Notre Dame Lays Egg in First Half, Loses to Lousy Stanford Team
The Fighting Irish offense took a head-scratching step backward against Stanford (2-4) and lost inside Notre Dame Stadium, 16-14.
Even a mediocre offensive performance likely would have gotten the job done. Coming into the contest, Notre Dame (3-3) was a 16 ½-point favorite and the Cardinal had lost 11 straight games against FBS opponents.
After back-to-back victories over quality opponents, it appeared the Notre Dame offense had turned the corner. The Irish averaged 536 yards and 260.5 yards on the ground against North Carolina and No. 16 BYU.
But all the Irish could muster against Stanford was 14 points on 311 yards of offense.
“I met with the team and told them this one is disappointing,” Notre Dame coach Marcus Freeman said. “You’ve got to give credit to Stanford. They did a good job and played well, but our lack of execution is frustrating.
“That was adamant today, especially in the first half. Offensively, we have to execute better.”
Overall, the finals stats fail to highlight just how pathetic the Irish played on that side of the ball.
To start the game, Notre Dame's offense played gained just 106 total yards on 3.3 yards per play and scored zero points. Irish quarterback Drew Pyne connected on just 7 of his 16 first-half passes for 59 yards, while the Irish ran the ball 16 times for a dreadful 2.9 yards per carry.
To make matters worse, Stanford likely has the least impressive defense Notre Dame will see all season.
The Cardinal entered today's game allowing 431.6 yards per game and 6.54 yards per play, which ranked 122nd of 131 FBS teams. Stanford was especially atrocious on the ground, giving up 5.63 yards per carry.
Freeman stood before the media befuddled after the game. It wasn’t as if the Stanford defense stymied them with a new defensive scheme or play calls.
“That’s the thing that was a little bit frustrating,” Freeman said. “It wasn’t like, ‘oh my gosh, we haven’t prepared for this.’”
Notre Dame trailed 10-0 at half as a result and needed the offense to play near-mistake-free football going forward.
The Irish went three and out on its first offensive possession of the second half. Then they found success on back-to-back six-play touchdown drives and held a 14-13 lead at the start of the fourth quarter.
Stanford responded with a 43-yard field goal to retake the lead, and the Irish sputtered on its final two offensive possessions thanks to a fumble by running back Audric Estimate and a poorly executed two-minute offense to end the game.
Notre Dame will get a chance to rebound at home against UNLV next weekend, but the schedule only gets tougher from there.
In their final five games, the Irish will face No. 18 Syracuse, No. 4 Clemson and No. 7 USC.
“We've just got to be better,” Freeman said. “We'll find a way. Trust me. We're 3-3, and we're going to evaluate and we're going to get better. We have no other choice.”