Instant Reaction | Notre Dame 56 Stanford 23
Stanford had one forced fumble all season. They had two in the first quarter tonight against Notre Dame.
I couldn’t blame fans if they were thinking it was going to be one of those nights when that happened. Those fumbles weren’t exactly comforting when combined with a bad Sam Hartman interception, some creative stuff from Stanford coach Troy Taylor on offense, and two explosive plays that totaled 92-yards.
I knew Stanford was going to hit on some plays early because Taylor is really good at scheming things up. I didn’t know that Notre Dame was going to turn the ball over three times, especially because Stanford is dead last in the country in havoc rate.
Things could have gone off the rails, but that didn’t happen. Everything calmed down on defense and they didn’t allow the poor field position to break them. They dominated the second and third quarter while making Stanford settle for field goals.
The offense did exactly what they were supposed to do. They didn’t panic and just let Audric Estime and the offensive line take over with some timely play-action from Hartman.
The game ended just like it was expected to with backups playing the entire fourth quarter.
After Stanford went up 16-14, the Irish scored 42 straight points.
- Stanford has played 10 Power 5 opponents this season. Notre Dame is the seventh one to score more than 40 against them.
It’s been a rough season for them. They are small, slow, and young. There is no worse combination on defense.
381 yards on the ground was a statement from the Irish and Estime’s 238 yards was most definitely a statement to being snubbed by the voters of the Doak Walker Award. He didn’t run any differently than he has all season, but it still felt like punctuation on a monster year with him carrying defenders for first downs repeatedly.
If this was his last game in a Notre Dame uniform, he went out with a bang.
- I don’t expect Stanford to be this bad ever again. They may not be great next season, but Taylor is going to make them a lot better and they can only go up on both sides of the line of scrimmage.
- I don’t remember seeing a game where an offense only had the running backs carry the ball twice. The second one came late in garbage time as well.
Prior to that, EJ Smith had one carry for -1 yard.
That’s just one example of how unorthodox Stanford’s offense is and how difficult that is to prepare for and adjust to. The defense did a pretty good job of it considering.
Quarterback Ashton Daniels started 8 of 9. He finished 7 of 16 and he and Justin Lamson averaged a combined 5.5 yards per attempt.
I don’t know what the pressure rate for the game will be, but I would be shocked if it wasn’t over 50%.
- Stanford had one game-wrecker on offense. Wide receiver Elic Ayomanor was a threat, but seven catches for 58 yards on 16 targets with him matched up one on one for most of those targets is pretty much standard for what Notre Dame does against top receivers.
- Stanford’s defense against Pac-12 opponents when facing play-action: 92 for 126 (73%), 1,420 (11.3 YPA), 17 TDs and 1 INT.
Add two more touchdowns with both of Hartman’s coming off of play-action in this game. The first one was a great example of what a healthy Jaden Greathouse looks like. He has more juice than people give him credit for.
The second one was an example of why people are legitimately excited about Jordan Faison. He went up against Stanford’s true freshman nickel and cooked him.
- Those two Chris Tyree catches on the sideline probably get lost with everything else in this game, but the awareness to get his feet in on both of those was really impressive.
- It’s not that Javontae-Jean Baptiste hasn’t had moments worth celebrating before this game, but 2.5 tackles for loss and a scoop and score off of Jason Onye’s blocked field goal was a moment that JJB deserved.
It was a perfect capper to a great regular season from him.
- I know no one is going to be talking about this game years from now because Notre Dame destroyed a really bad Stanford team, but this result did mean something when looking at the disappointing result last season. And this season, as crushing as the three losses have been for the Irish, needed a strong finish to get things pointed in the right direction.
Marcus Freeman got that and now he has to carry that over into their recruiting in the transfer portal as well as getting another win in a bowl game.
I know every Notre Dame fan is waiting to see what’s next with everything in the program, but losing focus on actually winning these games to finish out the season would be the worst way for things to go. I don’t know who Notre Dame is going to play and which players may opt out and which players are definitely going to be back or not. I just know that the next game is as much the start of next season as it is the end of this one.
The Irish handled this part of it. Now the focus shifts to what’s next.
Notre Dame Fighting Irish 16'' x 22'' Holiday Marquee Sign
