Notre Dame vs. Navy
Free Pick: Navy +12.5 -110 odds - point spreads
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It’s a traditional match up as the Notre Dame Fighting Irish host the Navy Midshipmen in South Bend.

Notre Dame returns home after a a neutral site game against and over matched Washington State team in San Antonio and they are still on track to be eligible for a BCS Bowl game and QB Jimmy Clausen is looking like a Heisman Trophy candidate. Much of the talk before the season was about how soft ND’s schedule appeared, it isn’t actually so soft down the stretch to think that any of the games are a given. Notre Dame has been in a lot of close contests and though it helps to build a team’s confidence that they are never out of it, it also gives underdogs a sense of belief that the Irish are very beatable. Clausen seems to always find the ever reliable Golden Tate who has some of the best hands in the nation, and he finds him when it matters most. Defensively the Irish really struggle at times especially against the pass. Overall Notre Dame is 103rd in yards allowed, something they will need to improve on if they hope to sweep these last four games of the regular season.

Navy had been on a roll headed into last weeks game against an improving Temple team but didn’t have enough to beat the Owls in an upset loss. It was Navy’s absolute inability to pass that was their undoing and the defense surrendering just three too many points in the loss. We often hear mostly about Navy’s option offense but it’s really been the defense who has lead the Middies this year. Navy is 14th in the country in yards allowed and 20th against the pass. They will need all of it on both sides of the ball to hang with the powerful Notre Dame offense.

Notre Dame is 1-4 against the spread in their last five home games and 1-6 against the spread in theor last seven overall. Navy is 5-2 against the spread following their last seven non-covers. The road team has covered 13 of the last 14 in this series and Navy has covered seven straight at South Bend.

This just looks like a case of way too many points in a game that could be fairly even when all is said and done. This might even be worth a small play on the money line.