3 Potential Traps Game for Notre Dame
Win the games you’re supposed to win. It sounds like a simple concept, but every program in the nation loses a game they shouldn’t at some point each season. Even Alabama, with a roster that is strong enough to run the table every year, has only had gone undefeated once under Nick Saban.
With teams that don’t have Crimson Tide level talent, it’s even more difficult to win all the time because it requires not only beating the teams that are at or close to the same level, but also the ones who might catch you on a bad day at the office.
Sometimes it seems obvious that a letdown could be on the horizon. It’s mostly because of what what happened the weeks before and it’s easier to predict that a team may be mentally drained or be less prepared than they should be for an upcoming opponent. In college football they call them trap games.
There are potential trap games annually for Notre Dame and every other power program around the country. It’s one of the reasons why you see teams with loaded rosters lose every so often to programs that don’t have many future NFL Draft picks on them.
Sometimes a team can rise above when they are in those situations. The 2012 Fighting Irish were able to overcome trap games against Purdue (after traveling back from Ireland and playing Navy) and Pitt (the week after an emotional win at Oklahoma). Other times they don’t like in 2013 when they fell victim to a trap game against Pitt (the week after Navy).
Notre Dame has greater talent on their team than the majority of the programs they will face in 2018. That’s why they will be favored to win almost every week. But in order to win all of the games they are supposed to, they have to avoid falling prey to the dreaded trap game.
I've highlighted three potential example this season.
At Wake Forest (September 22nd)
Winston Salem, North Carolina isn’t known for being a hostile environment to travel to. The crowd isn’t what makes this a trap game. It has more to do with this being a look-ahead spot for the Irish the week before Stanford.
Everyone knows how Notre Dame needs to beat Stanford. Most of all Brian Kelly and the players who have lost three straight to the Cardinal. It would be understandable if that game was the second most highly anticipated game of the year for them after Michigan.
Dave Clawson and Wake aren’t going to be thinking about that, though. They’ll be in the middle of a five game homestand and believing that they can beat the Irish after giving them a game last November. And this time they should have their most explosive weapon on offense, slot receiver Greg Dortch, available to play.
They are going to come to play that day and if the Irish don’t, there is plenty of potential for this to be an upset. The only stipulation I would give for this is that Wake plays Boston College the week before. BC is going to pound the Wake defense with running back AJ Dillon play after play so this could be a body-blow game for Wake. Regardless of that, Clark Lea is going to have to have a better plan than Mike Elko had last season when the Notre Dame defense struggled to slow down the Demon Deacons on offense.
At Northwestern (November 3rd)
The week after Navy has not been very kind to Notre Dame during Kelly’s tenure in South Bend. They are 4-4 the week after playing the Midshipmen since 2010 and the program is 4-7 over the last eleven years. You don't have to be an analytics expert to tell you that’s not ideal.
They play a very different style than Navy, which is how almost every program plays compared to Navy. While the Midshipmen typically like to play slow, Pat Fitzgerald’s team ran 79.1 plays per game last season (11th in the nation). The Wildcats run a spread offense so there are going to be players who don’t play all that much against Navy that will have be on the field a lot the next week.
Over the last three seasons Northwestern is 15-6 at home and three of those wins came against Stanford, Penn State, and Michigan State. Beating more talented teams at home isn’t new to them and they won’t be intimidated.
The good news is that they play Wisconsin a week before and that’s another body blow game that could wear them down a bit. The bad news is that this is the week before Florida State for the Irish so it’s another possible look-ahead spot.
At Syracuse (November 17th)
While Alabama will be warming up for the Iron Bowl by beating up on The Citadel, the Irish will be traveling to New York City to face Syracuse. That’s the same Syracuse who upset Clemson last season, who almost knocked off Miami on the road, and is entering year three of the Dino Babers era with a senior quarterback.
They’ve lost talent at the skill positions on offense, but the scheme is built to produce big numbers on the outside. They will have options at wide receiver and they will try to get the ball to them as much as possible. They led the nation in plays per game (87.8) and play at an extremely fast tempo.
Babers will want to turn this game into a track meet and if Notre Dame isn’t ready to keep pace, then it’s going to be a very tough matchup.
This is the week after Florida State, which could end up being a nationally important game. The next game is USC. The Irish better be focused on shutting down Syracuse that day, but their focus could be elsewhere.
It’s extremely difficult to go undefeated in college football. Even if Notre Dame beats Michigan, Stanford, Virginia Tech, Florida State, and USC, Kelly will still have to do his best to motivate his team for the weeks when the stakes don’t seem as a great.
If the Irish can avoid these traps and win their fair share of the high profile matchups, then it it could be a special year. If they don't, then they'll be looking at far less positive adjectives to describe their 2018 season.