Another week of being slaughtered against the spread with my picks. But the faltering of Michigan on Saturday afternoon makes it so worth it. Let me never guess another pick correctly for the rest of eternity if we can witness a Michigan face-planting of epic proportions at least once a year. Hey, it's time for [...]
Easy, it was not. Notre Dame walked into the L.A. Coliseum on Saturday night with a playoff berth on the line and found itself quickly struggling against a precision short-passing game from JT Daniels and a revived USC defense with an aggressive blitz-heavy attack. It took a while, but the Irish righted the ship, crawled [...]
The stakes are high as the Fighting Irish take the biennial plane ride to Los Angeles and face their rival Southern California Trojans. For Notre Dame, a trip to their first-ever College Football Playoff is on the line while USC has little to play for except a minor bowl game or the role of spoiler [...]
One more full regular season week remains which means it's now Rivalry Week. Or for some, Hate Week. The top of our rankings remain static once again as we tumble towards what is looking like the most drama-free playoff race since its inception 5 years ago. Certainly there has to be some craziness awaiting us [...]
It wasn't Syracuse's day, that's for sure. After the Orange's 9th play from scrimmage they lost quarterback Eric Dungey to a mysterious back issue after just crossing mid-field and trying to climb back from an early 10-0 deficit. Although considered the better passer, Syracuse's backup quarterback did not fare well and was harassed for the [...]
Worst title ever. This will be only the 9th all-time meeting between Notre Dame and Syracuse which doesn't seem right. Whether it's the basketball rivalry coloring things stretching back to the Big East days or the fact that this will be the 6th meeting in the past 16 years on the gridiron, this feels like [...]
We found ourselves with a very quiet weekend and as a result not a single team moves inside the 18 Stripes Top 12 rankings. The rest of the rankings, well, they continue to be awfully weird. That's good because this upcoming weekend is as bereft of traditional big games as any in recent memory. There's [...]
Notre Dame barely could've scripted a better start to Saturday's game forcing a turnover on the second play from scrimmage and quickly jumping out to a 17-0 lead just over halfway through the 1st quarter. It was never close beyond Florida State closing the gap briefly to 11 points before the Irish ran away with [...]
Notre Dame won on Senior Day and it wasn't close. An interception by the forgotten Nick Coleman on Florida State's first series brought the ball deep into Seminole territory. From there, the Irish would score and the route was on inside a frigid Notre Dame Stadium. Run Game Stepped Up (and On FSU) The Irish [...]
It seems just like yesterday that Florida State was no longer the 9-win team incapable of breaking through and suddenly had morphed into an elite National Championship team. There was a time from mid-2011 through mid-2015 that the Seminoles were on a scorching hot 52-4 run that probably isn't fully appreciated yet historically. Today, things [...]
A huge week of betting from week 10 puts me in better spirits after a rough 9th week of football. On the field we continue to see a bunch of ranked teams losing which has opened the door to many unfamiliar guests in our rankings. We've moved into the gut-check time that is November! 18 [...]
Notre Dame's run game sputtered against Northwestern and wasn't able to consistently help the offense move the football down the field. I targeted a handful of plays that I thought were interesting from Saturday and worthy of additional conversation. I'm opening up the film room and flipping on the projector. RP(N)O This is the very [...]
Northwestern opened up the upset playbook on Saturday night, covered several pages, then found out their game plan had limits as the Fighting Irish talent was too much to overcome. With moments of dominance, Notre Dame's 9th win of the season was sprinkled in with lots of frustration in a close game until a gut-check [...]
The rivalry with Northwestern that was prevalent in the 1920's, 30's, 40's, 60's, and 70's has made a little comeback. On Saturday, the Irish will face the Wildcats for the second time in 5 whole years. Even better, this will be Notre Dame's first trip to Northwestern's campus since 1976. Notre Dame (-10) at Northwestern [...]
It was a rough week for my picks against the spread. Thank goodness this is all pretend money. With another fabulous week in the books we're inching closer to the real rankings being released. Beginning tonight, so set your iPhone alarms. Here's our website's Top 20 after week 9. 18 Stripes Top 20 Poll [...]
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