USC +3 2.2% play
USC+3
USC is 2-4 ATS this season, and now they go on the road for their most difficult task to face the Notre Dame team that suffered their season ending 2nd loss. I don’t think Notre Dame planned to suffer their 2nd loss already this season, but the fact is they let the Ohio State game get away, they should have lost to Duke, and Lousiville pretty much dominated that game if you ask me. This game to me is all about the coaching mismatch, and although I don’t respect the DC of USC for obvious reasons. Lincoln Riley is head and shoulders above Marcus Freeman who continues to make poor decisions late in the game. Notre Dame’s offense is also lacking, which is surprising since Sam Hartman is their QB, but Hartman has struggled when competition has picked up, and he lacks the athletic receivers he had at Wake Forest.
Ironically I bet Notre Dame +5 last year on the road, and now they’re 3 point favorites, which I can’t see that big of a line move in this match up. My handicap was USC’s poor run defense (120th at the time) against Notre Dame’s strength of running the ball, but USC actually held them to 90 yards rushing in the game. Now doing that on the road poses more of a challenge, but I like USC’s coaching staff more to make adjustments, and this is a pretty big game for the Trojans who want to prove something as everyone is talking about Oregon and Washington being the best teams out of the PAC 12. Lastly, this is Notre Dame’s 8th week in a row playing football and that includes a trip to Ireland to start the season. The last 3 weeks have been high leverage, and I just have to think and it maybe showed last week… What does this team have left?
