Notre Dame football: Reasonable expectations for Irish in 2021 Week 13
By Brad Weiss
The Notre Dame football team takes on Stanford in Week 13, and here are some reasonable expectations for the Irish in the matchup.
The Notre Dame football team is looking to keep their College Football Playoff hopes alive in Week 13, as they travel west to take on the Stanford Cardinal. In a normal year, this matchup would give Irish fans some worry, but the truth is, Stanford is not very good this season and has been blown out in three straight weeks against Utah, Oregon State, and Cal.
The Irish, on the other hand, are rolling right now, winners of six straight, and are playing defense at a very high level. Here, we look at some reasonable expectations for the Irish on Saturday night inside Stanford Stadium.
Notre Dame football: Reasonable expectations for Irish in 2021 Week 13
Irish cover the spread
At the time of this, the Irish are monster favorites over the Cardinal, going into their road matchup giving Stanford 19.5 points per WynnBet. Based on what we have seen from these two teams as of late, that seems like a very reasonable difference, and one that the Irish should be able to cover, and then some.
Notre Dame has not allowed a touchdown in three games, and the Cardinal are struggling in a big way on offense. I like the Irish to get out to a quick lead, much like they did against Georgia Tech, and finish out beating Stanford by 30.
Defense forces two-plus turnovers
In their matchup against Cal this past weekend, the Stanford offense not only struggled to move the ball, but they also had trouble protecting it. Tanner McKee returned from a knee injury and promptly threw two interceptions, which could be the case against an elite Irish defense in this one.
Marcus Freeman is going to have a great game plan for the Cardinal, and it should include making sure McKee is uncomfortable every time he drops back. If they can succeed in doing that, you can expect two-plus turnovers for Stanford.
Kyren Williams rushes for 100-plus yards
Kyren Williams is very close to back-to-back 100-yard seasons, as he needs a little over 70 yards to accomplish that feat. Against a Stanford defense that was run over by Cal last week, I like Williams to not only get the 72 yards he needs but to eclipse the 100-yard mark, and that is a minimum.
After being snubbed as a Doak Walker finalist, Williams is going to put on a show in primetime against the Cardinal.
These three things are certainly reasonable expectations against a Stanford team that was just blown out at home by Cal. The Cardinal are down this season and are heavy underdogs against the Irish, so when all is said and done, I like the 11-1 Irish to turn their focus to a possible CFP berth Saturday night.