Notre Dame Fighting Irish VS Louisville Cardinals: Football Betting Lines

Another Game, Another Double Digit Spread

This is getting a little crazy. The Notre Dame Fighting Irish will host the Louisville Cardinals on Saturday afternoon, and the Vegas predictions involve the Irish as double digit favorites in yet another game. In fact, this now if the 4th game out of 4 where the Irish go into it as double digit favorites. We’ll get into the specifics in a bit, but this spread is actually the smallest point spread of the four games the Irish have had this season.

ND vs Louisville Betting Lines

The Cardinals come into Notre Dame Stadium for the first time (and their only time) in 2014. The teams have only played twice ever, and the road team has won each time. Someone must have forgotten to let Vegas know that (or maybe the play of the Cardinals has told the story). This week’s game show the Irish as 17-point favorites. The O/U sits at 64.

DraftKings Sportsbook

At least this week we get some moneyline odds for both teams. Those odds are insanely big though. These numbers overall do make some bit of sense. The Irish struggled a bit after not playing for three weeks but still dominated FSU. Vegas, and many people, could see something similar happening when the Irish take on the Cardinals.

Malik Cunningham is the quarterback for the Cardinals, and he can be explosive with his feet and his arm. He has strong weapons at running back and at wide receiver, so they are able to put up points. They are averaging 29 points per game, which is not amazing but not terrible. That number puts them about halfway down the list in terms of all offenses playing this year in FBS. However, their defense, as I saw on Thursday night against Georgia Tech, also is somewhat suspect, and they give up just over 34 points per game.

Matty G’s Prediction

So, I could see the OVER hitting this week, given that both teams can definitely score, and Louisville might put up some points if the Irish defense struggles a bit again like they did against FSU. I could see the Irish putting up many points on Saturday afternoon, making the score something like 45-21. That would also have the Irish covering the spread. It might be close, but I could predict the Irish taking over the game to win comfortably.

Brian Spurlock-USA TODAY Sports

In that vein, I’m going to set the DAMHSA BUA total at 6.5. Enticing, isn’t it? The Irish can definitely score against some weaker defenses, and they could show that muscle on Saturday. I could definitely see 7 TDs scored, but I’m going to stick with a score of around 45-21 or 45-24, keeping the DAMHSA BUA count UNDER my totally scientific total. But, what say you? Let me know what you think about the betting lines and the DAMHSA BUA count.

Go Irish. Beat Cardinals.