The No.11 ranked Notre Dame Fighting Irish (6-1) head to Baltimore, MD for a Saturday noon kickoff with the Midshipmen of Navy (5-2) at M&T Bank Stadium in a game to be televised nationally by CBS. The Midshipmen would love to end the 42-consecutive-game winning streak the Irish have hung on the service academy.
Navy was rolling along and having a nice football season with a 5-1 record until its last game October 14th when a “Buzz-Saw” called Rutgers rolled into Annapolis and handed the Middies a 34-0 spanking. Notre Dame barely survived defeat to the UCLA Bruins in South Bend last Saturday by getting a touchdown in the final 27-seconds of the game to win 20-17.
One can’t help but wonder if the shoe was on the other foot, in other words if Notre Dame had played Rutgers and Navy played UCLA would the Irish be coming into the Navy game with a 5-2 record and looking up at the Midshipmen at 6-1.
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Notre Dame and Navy have played one common opponent, Stanford, this season. The Irish defeated the Cardinal 31-10 on October 14th and Navy defeated Stanford 37-9 back on September 16th.
There are those who seem to think Notre Dame is a bit over-rated sitting there at 11th in the AP poll, 10th in the USA Today poll and Ninth in the BCS Poll. While the Irish have won six football games they haven’t been all that impressive in doing so having to come from behind and getting last second wins in games the Domers should have easily won.
Notre Dame has been atrocious in covering the spread in 2006, covering one-of-seven and has been installed a -14-point favorite over Navy by most offshore and Las Vegas books. What’s amazing, as of Thursday, 91% of the public is buying the Notre Dame line. And this is on a team that hasn’t covered a cup of coffee this football season.
Navy currently has a 3-3 record in covering against the spread (ATS). Prior to the Rutgers loss Navy had covered the betting line three of the last four games.
This is the 80’th consecutive meeting between Notre Dame and Navy, making it the longest intersectional rivalry in the country, and one key stat that over the last four years, Navy is 11-1 in games following a loss, losing back to back games only once during a four-year span.
Navy had a bye week to fix what problems needed fixing from the Rutgers game. Expect the Midshipmen to be well prepared and have their triple-option running attack hitting on all cylinders when the Irish come to call on Saturday. Expect the Midshipmen to cover +14 versus the Irish. Who knows, maybe that 42-game winning streak the Irish hold over the Midshipmen will come to an end also.
