Notre Dame Football: 3 reasons the Irish will beat No. 18 Wisconsin

It’s been a shaky start to the season for Notre Dame football. The Irish might be 3-0 and ranked No. 12 in the country, but they’re moving in the wrong direction in the rankings.

Notre Dame opened the year with a blown 18-point fourth-quarter lead at Florida State before heading home to nearly lose in shocking fashion to Toledo. The Irish then beat Purdue by a couple of touchdowns and now they face their first ranked foe of the season in No. 18 Wisconsin at Soldier Field in Chicago.

This is going to be one of the best games of the weekend and it’ll kick off Saturday’s slate of games the right way.

But here’s why the Irish are going to come out on top.

3. Kyren Williams finally has breakout game

You have to feel for Kyren Williams a bit at this point. It can’t be easy going from breakout 1,000-yard rusher as a freshman to struggling to hit 200 rushing yards as a sophomore through three games. Sure, he’s going to be just fine, but the mental toll this takes is probably large for a young back.

But he’s going to break out in a big way on Saturday afternoon at Soldier Field. He’s going to give Wisconsin its toughest test of the season defensively, rushing for over 100 yards and finally breaking out against the best defense Notre Dame has seen yet.

The Badgers have allowed just 33 rushing yards per game over its first two contests and Williams is going to more than triple that number on his own.

I think we’re due for a Williams breakout and on the big stage, this feels like it.