Notre Dame Fighting Irish vs Virginia Cavaliers preview, prediction, betting odds, live stream info

Notre Dame Fighting Irish vs. Virginia Cavaliers

Malik Zaire and the Notre Dame Fighting Irish dismantled the Texas Longhorns in their opening-week battle. Meanwhile, the Virginia Cavaliers are welcoming the Irish to Scott Stadium on Saturday afternoon as Matt Johns, Taquan Mizzell and company go up against their second top-15 ranked opponent in as many weeks. After falling to the UCLA Bruins last week, the Cavaliers are looking to pull the upset this week.

Details for Saturday’s game are below:

Date: Saturday, Sept. 12
Start Time: 3:30 p.m.
Location: Charlottesville, VA
Stadium: Scott Stadium
TV Info: ABC
Live Stream: WatchESPN
Radio: Here
Ticket information: For Notre Dame ticket information click here.

Keys to Victory

Malik Zaire was phenomenal in just his third taste of game action with the Fighting Irish. Zaire lit up the Longhorns by throwing three touchdown passes, throwing for over 300 yards, and only tossing three incompletions on the day. While that’s promising, it’s also something that young, inexperienced Zaire is going to have to prove wasn’t a fluke when he travels to Charlottesville. On the other side of the ball for Notre Dame, their defense was dominant in their own right against Texas. While the Cavaliers’ offense didn’t light the world on fire against UCLA, Notre Dame is again going to have something to prove on the defensive side of the ball.

Playing off of Zaire’s inexperience, UVA is going to need to make things uncomfortable for the Notre Dame junior. That’s something Texas couldn’t do to Zaire and something the Cavaliers were unable to do against Josh Rosen and UCLA last week. If they want to have the best chance at forcing Zaire into making mistakes and not throwing all over them the way that he did the Longhorns, UVA has to get pressure on him and hit him. Offensively, the Cavaliers need to continue getting Taquan Mizzell the football. Both on the ground and in the passing game, Mizzell is their greatest weapon. He’s going to have to make big plays for the Cavaliers to put the points on the board necessary to keep up with Notre Dame.

Betting Odds

Point Spread: Notre Dame -11.5
Moneyline: Notre Dame -440
O/U: 47.5

Prediction

There’s a good chance that Zaire isn’t as flawless as he was in Notre Dame’s season-opener, but the Fighting Irish should get by on their defense. Though the Longhorns offense didn’t help themselves, Notre Dame looked dominant on that side of the ball. I expect more of the same against the Cavaliers and that Zaire and company will be able to put the competition away even with more mistakes.

Final Score: Notre Dame Fighting Irish: 31, Virginia Cavaliers: 10