Why and How Notre Dame Will Ruin the "Haters" Saturdays

I have read my critics of my previous prediction articles and have decided that they have one point. I have said that expect a perfect regular season this year, without really providing any real explanations as to why I expect this result. Wishful thinking aside, I think I can provide the answers.

First of all, the schedule does provide some lucky breaks for the Irish. The opponents facing Notre Dame all are either rebuilding or suffered some major turnover at key positions. This has been discussed over and over again. We all shall soon see who is correct and who is incorrect.

Secondly, the Irish can really put enormous pressure on any defense they face this year. Notre Dame has two extremely gifted wide-outs, an excellent tight end, and a gifted quarterback. In addition, Notre Dame has skilled running backs with speed and power running. In short, Notre Dame can force defenses to spread out and not concentrate on stopping the run. When you can get a defense to keep guessing, you generally gain yards and score points. At times, Notre Dame was able to do just this against several different opponents.

Unfortunately, Notre Dame was never able to achieve this for an entire game last year. That is because the offensive line simply could not perform well enough. I hope they will this year, but we simply do not know they will at this time.

Thirdly, we come to defense and special teams. Notre Dame's kicker improved over the season and the Notre Dame coverage was excellent all year. The Notre Dame defense is reported to have more speed this year than last year. If a defense brings constant pressure and is able to control the perimeter, the defense will make life miserable for the offense. I do not see any Irish opponent, including the Scum of California, that has both experience to resist the pressure and the skill to attack the perimeter.

To sum it all up, I think that Notre Dame has the skill positions to challenge teams and I hope that the offensive line will be able to protect those players (this is where I could be proven wrong). On the defensive side, I think that the defensive line (could have issues here also) and the linebackers will be able to bring the pressure, while the backfield prevents big plays. Now, let's get on with the season.