Notre Dame football vs Virginia Tech: 3 Bold Predictions in Week 6

Notre Dame football vs Virginia Tech: 3 Bold Predictions in Week 6

Virginia Tech Wins the Turnover Battle

The Notre Dame defense is designed to create chaos. That’s not new information at this point, but it’s important to remember what chaos means. It means forcing turnovers and creating tackles for loss, at the possible expense of allowing big plays.

The idea is that you force the other team out of any rhythm and steal possessions from them. This should give your offense a short field, making it easier to score. You’re willing to let up the odd big play because it’s less important than that chaos.

So far, the defense has done a good job doing this. The problem is that Virginia Tech isn’t an easy team to turnover. They’ve only thrown two interceptions on the season as a team. Braxton Burmeister, the Hokies‘ starting quarterback, has only thrown one of those to his five touchdowns. To add to that, Virginia Tech has only lost two fumbles.

That’s four turnovers in as many games.

Meanwhile, they’ve forced six turnovers, including five interceptions on the season. That could be an issue for Notre Dame football, which is a mess at quarterback. Either you give Drew Pyne his first start, or you stick with the struggling Jack Coan. On his own, Coan has thrown three interceptions, more than the entire Virginia Tech team.

Overall, Notre Dame has lost four fumbles and four interceptions on the year.

Now, the Hokies haven’t played a defense nearly as strong as Notre Dame’s. The Irish have forced 13 interceptions of their own this season, now through five games. That won’t matter, though, as the Hokies are going to win the turnover battle. Pressure and a high-flying secondary from Virginia Tech will force a handful of mistakes that are going to be incredibly difficult to manage for Notre Dame.