Joel Klatt reveals how Notre Dame can turn 'bad matchup' vs. Ohio State into 'rugged street fight'

Like most college football prognosticators, Joel Klatt sees Monday’s College Football Playoff National Championship Game between Notre Dame and Ohio State as “a bad matchup” for the underdog Fighting Irish.

Nevertheless, the FOX Sports analyst laid out exactly how Notre Dame can upset the 8.5-point favorite Buckeyes on Monday night, and it’s not going to be pretty.

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“To me, it’s not really a game that favors Notre Dame. And I do think it’s a bad matchup for Notre Dame because I think the Irish need a low scoring game. A low scoring game favors Marcus Freeman and the Notre Dame Fighting Irish, it just does,” Klatt said on Thursday’s The Joel Klatt Show podcast. “That’s what we’ve got in a lot of sense from their previous games — the idea that they could win a rugged street fight and it didn’t have to turn into a track meet.

“No one has been able to turn a game into a track meet, at the elite level, against Notre Dame. Partly because they do a great job with their offense of controlling the game and running the football, and they do a great job with their defense, in particular their front seven, stopping the run, controlling first down, and then their secondary has been excellent. It really has. It’s no mistake that Notre Dame is in this game. … They’ve got some solid veterans, they’re tough at the line of scrimmage, they do a lot of things well. But do they have the ability to take this game and muddy it up and take it down into a low-scoring street fight? Yeah, they do. They do have that ability. Now, do I think that’s going to happen, that remains to be seen.”

Joel Klatt explains key to Notre Dame creating ‘low-scoring street fight’

Ohio State and its $20 million roster have reached another gear in the Playoffs, outscoring Tennessee, Oregon and Texas by a combined tally of 111-52. The Buckeyes have won each Playoff game by at least two touchdowns, including a 28-14 win over the Longhorns in last week’s Cotton Bowl national semifinal.

Meanwhile, Notre Dame has scraped by with an average margin of victory of 8.7 points, including edging out Penn State 27-24 in last week’s Orange Bowl national semifinal.

Given the clear discrepencies in style, Klatt believes an Irish win starts with hindering the Buckeyes’ explosive passing attack and forcing Ohio State to gut out a victory, something it struggled with at times during the regular season — including famously in a 13-10 loss to Michigan in the regular-season finale.

“What does the film suggest for Marcus Freeman and Notre Dame? It suggests that the one thing that you cannot allow Ohio State to do is get the ball to (Emeka) Egbuka, to Jeremiah Smith, to Carnell Tate, and the backs out of the backfield. You can’t allow them to throw the ball early in rhythm, because when they do that, it’s a Tennessee game, it’s an Oregon game. You don’t want that type of track meet,” Klatt said. “I think Notre Dame can’t win that type of track meet. What do you want? You want a Nebraska low-scoring affair. You want a Michigan low-scoring affair. And in a lot of cases, what happened against Texas in the semifinal. … When you take away their passing game, now they’ve got some struggles. Now they’ve got some stress, and that’s exactly what I think Notre Dame should do.

“It’s imperative that, like Texas, Notre Dame survives the first quarter, they force Ohio State into running the football and proving that they’re a tougher team, that then gives the advantage to Notre Dame.”