Clemson Football: Scoring Prediction vs. Notre Dame in Cotton Bowl

Clemson football will take on the Notre Dame Fighting Irish in the Cotton Bowl. Here is our scoring prediction for the CFB Playoff matchup.

We’ve finally made it. It’s game day.

After what seems like a very long December, Clemson football will be in action at 4 p.m. today. The Tigers will take on the Fighting Irish of Notre Dame with a trip to the National Championship on the line.

This is just the second time in Clemson football history that the Tigers will play in the Cotton Bowl. The first time? In 1940. A game in which the Tigers won 6-3 in what would be their first-ever bowl appearance.

So, it’s been more than 70 years since the Tigers have been back to the Cotton Bowl Classic.Dabo Swinney and Co. will be hoping to make that overall record in the bowl game improve to 2-0.

Here’s our final analysis and scoring prediction for the game.

Analysis:

Offensively, Notre Dame has a very good offensive line and an accurate quarterback in Ian Book. The Irish will try to establish a rushing attack, but I think they’ll learn very soon that they’ll need to rely on that wide receiver corp and Book to beat Clemson.

It will be up to the Tigers to plug those holes and take away the run game. They’ll also need to create pressure and make things uncomfortable for Book in that backfield.

Defensively, the Irish have the best secondary in the CFB Playoff. They have a solid linebacker corp and a really good defensive tackle in Jerry Tillery.

Clemson needs to establish a run game to take some of the pressure off of Trevor Lawrence. Speaking of pressure, I fully expect Notre Dame to bring extra blitzers to make Lawrence uncomfortable.

Lawrence will need to make the Irish pay and throw accurate passes for his receivers.

In the end, I think the Tigers come away with the win and advance to their third National Championship game in four years.

Scoring Prediction:

Clemson 35, Notre Dame 21