The 18th ranked Michigan Wolverines are set to take on the No. 11 Notre Dame Fighting Irish in what should be one of the best games in college football this Saturday. Both teams have encountered success early, and while Michigan fell to the Alabama Crimson Tide in week one, they\u2019ve bounced back nicely heading into this week\u2019s matchup. <\/p>\n
No. 18 Michigan Wolverines (2-1) vs No. 11 Notre Dame Fighting Irish (3-0)<\/strong>
\n Saturday September 22, 2012<\/strong>
\n Notre Dame Stadium, Notre Dame, IN<\/strong>
\n 7:30 PM ET<\/strong>
\n Moneyline: Notre Dame -220, Michigan +190 from\u00a0GTBets.eu<\/a><\/strong>
\n Spread: Notre Dame -5.5<\/strong>
\n O\/U: 50.5<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\nMatchup<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0Preview<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n
At this point, it looks as if the game will come down to Notre Dame\u2019s defenses versus Denard Robinson and the offense of the Wolverines.<\/p>\n
Michigan Wolverines<\/h3>\n
The Michigan Wolverines entered the 2012 season with a lot of hype surrounding them, only to be shut down and embarrassed by the Alabama Crimson Tide in week one. Denard Robinson struggled throwing the ball (11\/26, 200 YDS, 1 TD, 2 INT), and the rushing game was never established.<\/p>\n
However, since the first week of the season, this team has looked like a whole new ball club.<\/p>\n
GRAB OUR BEST Expert CFB Picks for 2012 NCAA FOOTBALL Betting! \u2014\u2013><\/strong><\/a><\/h3>\n
Having averaged 47 points per game since the opener, Robinson has been able to boost his rushing game up to 351 yards on the season with an average of 8.8 yards per carry and four touchdowns. His passing game is still inconsistent (6 TD, 4 INT) but he\u2019s boosted his completion percentage to nearly 55 percent on the year.<\/p>\n
The last time these two teams faced each other, Robinson went off for 338 yards and four scores through the air\u2014not to mention 108 yards and one touchdown on the ground. The only problem? That big-time performance came with three big-time interceptions.<\/p>\n
Notre Dame\u2019s defense has been top-notch this season, and they\u2019re going to make life difficult for Robinson if they can keep him in between the tackles where they want him.<\/p>\n
Notre Dame Fighting Irish<\/h3>\n
Notre Dame hasn\u2019t started off this hot in a very long time. The team is 3-0 following an impressive victory over No. 10 Michigan State last weekend, and they\u2019ve showcased one of the best defenses in the country up to this point in 2012.<\/p>\n
To start 4-0 would be huge for a team with a tough schedule ahead, but they\u2019ll first have to defeat a Michigan squad that has been a tough group to get past in recent history.\u00a0[soliloquy id=”82219″]<\/p>\n
The Wolverines\u2019 offensive line has improved this season, but the question is, can they match the prowess of Notre Dame\u2019s defensive front? If they can, the game should be theirs. If they can\u2019t, the Fighting Irish should dominate defensively, making it difficult for anybody to make plays on Michigan\u2019s side of the ball.<\/p>\n
On paper, the Fighting Irish are the slim favorites in this contest. Their defense has been outstanding and they defeated a top 10 team handedly just last week; but one thing they\u2019ll be reminded of this weekend is that there may not be a more versatile player in all of college football than Denard Robinson.<\/p>\n
Robinson has beaten the Fighting Irish all three times he\u2019s face them in his career (once as a backup), and is looking for No. 4 this weekend\u2014last season\u2019s faceoff proved to be one of the best, most dramatic games of the year. These two teams have a history of going down to the wire, and the past few seasons, it\u2019s been the Wolverines emerging on top.<\/p>\n
This game should be close, but keep your eyes out for the upset in Notre Dame.<\/p>\n
Trends<\/h3>\n
Wolverines are 4-1 ATS in their last 5 games after allowing less than 170 yards passing in their previous game.
\nWolverines are 5-1 ATS in their last 6 vs. INDEP.
\nUnder is 4-0 in Wolverines last 4 road games vs. a team with a winning home record
\nUnder is 4-1 in Wolverines last 10 vs. a team with a winning record.
\nUnder is 4-0 in Fighting Irish last 4 games following a S.U. win.
\nUnder is 3-0-1 in Fighting Irish last 4 vs. Big Ten.<\/p>\nO\/U Pick: Under 50.5<\/strong>
\nScore Prediction: Michigan 24 \u2013 Notre Dame 20<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Wolverines vs Fighting Irish Football Spread\/Handicapping The 18th ranked Michigan Wolverines are set to take on the No. 11 Notre Dame Fighting Irish in what should be one of the best games in college football this Saturday. Both teams have encountered success early, and while Michigan fell to the Alabama Crimson Tide in week one, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":68,"featured_media":24354,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[39626,324,327,1829,34124,766,769,1984,34122],"class_list":["post-55107","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ncaa-football","tag-39626","tag-college-football-odds","tag-college-football-predictions","tag-michigan-vs-notre-dame","tag-michigan-wolverines-vs-notre-dame-fighting-irish","tag-ncaa-football-lines","tag-ncaa-football-picks","tag-week-4","tag-wolverines-vs-fighting-irish"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55107","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/68"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=55107"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55107\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":55110,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55107\/revisions\/55110"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24354"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=55107"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=55107"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=55107"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}