Notre Dame football: Wisconsin Badgers expert on the Week 4 matchup
By Brad Weiss
Notre Dame football will take on Wisconsin on Saturday, and we sat down with a Badgers expert to gauge his views on the crucial matchup.
The Notre Dame football team will go into their Week 4 matchup against Wisconsin with a 3-0 record, after beating Purdue at home this past Saturday. Wisconsin is coming off their bye week and did win the last time out, but they already have a loss to a ranked team on their resume this season.
That loss came in the season opener at home against Penn State, who has since risen to the top-10 in the country. Saturday, these two schools will battle it out inside Soldier Field, so we figured, why not get ahold of BadgeofHonor.com site expert, Christian Borman, to gauge his thoughts on the matchup.
Notre Dame football: Interview with Christian Borman of BadgeofHonor.com
What is one area you feel Wisconsin has a decided advantage?
I think Wisconsin has an advantage on defense. That’s been the strength of the team since Jim Leonhard has been the defensive coordinator. They held the Nittany Lions to 16 points in Week 1 and now they will get Leo Chenal back after missing the first two weeks with a positive covid test.
I think they will force Notre Dame to throw the ball by shutting the running game down, making the Irish one-dimensional.
Who is one Wisconsin player Irish fans should worry about that they may have never heard of
Keeanu Benton anchors the defensive line. He is a run-stopper and can rush the quarterback from the inside. He’s been a stud so far this year. He doesn’t get a ton of attention with Wisconsin’s linebackers, but it wouldn’t surprise me if Benton made a few big plays on Saturday
What is your prediction for Saturday’s game?
I think Wisconsin’s defense will keep the Badgers in this game as they did against Penn St. With an extra week to prepare for the defense, I think the Wisconsin offense will have a solid game plan too, and won’t turn the ball over three times in the red zone.
Prediction: It’s going to be a close game, but Wisconsin pulls it out in the end, 21-18.
We thank Christian for his time! You can follow him on Twitter at @christianborman, as well as all of his site’s analysis heading into this matchup at BadgeofHonor.com.