Offshore bookmakers are an observant bunch, and as such, they know that whenever the Notre Dame Fighting Irish and the Stanford Cardinal do battle for the Legends Trophy, it tends to be a low-scoring affair. The bookmaker betting total has, as a matter of fact, gone under in six of the last seven meetings, up to including last year’s encounter, a 17-10 win for Stanford University. This season figures to be a similar story.
- Date: November 25
- Time: 8:05 PM
- Venue: Stanford Stadium, Stanford, California
- Online sportsbook odds:
Notre Dame -2½ (-110) -135
Stanford +2½ (-110) +115
Drue Tranquill’s diary
Notre Dame senior linebacker Drue Tranquill used the three-hour plane ride home from Miami to record his impressions from the Irish’s shocking 8-41 upset as 3½-point faves to the Miami Hurricanes. A wise choice, all things considered, seeing as how, if he’d told his story to the person sitting next to him, he might have had the same effect Robert Hays had on his fellow passengers on Airplane! Notre Dame did bounced back, but it looked, even in victory, hardly like the same team, barely holding off Navy 24-17 on Saturday, and failing to cover for the third straight week.
Final score: Navy 17 – #8 ND 24#GoIrish☘️ #NAVYvsND pic.twitter.com/wK80HkHctV
— Notre Dame Football (@NDFootball) November 18, 2017
Moreover, the Irish have averaged 16 points per game in the last two games – compared to 38 in the prior seven – and the total has, accordingly, gone under on both occasions. Notre Dame leads the series against Stanford 16-11, but the Irish have not covered in the last four trips to Stanford, and are 8-2 ATS in its last 10 visits to Stanford, 5-2 ATS in their last seven games after a straight up win, and 1-4 against the offshore bookmaker spread in their last five road games playing a team with a winning home record.
For the Love of Shaw
Stanford running back and the nation’s leading rusher Bryce Love had 101 yards on 14 carries and a 57-yard touchdown in Saturday’s 17-14 win over California to help make head coach David Shaw the most winning in the history of the Cardinal football program. “He was in a lot of pain but he got that crease and then I saw that little 20 squirt out the backside,” Shaw said. “Injured or not, there’s nobody catching Bryce once he gets up to full speed.” Stanford, however, scored its fewest points against the Bears in nine years, and the total went under for the Cardinal for the third time in the last three weeks. Unfortunately, Love, who ran for 129 yards and a TD against the Irish last year, has been struggling with an ankle injury lately. Love hopes to play against the Irish to help his team’s chances of making the Pac 12 championship game but may have to watch from the sidelines as KJ Costello, who completed 17 of 26 passes for 185 yards and a touchdown against California, and the rest of his teammates attempt to retain the Legends Trophy. The Cardinal are 3-1-1 ATS in their last five games playing a team with a winning record and 1-7-1 against the offshore bookmaker spread in their last nine games after a straight up win.