Notre Dame Fighting Irish vs. Clemson Tigers
Saturday night, the marquee match up in Week Five of the college football season gives us a game that most were looking forward to before the season began. The No. 8 Notre Dame Fighting Irish will go on the road for a night game in one of the more hostile places to play in all of college football, Death Valley, to take on the Clemson Tigers.
Both of these teams are coming in with undefeated records on the year and College Football Playoff hopes still intact. However, after Saturday night, those hopes will be in serious jeopardy for one of these teams.
Notre Dame is coming off a win over UMass last weekend, while Clemson will be coming into this one fresh after a bye week.
Details for Saturday’s game are below.
Date: Oct. 3
Start Time: 8 p.m. ET
Location: Clemson, SC
Stadium: Memorial Stadium
TV Info: ABC
Live Stream: WatchESPN app
Ticket Information: For Clemson ticket info, click here. For Notre Dame ticket info, click here.
Keys to Victory
Notre Dame
This Notre Dame team has been on a roll to start the season, despite this roster being depleted by injuries. That’s because DeShone Kizer has filled in nicely at the quarterback position thus far, but really the most important factor in their success is how C.J. Prosise has commanded the running game. With 600 yards and six touchdowns so far, Prosise has proven to be a nice key to making this Irish offense click. With this being Kizer’s first start on the road, especially in such a hostile environment, Prosise will have to shoulder his biggest load yet. You want to take as much weight off of Kizer’s shoulders as possible on Saturday night. Another productive night from this Notre Dame back will go a long way in keeping this team unbeaten.
Clemson
Offensively, everything pretty much goes without saying when it comes to the Tigers. Everything begins and ends with DeShaun Watson. No, their key on Saturday night in beating Notre Dame is getting another solid outing from the defensive side of the ball. As far as Clemson goes, their defense has been a nice surprise thus far, as that was supposed to be the unit that was going to hinder them. So far, that has not been the case.
While stopping the aforementioned Prosise is a definite, they must also make sure that the Irish passing game doesn’t go absolute bonkers with Kizer and Will Fuller, who has already tallied 454 yards and six touchdowns receiving. One thing that Clemson cannot have happen is getting beat deep over the top one too many times, or they’ll have heartbreak in Death Valley.
Odds
Point Spread: Clemson -2.5
Money Line: Notre Dame +110, Clemson -230
O/U: 51.5
Prediction
This is a battle between two very good football teams and there is a legitimate chance that the winner of this game could be off to the College Football Playoff come the end of December. The team that comes out of their on Saturday with those chances still intact will be the Clemson Tigers.
It’s admirable to this point what Notre Dame has pulled off despite their injury misfortunes, but the buck stops here against what is, again, a very solid Tigers defense. Clemson will do just enough on defense to get the win at home in Death Valley.
Final Score: Clemson 21, Notre Dame 17
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