No. 14 Stanford invades South Bend taking on No. 9 Notre Dame

Stanford Cardinals (-2, 44.5 o/u) at Notre Dame Fighting Irish 

With all of the national talk about No. 9 Notre Dame (4-0, 2-0 home), the Fighting Irish will be able to make a statement this weekend against No. 14 Stanford.

The Cardinals visit South Bend with their defense allowing only 198 yards per game, not to mention the nation’s top scoring defense (6.5 points). However, Stanford’s offense has been mediocre averaging 413.3 total yards per game with nine turnovers.

Stanford head coach David Shaw said, “Turnovers and penalties and missed field goals have crushed us in the red zone. It’s being confident. It’s being efficient. It’s being productive. It’s always advancing, never retreating.”

The Fighting Irish will have to contend with Cardinal running backs Remound Wright, Kelsey Young, Barry Sanders and Ricky Seale.Last weekend on a high-profile stage Notre Dame won-in-a-less-than-stellar fashion over Syracuse. Notre Dame head coach Brian Kelly said, “We really focus on what we need to do to get better. We turned the ball over. We gave up some big plays on the perimeter. We focus a lot more on that stuff than the bigger picture issues.

“We are not an experienced group and if we sway too far from working on getting out of our breaks and taking a direct snap, because we may fumble it, we’re going to be in trouble. So that’s where I really have to stay as a task master when it comes to those details.”

Unless you’re sold on one or the other, these are two teams that are as evenly matched as possible, which makes taking the points for either a coin flip at best. If you need a play here, think about the over but it will be a nail biter.