Notre Dame Football: Irish as 21-Point Favorites vs. Maryland Are a Bad Bet

The Irish have been a disappointment all season to not only their fans, but also the gamblers that have faith in Notre Dame each and every week. As for covering the spread this season, the Irish are an inconsistent 4-5.

Notre Dame was a 13.5-point favorite last week against a improved Wake Forest team, but barely won the game straight up.

This week the Irish will take on a Maryland team that has played horrible all season as they're 2-7 and 1-5 in the ACC. But don't get too excited laying your money on Notre Dame this weekend because the Irish have struggled beating teams they should beat and have let the opposing teams hang around.

What strikes me about this game is that for both teams, you never know which team will show up. Notre Dame has shown it can compete with good teams as it destroyed Michigan State but also lost to South Florida and Michigan.

Maryland received a beatdown by Temple and Virginia, but nearly beat West Virginia, Georgia Tech and Clemson.

Both teams turn the ball over a ton as Notre Dame has 24 total turnovers and Maryland has coughed the ball up 22 times. These key games are the reasons both teams struggle to cover the spread and let teams hang around much longer than they should.

Notre Dame is by far the better team and should win this game fairly easily, but the lack of consistency and turnovers make a 21-point spread extremely tough to take.

I would stay away from this game all together because you don't know what you're going to get out of either team.

Randy Chambers is a B/R Featured Columnist that covers College Football and the NFL. You can contact him @Randy_Chambers or [e-mail]

Bleacher Report is your home for college football for the 2011 season. From scores, news, analysis, live blogs and updates on your favorite teams and the big national games every week, keep it on Bleacher Report for the very latest in college football news.