is to a Georgia,Ohio State etc. Yes there is a talent gap but Tommy needs to go. He is not consistent and either are any of these quarterbacks. Ohio State, Georgia, Michigan would absolutely destroy Navy.
Having a seasoned coach like Kelly at the helm made up for a lot of flaws with our assistant coaching staff
Freeman has been consistently out-coached at halftime all season
“Delay of Game” Kelly? or “Take the Ball and ‘Go 3-and-Out” Kelly?
First ballot inductee to the Hall of Arseholes.
conservative? tommy rees doesn’t know you can call running plays. navy is selling out on defense on every play and every pass play is down the field. what about throwing some quick passes to defeat the rush. oh that would be conservative.
What about second and 15 and third and 12 the first drive of the third quarter. Notredame ran Diggs and Estime straight up the middle back to back plays. What offensive coordinator does that?. Then on the second drive 2 straight runs up the middle with Tyree and Diggs. I agree Pyne was trying to go deep too much. No slants, screens. Also as the saying goes if an employee is bad don’t blame him blame the guy that hired him. Pyne Buchner are Tommy’s hand picked recruits. He has completely botched 2023 quarterback recruiting.
not 1 screen pass, not 1 quick out pass to WR! Irish cant continue with T REES, he’s baffled by navys pathetic def!! If FREEMAN wants to b successful he needs to bring in a PROVEN O COORDINATOR!! How bout posting my comments for a change11 what a joke
It’s good to see the Irish dominate through the air. A lot of armchair offensive coordinators learning today why they just comment on the internet instead of designing actual game plans
Coach Jabroni has spoken.
Brian Mason deserves some kind of national recognition for his coaching of the special teams unit. Notre Dame just set a record that hasn’t been approached since the middle of FDR’s presidency. 7 block punts. That is incredible.
FWIW….
USC lost star running back Dye for the season….which makes their UCLA game tougher…which makes the odds of USC being in ranked in the Top 10 for the ND game slightly worse.
FWIW.
This is the kind of game that Freeman has shown he struggles with. Fortunately the game isn’t at home, so whatever distractions caused Freeman to screw up the prep for Marshall and Stanford won’t be there.
It’s always tough having a head coach doing his on the job training—but with an administration that offers so little support, we’re going to have to hope we catch an up-and-comer, and maybe that’s Freeman. Hopefully he can get us back to where Kelly had us before he jumps ship for a school with an AD that will let him provide proper facilities and nutrition for his players.
Today will tell us a lot about how Freeman has grown
You struggle with schizophrenia.
Ask yourself “WWBD?”, and go pound sand.
Run the fucking football down there throats. This will keep the defense fresh and lessen the chance of injuries. Last thing we need is 15 play Navy drives followed by 3 to 5 play ND drives whether it be quick scores or punts. This scenario has worn NDs Defense out in the past under Kelly’s pass happy offense. Run the damn football.
I remember when Tim Brown got his finger caught in a NAVY mesh jersey, and was injured substantially through the Cotton Bowl!
BGC 77 82
The one positive factor for Pyne to at least attempt some passes is that Navy linemen are not as tall as Clemson.
But without basic accuracy from a QB, you still best run the ball.
And Kelly was nothing if not offensive. Offensive as fuck.