Notre Dame will look to build on its College Football Playoff resume when it hosts the struggling Syracuse Orange. The Irish offense has been a strong unit all season, but the unit has been on the inconsistent side over the last couple of months. If the offense can be at its best against Syracuse the Irish will earn the kind of dominant blowout win it needs to continue showing the College Football Playoff committee that they are one of the nation's best teams.

Here are the keys to Notre Dame dominating the Orange and also building towards being a more consistently dominant team in the postseason.

1. Start Fast - The last thing you want to do with a team like Syracuse is allow them to hang around. Notre Dame needs to build some momentum in this game, and that comes from confidence, which comes from high level execution on a snap by snap basis. Notre Dame has played a bad defense like Syracuse before, and we saw it dominate against Purdue and Arkansas. The Irish scored 35 and 42 points in the first half of those games. We also saw this offense play a bad defense like this when they played Boston College, and the Irish had just 12 points at halftime. This game needs to be more like the Purdue and Arkansas games.

Being aggressive early will be important, as will finding balance. The good news is the Syracuse defense is struggling in both departments. Syracuse ranks 94th nationally in rush defense and 124th in pass defense. If Notre Dame can limit the early drive killing mistakes and hit some big plays they should be able to put Syracuse away early. 

2. Consistency In The Run Game - Notre Dame has averaged 222.3 rushing yards per game in its last four game and is coming off one of its more effective performances of the season. The 175 yards against Pittsburgh was impressive, with the Panthers going into last weekend's game ranked third in rush defense. Consistency has been a big issue with the run game, which has relied a lot on big plays this season. Notre Dame needs to build some consistency heading into the postseason, and punishing Syracuse would be a good first step.

I'd like to see Notre Dame continue finding a bit more diversity with its ground game, mixing up its zone and Duo looks with some gap plays. The 56-yard touchdown run from Jeremiyah Love against Pittsburgh was a gap play, and being more consistent using and executing runs like that would help the offense out quite a bit. The remade offensive line is now going into its fourth game together, so it should be starting to gel. It showed flashes in the wins over Navy and Pittsburgh, and if the unit can make another jump against Syracuse the run game should really take off.

Love is just 303 rushing yards away from setting the school's all-time single season rushing record, and this is the kind of team he could really dominate and get much, much closer to that mark. If the line does its job I could see him having a huge game against a Syracuse defense that has allowed four opponents to top 200 yards this season.

3. Enhancing The Pass Game - Notre Dame's pass game has been efficient and effective for much of the season, but in some ways the pass game has become a bit stale. The offense has relied on quarterback CJ Carr making some big time throws and his pass catchers just being better than their opponents. Schematically we aren't seeing a great deal of diversity, and teams are starting to get a bit of a read on what they are trying to do.

Syracuse has allowed its last three opponents to complete 78.7-percent of their passes in the last three games. Opposing quarterbacks have also averaged 10.4 yards per attempt and 13.2 yards per completion. That could spell bad news as they go against Carr, who leads the nation in yards per attempt this season (9.7). If the offensive line can protect him I fully expect Carr to have a huge game. That would be made even easier if we see the pass offense become a bit more enhanced from a scheme, alignment and personnel standpoint.

If we see the offense enhance its pass game in this way it will result in Carr having a huge game, but it will also give future opponents a lot more to think about.

4. Finish - Notre Dame does so many good things on offense. The Irish ranks 8th in scoring offense, 6th in yards per play, 2nd in yards per pass attempt as a team, 3rd in passer rating and 17th in yards per rush. Imagine where the offense would rank in scoring if it could finish drives off better and didn't rank 122nd in red zone offense. Improving in this area heading into the playoffs would be huge, and playing Syracuse and its 119th-ranked red zone defense could be just what the offense needs.

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