Notre Dame Football: 3 reasons the Irish will beat Virginia in Week 11

After three straight home games for Notre Dame football, the Irish hit the road to take on the Virginia Cavaliers under the lights. If you like points then this game should be right up your alley with both offenses having the capability to light up the scoreboard.

Notre Dame comes into this matchup sitting at 8-1 on the season with their one loss coming at home to Cincinnati in early October. There are not many teams playing better as a team than Notre Dame is currently at the moment.

After Tuesday night’s College Football Playoff ranking was announced they find themselves at No. 9 in the country. Even though the Irish are ranked ninth in the latest rankings they still have a playoff pulse. A lot of things would have to go their way moving forward the rest of the way, but there still is a path for the Irish to a playoff berth which would be their third appearance in the last four years.

Notre Dame is coming off a 34-6 win over Navy inside Notre Dame Stadium last Saturday. It was not the prettiest for the Irish on offense being shutout in the first and third quarters, but they showed up and scored in bunches in both the second and fourth quarters to earn a comfortable win overall. One thing that showed up the whole game for the Irish was the defense. The triple-option is not an easy defense to defend at all and the Irish defense did an amazing job getting pressure and keeping the Midshipmen out of the end zone the whole game.

The Virginia Cavaliers are led by Bronco Mendenhall and currently sit at 6-3 on the season. The Cavaliers have a great offense that comes into this matchup averaging 38.9 points per game which is currently the 11th best in football. What is not great is their defense on the other side of the ball as they are currently give up 30.8 points per game to their opponents.

Virginia’s great offense and not so great defense was put on display in their last game against BYU on October 30th in Provo. The Cavaliers lost to BYU 66-49. It was not the homecoming that former BYU head coach Bronco Mendenhall envisioned at all.

When Notre Dame and Virginia take the field on Saturday night it will only be for the fourth time in the series between the two schools. The Irish have won the first three matchups dating back to the first matchup in 1989. The others are more recently being in 2015 and 2019.

If you are a college football junkie then you will most likely remember the moment where Irish quarterback DeShone Kizer found wide receiver Will Fuller for a dramatic late touchdown to take the lead and secure the win back in 2015 at Virginia. A few moments later a Virginia fan was shown hanging over the railing in shock which took off and is still used to this day for different memes.

Do not watch the clip below if you are a Virginia fan.

Here are three reasons why Notre Dame will beat Virginia on Saturday night.