The Notre Dame Fighting Irish will be visiting the Arizona State Sun Devils at Sun Devil Stadium in Tempe this Saturday, November 8th in a clash between two top-25 NCAA football teams. Both squads enter the game with identical 7-1 records and neither team can afford a loss of they hope to secure a playoff spot. Notre Dame is coming off of a 49-39 win over Navy last weekend while Arizona State beat Utah 19-16 in overtime.
Notre Dame vs Arizona State Nov 8th, 2014 – bet365 college football betting lines: Notre Dame vs Arizona State – Irish (+2.5) at 20/21 and Sun Devils (-2.5) at 20/23, Over under 60.0 points at 10/1
Notre Dame rebounded with a win against Navy last week after losing to Florida State in their previous game. However, Notre Dame blew a third-quarter 21-point lead against Navy and recovered before it was too late to nail down the victory. Navy racked up 24 straight points to jump ahead 31-28 before Notre Dame quarterback Everett Golson got his team back on the right track with a three-yard TD run. Golson carried the ball nine times for 33 yards in the game and went 18 for 25 in passing for 315 yards.
Golson’s fine performance saw him become the first-ever Notre Dame player to rush for three touchdowns and pass for three touchdowns in the same contest. He’ll be facing a Sun Devils team that ranks 58th defensively in the FBS as they concede a total of 385.3 yards per game on average. If there is a weak spot in Golson’s game it’s his interception rate. He’s been picked off half a dozen times in the past four outings after going the first three games without being intercepted once. He’s still having a good year though and ranks number 14 for starting quarterbacks when it comes to passing yards with 288.9 per game.
Arizona State sits in first place in the Pac-12 South Division following their close win against Utah last week. Zane Gonzalez booted the game-winning field goal from 36 yards out to extend Arizona State’s winning streak to four games. Gonzalez went 4 for 5 in field goal attempts. Andy Phillips of Utah blew a 35-yard field goal try earlier in overtime. The Sun Devils are 5-1 in Pac-12 and have a good shot at making the playoffs if they can keep on winning.
Arizona State quarterback Taylor Kelly is still a little rusty after a broken foot sidelined him for over a month. He gained just 205 yards in the air in his second contest back against Utah by going 18 for 32. He also tossed a TD pass and an interception. He’ll need to be in top form against the Fighting Irish as Arizona’s point output has decreased in each of the last three games. However, they did face some good defensive squads in Utah, Washington, and Stanford.
Notre Dame also fits into that category as they allow just 131.9 yards against them on the ground per game on average, which ranks them 31st in the FBS. Expect the Sun Devils to run though since Demario Richard is in fine form. He carried the ball 14 times last week for 116 yards to reach the 100-yard mark for the first time in the 2014 season and the team had 239 yards on the ground in total. Arizona State has gone 3-1 at home so far this season while Notre Dame is 2-1 on the road.
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