Notre Dame Fighting Irish VS Navy Midshipmen: Staff Picks

The Notre Dame Fighting Irish head to Baltimore to take on the Navy Midshipmen inside M&T Bank Stadium on Saturday for a college football nooner.

According to DraftKings Sportsbook, Notre Dame is a 16 point favorite with an OVER/UNDER of 39.5.

Odds/lines subject to change. T&Cs apply. See draftkings.com/sportsbook for details.

Now it’s time for the OFD Staff to unleash their own picks. More still may roll in throughout the day. Here are a few thoughts from The Emperor’s Elite Pick-Em Force:

Hayden Adams

In last week’s staff picks, I mentioned that I stormed the field after the 2020 Notre Dame-Clemson game, simply to say I didn’t believe anyone would be recreating my experience last weekend. Boy was I wrong. But Clemson, shlemson. Now we’re on to Notre Dame’s Site Manager Vowles’ biggest rival: Navy. Be sure you take a shot every time you hear any of the following buzzwords/phrases: World War II, mutual respect, honor, alma maters, Fr. Hesburgh, never played in Annapolis.

It feels relevant to note that Notre Dame has won the last three matchups by at least 22 points and Navy has only been getting worse. This Irish team has been wildly inconsistent, but at the risk of getting burned, I’ll go on the record as saying I think this team and program have turned a corner (which means Drew Pyne probably throws two INTs and the Irish sweat it out). FINAL SCORE: Notre Dame 40, Navy 14

Pat Sullivan

I have a feeling this Notre Dame team has finally turned the corner and won’t play down to a bad team, which means it will probably end up doing just that, at least to some extent. So, I think the Irish will come out a bit sluggish in the first half and lead by 7-14 at the intermission, but then in the second half just bludgeon the Navy defense with the run game and some well-timed big passing plays (!!!) against a super bad Midshipmen secondary, and ND ultimately wins by a final score of 37-17.

Matt Greene

As always, this will show to be annoying in some capacity. Navy will probably get a passing TD because that seems to happen when the Irish play them. Too much dominance on both sides of the ball for the Irish, and I don’t think Freeman will let the guys get spooked after Clemson and after the two bad losses this season. 31-14 Irish.

Billy Gorman

Well I was wrong about Notre Dame last week. Play like that again and they won’t be tested the next two weeks. Notre Dame beats Navy easily this week, although with both teams keeping the ball on the ground as much as possible the final score will end up closer than the game actually is.

Matt Boomer

I have Notre Dame winning and covering in this game, but probably not by too much. They will probably throw more than they did last week and will find some success given the ineptitude of Navy’s passing defense, but Drew Pyne’s limitations still are what they are and the running game is too good to ignore. Navy limits the blowout margin here with its style of play, Irish win 31-10.

Joseph Babey

Welp, here we are again. Having to watch a game that has absolutely no upside to winning and will without a doubt have us all asleep by halftime. On top of that, the up and down nature of this Irish squad makes this Navy game even more difficult to predict than normal. The noon start makes me nervous only because if you don’t get going early against Navy you could find yourself behind the eight-ball in possessions. I think that Notre Dame is able to use the energy from last week to avoid this and gets the job done 31-3. Letting us enjoy the fact we have a noon kickoff by watching the rest of the days games stress free.