Big East NCAA Football Previews- Notre Dame Fighting Irish at Pittsburgh Panthers
The Notre Dame Fighting Irish travel to Heinz Field this week for a Saturday afternoon matchup with the Pittsburgh Panthers. The game is slated to get underway at 12 p.m. and it will be broadcast nationally on ABC.
Date/Time: Saturday, Sept.24 12 p.m. (ET)
Venue: Heinz Field, Pittsburgh, PA.
Broadcast: ABC
Irish at Panthers lines by BetOnline.com
Point spread: Irish -6.5
Over/Under: 53
ATS Report
Notre Dame is coming off a season-saving 31-13 victory over Michigan State this past Saturday as a six-point home favorite in a game that stayed ‘under’ the 51.5-point line. This followed two extremely tough losses to South Florida and Michigan in games it was also favored to win. The trick now for head coach Brian Kelly is to string enough wins together from this point on to salvage something from what appeared to be a very promising season for the Irish. It looks like Kelly has settled on Tommy Rees as his starting quarterback after he came into replace an ineffective Dayne Crist in the season opener. Rees has thrown for 772 yards and six touchdowns, but has also been picked-off five times.
Pittsburgh is coming off a 31-27 loss to Iowa as a three-point road underdog this past Saturday. It was its first setback after routine wins over Maine and Buffalo. The total went ‘over’ the 51-point line. The Panthers actually led this one by 17 points early in the fourth quarter, but completely collapsed down the stretch as the Hawkeyes rallied for 21 unanswered points.
While Pittsburgh’s defense is certainly suspect as this point of the season after giving up an average of 25.3 points in its first three games, its offense has been effective moving the ball both through the air and on the ground. The Panthers are averaging 240 yards passing a game and balancing things out with an average of 164 yards a game on the ground. [soliloquy id=”82219″]
Notre Dame is 6-2 against the spread in its last eight road games and 5-2 ATS in its last seven games overall. Pitt is 0-2-2 ATS in its last four games as an underdog, but 9-4 ATS in its last 13 games following an ATS loss.
Head-to-head in this series, the Irish are 5-2-1 ATS in the last eight meetings and 4-1 ATS in their last five trips to Pittsburgh. The road team is 5-0-1 ATS in the last six meetings. Stick with the past series trends in this year’s matchup as the momentum from last week’s games clearly favors Notre Dame.
The Pick: Notre Dame 24 vs Pittsburgh 14
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