Notre Dame vs. Purdue: 3 Keys to the Boilermakers Pulling off the Upset

Notre Dame has to travel to West Lafayette to take on the Purdue Boilermakers on Saturday. Even though the Irish are on the road, they are still 12-point favorites.

Purdue isn't about to lie down, however. Here are three keys to the Boilermakers pulling off the upset. 

Force Some Turnovers

Notre Dame has been notoriously bad so far this season at taking care of the ball. So bad that they've had 3.8 turnovers per game, which is the 117th worst in the nation. Yikes.

With one takeaway per game, Purdue's defense has been decent in that department, but they'll need to be better.

The Boilermakers won't be able to win any type of shootout with Notre Dame, so they will have to force a bunch of turnovers and turn it into a low-scoring game. 

Take Advantage of Red-Zone Opportunities

The Boilermakers haven't been so hot when getting into the red zone this year, scoring on just 62.5 percent of their possessions inside the 20. That's good (read: bad) enough to rank them 107th in the nation.

Purdue has been successful running the ball and moving it down the field with Ralph Bolden and Akeem Shavers, but they often stall when they get close to the end zone. If they want to score enough points to beat the Irish, they will have to get six points whenever they have the opportunity.

Contain Michael Floyd

With 35 catches for 424 yards, Michael Floyd will easily be the most dangerous player on the field Saturday. Not only is he talented, but he is also, without a doubt, Tommy Rees' favorite target.

The Boilermakers need to find a way to blanket Floyd. They need to do this because Rees will fire it in to Floyd even if he's well covered. 

Take Floyd out of the game and maybe it will be a much more winnable game.