Notre Dame vs. Vanderbilt Fearless Prediction, Game Preview

By Pete Fiutak | September 9, 2018 11:24 pm

Notre Dame vs. Vanderbilt fearless prediction and game preview.

Broadcast

Date: Saturday, September 15
Game Time: 2:30 ET
Venue: Notre Dame Stadium, South Bend, IN
Network: NBC

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Notre Dame (2-0) vs. Vanderbilt (2-0) Game Preview

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One Reason Why Notre Dame Will Win

The secondary hasn’t allowed much of anything down the field so far.

Michigan might have thrown for 249 yards, but there were a whole lot of dinks and dunks to get there – there was a ton of work for an offense that sputtered. Ball State threw for 180 yards, but again, not much was going on when it came to the big play, and so far, the Irish secondary has come up with two picks.

Kyle Shurmur has been great so far, but the Vanderbilt quarterback has had plenty of time to work against the Middle Tennessee and Nevada defenses. This week, he’s not goin got have the ground game to rely on.

On the other side, the Commodore defensive front hasn’t been tested yet. Notre Dame’s ground game has yet to bust out, but it’s overdue.

One Reason Why Vanderbilt Will Win

Notre Dame isn’t going to be able to get the passing attack going, and it’s going to have to rely on a ground game that’s not working

Mock wins over Middle Tennessee and Nevada if you must, but those two teams can wing the ball all over the yard. They put up a few yards against the Vandy secondary, but not enough to matter. Consider the Irish O line has been a bit shaky so far. the Commodores should be able to bring the heat, and they should be able to pressure Brandon Wimbush.

Wimbush was fine in the win over Ball State, but he has yet to go off. He hasn’t been able to get free and run, and outside of the one early fantastic touchdown pass against Michigan, he’s just not Aaron Rodgers when it comes to getting the ball to his receivers where they can do something with it.

He threw three picks against Ball State, the ground game that was so explosive last year is 104th in the nation, and … the offense isn’t working. So far, the Vandy defense has been solid.

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What’s Going To Happen

Watch … out.

If the Notre Dame that showed up against Ball State gets off the bus against Vanderbilt, it’s going to lose.

Shurmur has been fantastic so far, hitting 67% of his passes with four touchdowns and no mistakes. The Commodores are going to win the turnover battle, and they’re going to make it a four quarter fight. But the Irish defense will turn it on in the second half, the offense will hit two home runs with the ground game, and it’ll be a third straight survive-and-advance game.

It won’t be pretty, but it’ll be 3-0.