Despite early concerns, the Notre Dame Fighting Irish avoid another embarrassing upset loss at home by pounding the Stanford Cardinal, 49-7, on Saturday afternoon. The Irish took control during the middle two quarters to improve to 5-1 at the midway point of the season.
Riley Leonard had another big game, though the bulk of his production came through the air. He finished his day completing 16 of 22 passes for 229 yards and three touchdown tosses while running for 31 yards on six carries, scoring the first of the Irish’s six touchdowns.
As if Stanford’s day couldn’t get any worse, the game was suspended at the start of the fourth quarter when lightning was spotted in the South Bend area. At the time of the stoppage, the Irish held a 42-7 lead.
Below are some of the key aspects of the victory:
Hitting the Snooze Alarm
One of the most aggravating issues for Notre Dame is the team’s continuing struggles to get off to a fast start in home games. That nagging problem again surfaced against Stanford when the Irish found themselves down 7-0 after watching its first drive sputter out at midfield.
That first Notre Dame drive appeared to be in good form after getting just past midfield but then stalled after an 18-yard Riley Leonard run was wiped out by a holding call on left tackle Anthonie Knapp. To compound the concern, James Rendell’s punt went just 24 yards, giving the Cardinal possession at their own 37.
Stanford moved the ball down the field on nine plays with quarterback Ashton Daniels’ 27-yard run the key play of the drive. The Irish defense made a concerted effort to keep the Cardinal out of the end zone but reserve signal caller Justin Lamson’s one-yard sneak was good enough for the early advantage.
Reversing Course
That early jolt to the Notre Dame defense seemed to deliver the needed wake-up call, with Stanford gaining just 33 yards on 17 plays over its next three drives. Two of those stops came when the Cardinal went for it on fourth down, with the Irish taking full advantage in both cases by driving for touchdowns.
In between, Notre Dame’s defense avoided disaster after Beaux Collins’ fumbled the ball away after a 16-yard grab from Leonard at midfield. Just before the half, Stanford’s drive to garner points appeared to end when Xavier Watts picked off another pass. However, Benjamin Morrison’s defensive holding negated that but the Cardinal had no success on the final play of the first half. Still, at that point, the Irish took a 21-7 lead into halftime.
That success continued after the break when Irish defensive lineman Josh Burnham picked up a fumble on Stanford’s first drive and got it into the red zone. From there, a quick two-play drive boosted the Irish lead to 28-7. Before weather temporarily stopped the contest, the Cardinal then only managed to gain 20 yards on 13 plays.
Who Needs Time?
In scoring a combined 35 points during the second and third quarters, Notre Dame didn’t require much time to make things happen. During those 30 minutes of action, the Irish had possession for just 10:38, compared to Stanford’s 19:22, with Notre Dame proceeding to put the game away.
The Irish’s two touchdowns in the second quarter gained a total of 108 yards on 16 plays and clocked in at 5:57. On its first three drives of the second half, Notre Dame reached the end zone each time and gained 164 yards on a combined 11 plays. Despite the additional yardage involved, that span of time only took 4:40 off the clock.
Getting it Done on Third Down
The ability to keep extending drives usually pays dividends for any team and Notre Dame was a beneficiary of that philosophy on Saturday. After entering the game with a third-down conversion rate of just 35 percent, the Irish had its best game of the season in this category by achieving success on 6 of 11 attempts, including five of their first seven.
The first of the two failures came on Notre Dame’s opening drive, while the other was effectively negated when the Irish converted on fourth down. The five successes came during scoring drives, including a pair on the first Notre Dame touchdown in the opening period.
Next Up
The Irish face a dicey road clash next Saturday when they travel to Atlanta to face the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets. The importance of the game is signaled by the fact that the contest won’t be played on Tech’s campus but instead at the Mercedez Benz Dome.
Tech improved its record to 5-2 on the season on Saturday with a stunning last-minute 41-34 victory on the road over North Carolina. Yellow Jackets running back Jamal Haynes burst up the middle and ran 68 yard for the winning score, part of a 371-yard rushing day for Tech.
