Notre Dame is in the middle of a three-game home stretch, and it faces the North Carolina State Wolfpack on Saturday afternoon.
The Irish have reeled off three straight wins and have moved up to No. 16 in the US LBM Coaches Poll with the good stretch. The Wolfpack enter the game 4-2 after starting the season 3-0.
They have a solid team. In both of their games against evenly matched teams, they’ve lost albeit in one-score games. NC State is dangerous and Notre Dame shouldn’t take them lightly.
There always is a path to an upset early in the week, and take a look at three reasons the Wolfpack could upset the Irish this weekend.
Notre Dame can’t stop running back Hollywood Smothers
For the most part, the Irish will enter most games with an advantage at the running back position. This Saturday might be a bit different. Smothers’ usage is higher than Jeremiyah Love’s and almost matches Jadarian Price’s yards-per-attempt, with 6.9. He’s also a receiving threat, catching 21 passes for 124 yards and a score.
While combined, Notre Dame has the better unit, Smothers is still a very talented back. This game is more the grind-it-out offense, but he still can hit a home run. The Irish defense will have to stay in their runs lanes, and will need to stop Smothers to get another victory.
Notre Dame quarterback CJ Carr “struggles”
Against Boise State, Carr wasn’t quite at his best. He had his lowest yardage total of the season with 189 on 23 attempts. For comparison, he threw 12 times but had 223 yards against Purdue.
It’s coming, it’s bound to happen that Carr struggles, it’s just the reality of the situation. Statistically it was his worst performance of the season, but if he makes two to three better throws on his deep attempts, those numbers would be right up there with the other games. Carr hasn’t thrown an interception since the second quarter against Texas A&M, so it’s been a while. It will happen again, and it will be interesting to see how Carr would respond to the adversity.
If Phillip Rivers still has eligibility … if not then Notre Dame’s defense holds NC State to under 24-points
That is the number this fall. While it might be a bit higher than we’d like to see, Notre Dame’s offense has held up its part of the bargain by putting up points. The good news is this number has come down quite a bit over the last two games, so the Irish are trending in the right direction.
I don’t think Notre Dame will lose on Saturday, but weirder things have happened. The Irish have significantly more talent than the Wolfpack, and if they play to their potential, it should stretch the win streak to six games.
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This article originally appeared on Fighting Irish Wire: Three reasons why NC State could upset Notre Dame football this Saturday afternoon
Reporting by Michael Chen , Fighting Irish Wire / Fighting Irish Wire
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
