Notre Dame Football: 3 bold predictions for huge Syracuse battle

2. The Irish defense allows only two touchdowns

Syracuse, although explosive in almost every facet of offense, has been forced to settle for more redzone field goals than any other team in the nation. While the Orange do a great job of putting themselves in the redzone, they simply haven’t been able to capitalize as much as head coach Dino Babers would like them to.

On top of that, the Irish defense ranks 15th in redzone possessions allowed. The Irish have been fairly stout in these positions, allowing their opponents to score on less than 79 percent of redzone opportunities. Take field goals out of the picture and opponents are scoring redzone touchdowns at a 57 percent clip.

Less than 35 teams in the nation allow under 200 passing yards per game. With 10 games played, Notre Dame is one of those teams. The Irish’s secondary has impressed this season, but they’ve really made their money in the redzone, tied with Clemson for second in fewest passing touchdowns allowed per game.

While the Orange have yet to finish a game with less than three scores, they did come close in their matchup with Clemson. Injury would limit Trevor Lawrence to only 15 pass attempts in that game, so it’ll be interesting to see how the Clemson offense fares with potentially much less time on attack. Look for the Irish defense to make a statement in this game, even if it doesn’t mean limiting Syracuse’s offense to less than two touchdowns.