Big Ten Redemption This Weekend? Week 3 Vegas Big Ten Predictions Here.
Saturday Blitz Big Ten Predictions Week 3
Purdue Boilermakers at No. 11 Notre Dame Fighting Irish
Line: Notre Dame by 27.5
The Notre Dame Fighting Irish look like they are ready to compete for a national championship this year, despite being so young. The return of Everett Golson appears to have lit a major spark in Brian Kelly’s team that has created an offensive juggernaut. And the defense is clearly not bad, despite the key suspensions. Now they host a Purdue team that is all about ball control and forcing turnovers, so with a high-powered rushing attack, the Irish might as well play their game. Why try to score a lot and risk turnovers when your run game can win for you? The Irish should focus on that to get the easy victory.
Purdue, meanwhile, has looked awful after coming off of a terrible loss to Central Michigan. In Darrell Hazell’s second year as head coach, there now appears to not be much improvement. Hazell’s second team still can play defense or keep its offense on the field, which are kind of two big deals for a team molded the Jim Tressel way. To beat Notre Dame, Purdue will have to have both of those things happen plus find a way to force lots of turnovers. Otherwise, this is a team that won’t show any improvement and will get flattened on Saturday.
Prediction
The Irish will have no trouble with Purdue. Golson will have a field day with 3 rushing touchdowns and 2 passing touchdowns before Notre Dame pulls him out and sits on the victory. This will be a boring game that is over quickly, and the Irish have nothing to worry about.
Notre Dame: 45 Purdue: 17