Notre Dame Football: 3 reasons the Irish will beat Purdue in Week 3

Two weeks, two near-losses for Notre Dame football.

The Irish opened the season with a primetime game on Sunday night of Labor Day weekend against Florida State in what turned out to be one of the best games of Week 1. The Irish blew an 18-point fourth-quarter lead which resulted in an overtime battle with the Seminoles on the road and they finally held on for a win.

How would Notre Dame respond? By needing the entirety of Week 2’s game against Toledo to take down the Rockets at home. It wasn’t pretty, but a win’s a win. Yet everyone has been jumping off the Notre Dame bandwagon.

Some are even predicting a Purdue upset of the Fighting Irish in South Bend.

Here’s why the Irish will take care of Purdue on Saturday afternoon.

3. Notre Dame got a wake-up call vs. Toledo

Sometimes top teams need wake-up calls to come back down to earth and realize that they are, in fact, beatable. The Irish went into last weekend’s game against Toledo and expected to just walk all over the Rockets, but that just wasn’t the case.

Notre Dame got Toledo’s best effort and luckily Jack Coan woke up on the final drive to lead the Irish to a game-winning score.

The scare was just far too close and you can bet that Brian Kelly is preaching “focus” to his team. No more looking ahead to bigger and better opponents. Purdue happens to be one of those teams that would probably be overlooked by the Fighting Irish in a normal circumstance, but Kelly will have his team prepared.

This was the wake-up call the Fighting Irish needed after an emotional season opener.