The Fighting Irish of Notre Dame dropped their season finale
to the Stanford Cardinal, 27-20, to fall to 8-4 on the season. I predicted
Stanford to win 31-23, so the outcome did not come as a surprise to me at all.
I thought the Irish played pretty well and gave it a great effort against such
a talent team. But, in the end, Stanford was just the better football team.
Notre Dame’s offense started off strong by driving 65 yards
on 12 plays that set up a 21-yard field goal by Kyle Brindza to give the Irish
an early 3-0 lead. Stanford would respond with back-to-back touchdown drives of
75 and 56 yards respectively giving the Cardinal a 14-3 lead. Kyle Brinza would
later add a 27-yard field goal before the half to cut the deficit to 14-6. The
second half started with Stanford marching down the field on 7 plays for 76
yards in just under four minutes. The drive was capped off with a 20-yard
touchdown run by Anthony Wilkerson and it gave the Cardinal a 21-6 advantage.
At that point, I thought the Irish were about to get rolled, but they fought
back. Notre Dame answered right away when Tommy Rees hit T.J. Jones for a 4-yard
touchdown that ended a 61-yard drive and brought the score to 21-13. After a
Stanford 27-yard field goal to increase the lead to 24-13, Notre Dame would
march 75 yards down the field to bring the Irish within four points after
DaVaris Daniels hauled in a 14-yard touchdown pass from Rees. Stanford would
add another field goal to give the Cardinal a touchdown advantage, but the
Irish could not score again as Notre Dame’s last two drives ended in
interceptions.
The Positives
1. The Irish didn’t
give up. I believe that there are no moral victories in sports, but there
is still something to be said for playing hard. Notre Dame was playing a great,
physical team and was able to position themselves for a comeback win after trailing
by 11 points twice and 15 points once. That was probably a game that an Irish
team from a few years ago would have ended up losing by three or four
touchdowns. Brian Kelly has wanted to instill a tougher mentality in his
football team, and I believe this game was another example of how the Irish are
getting there.
2. Few penalties. Whenever
you play a great team on the road, you need to limit the amount of penalties you
commit and the Irish did exactly that. Notre Dame was only charged with three
penalties on the night that totaled 15 yards. Had the Irish won the game, that
would have been a big factor.
3. Dan Fox’s big day.
Senior Dan Fox finished the game with 15 tackles. In a game where Stanford
was able to get to the second level in their running game, Fox did his part to
slow down the Cardinal runners. Fox has had an underrated career at Notre Dame
and I think his effort during his time a Notre Dame should be applauded. Well
done!
The Negatives
1. Poor run defense. We
all knew that Stanford was going to run the ball, but the question was how
successful would they be? The answer was very successful. Stanford rushed the
ball 51 times for 261 yards and two touchdowns. I said the Irish would likely need
to hold the Cardinal running backs to under 150 yards to win the game, so
obviously the inability to stop the run was a major reason as to why Notre Dame
lost the game. Stanford was able to run the ball at will against the Irish
defensive front, evident by only passing the ball 18 times. It was clear the
Irish missed the presence of Louis Nix III, and the game could have gone the
other way with Nix clogging up the middle.
2. Lost time of possession
battle. Obviously any time a team runs the ball 51 times, they are going to
come out on top in time of possession. Stanford held the ball for nearly 10
more minutes than Notre Dame did, and that advantage had a big factor in
wearing down the Irish defense. Notre Dame’s defense was on the field an awful
lot and never really had time to recover.
3. Two interceptions
thwart a comeback. After trying to make a comeback all night, Notre Dame
finally had two chances to tie the game but Tommy Rees was intercepted twice by
Wayne Lyons while trying to make a play down the field. I’m not going to berate
Tommy for the interceptions because he was in a tough spot all night and he played
well for the most part. The final interception occurred on first down, so you
would like to have seen a better outcome on the play, but that didn’t happen.
In the end, Notre Dame lost the game because they couldn’t stop Stanford’s run
game. It was not because of the two late interceptions.
Well, that does it for a disappointing 2013 season. Notre Dame
finishes the season at 8-4, when many people believed they could reach 10 wins.
The Irish showed what they were capable in wins versus Michigan State, Arizona
State, USC, and BYU. However, Notre Dame also had poor performances at Michigan
and Pittsburgh that hampered their success this season. Notre Dame had some ups
and downs this season, but ultimately they were not consistent enough on both
sides to reach their fullest potential.
Now, we await the bowl destination and I will have a full
preview for that matchup as the date approaches.
-Eric Tichelbaut
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