Notre Dame Football: 3 bold predictions for Boston College matchup

3. Notre Dame records five sacks

I’ll admit, this one may seem to be somewhat of a reach. It has been a while since the Irish have had much to boast about in terms of their defensive line, but things have been coming together as of late. The Irish have recorded two sacks in both of their games up to this point and have yet to show signs of slowing down.

Notre Dame was extremely inconsistent when it came to bringing down the quarterback last year, so it’s a good sign that they have already got off to a good start. To show just how erratic this squad was in the sack column last season, here is a week by week look at the Irish sack totals from last season:

1. at Texas: 0
2. vs. Nevada: 0
3. at Michigan State: 0
4. vs. Duke: 1
5. at Syracuse: 2
6. at North Carolina State: 0
7. vs. Stanford: 3
8. vs. Miami: 5
9. vs. Navy: 0
10. vs. Army: 2
11. vs. Virginia Tech: 1
12. at USC: 0

As you can see, consistency across the board was missing from the defensive line last season. Neither home vs away, good vs poor competition, nor weather conditions seemed to play a part in determining Notre Dame’s sack totals in 2016.

However, the Irish have started out strong this season, with multi-sack games in each of their two contests thus far. With a Boston College offensive line recovering in the wake of injuries, expect Notre Dame to go after the quarterback hard and heavy from the get-go.

Don’t be surprised to see Notre Dame pull off sack numbers similar to what they achieved against Miami last year, especially if linemen Micah Dew-Treadway and Elijah Taylor are able to suit up for Saturday’s game.