Notre Dame got their first signature win of the season on
Saturday when the Fighting Irish prevailed over Stanford in an instant classic.
After the Cardinal scored a touchdown with just over three minutes remaining to
give Stanford a 14-10 lead, Everett Golson led the Irish on a game-winning
65-yard touchdown drive. On fourth-and-11, Golson found Ben Koyack in the
corner of the end zone for a 23-yard touchdown with 61 seconds left in give the
Irish a 17-14 lead. Stanford tried to make a late push to set up a game-tying
field goal attempt, but the game ended when defensive coordinator Brian
VanGorder dialed up a safety blitz. The aggressive play call allowed Elijah
Shumate to get to Kevin Hogan untouched, forcing Hogan to throw the ball away
as he was falling to the ground. With no receiver in sight and Hogan still in
the pocket, intentional grounding was called, thus ending the game with a
10-second run off since Stanford was out of timeouts. In the end, this rivalry
lived up to the hype and the Irish came away with a thrilling victory to
improve to 5-0.
Based on the score it would look like Notre Dame struggled
to move the ball on offense, but that wasn’t the case. While the Irish were
certainly not at their best offensively, they did accumulate 370 yards of total
offense versus the nation’s top defense, but they also left a lot of points off
the board by botching two field goal attempts and committing a turnover inside
the red zone. Ultimately, the Irish were able to overcome those errors thanks
to several big chunk plays throughout the afternoon. The Irish did gain 129
yards rushing on 32 carries, but a majority of those yards came on a 33-yard
draw by Everett Golson and 26-yard run by C.J. Prosise. Without those two
plays, Notre Dame had just 70 yards rushing on 30 carries. Despite averaging only
2.33 yards per carry on those 30 attempts, Brian Kelly stayed committed to the
run game to set up the passing game and help control the tempo of the game.
Golson was not his sharpest by completing 20 of 43 passes for 241 yards, but he
connected for several big passes (five completions of 15+ yards) and accounted
for both touchdowns. Golson’s completion percentage took a hit, but that was
mainly due to him making wise decisions and throwing the ball away on multiple
occasions. Golson did force a few throws, one of which resulted in a costly
interception inside the red zone, but overall he played smart. Despite the interception
and also losing the ball on a fumble in the first quarter that set up Stanford’s
first score, Golson responded in a big way and made some huge plays that fueled
the Irish to victory.
As well as Stanford’s defense played, Notre Dame’s defense
was even better. In fact, I would consider their performance as a dominant
effort by holding the Cardinal to 205 yards of offense. The Irish simply
shutdown the Cardinal rushing attack by holding them to 47 yards on 32 carries.
Any time that you can hold your opponent to 1.5 yards per carry, you will force
your opponent in third-and-long situations all game long. Because of that,
Kevin Hogan connected on 50 percent of his passes for a low total of 158 yards
passing. Coming into the game, I thought Ty Montgomery could give the Irish
fits, but Notre Dame’s defense did an outstanding job by limiting the talented
wide receiver to 26 yards on nine touches. Notre Dame got many key
contributions from several players, but two players stood out in particular.
Jaylon Smith played like a man possessed by racking up 14 tackles, a sack, and
2.5 tackles for loss. The other was cornerback Cole Luke who intercepted two
passes, had one sack, four tackles, and one pass breakup. Honestly, I was
concerned about the defense coming into the season due to lack of experience.
However, I think it is safe to say that this unit is very fast, very talented,
and very aggressive. Defensive coordinator Brian VanGorder has been a great
addition to the coaching staff and has this unit playing as well as it ever has
under Brian Kelly.
-Eric Tichelbaut
Twitter: @etichel07
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