Notre Dame found itself controlling the game against Stanford in the first half although the score didn’t totally reflect the momentum that was slowly building. In the second half, the Fighting Irish put on a clinic to completely dominate the visiting Cardinal and move to 5-0 on the season.
Let’s review Notre Dame’s major 21-point victory over Stanford.
Stat Package
| STAT | ND | STAN |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 38 | 17 |
| Yards | 550 | 229 |
| Passing | 278 | 174 |
| Rushing | 272 | 55 |
| 1st Downs | 29 | 10 |
| 3rd/4th Conversions | 10/19 | 3/13 |
| Yards Per Play | 6.2 | 4.5 |
| Turnovers | 0 | 1 |
PASSING OFFENSE
There was a brief spell where Stanford’s pressure started affecting Notre Dame’s offense and the game looked like it could morph into a second half slog to the finish. It turned out to be a mere passing rain cloud on a sunny day for the Irish passing game. Technically, Stanford’s defense is better than Wake Forest’s although for Ian Book there wasn’t much of a difference in the way he performed with his second start of 2018.
The confident Book was on full display from the first snap when he calmly fired a quick out to Miles Boykin for a cool 11 yard gain. It’d be a matchup the Irish took advantage all night long as Boykin hauled in 11 receptions for 144 yards and a touchdown. He also found Boykin later in the first quarter (the first play in the highlight package below) that was an absurdly difficult, and audacious, ball to throw in the moment. Book would finish with 4 touchdown passes while spreading the ball around to 10 different receivers for the second straight game.
Book won’t qualify in the national rankings for some time but his 181.2 passer rating would rank 7th nationally at the moment. Over the last 2 games he’s completed 49 passes at a 71.0% clip for 603 yards, 6 touchdowns, and zero interceptions.
Notre Dame’s second touchdown drive highlights how things are different with Book. The offense gave the ball to Tony Jones on 3rd & 3 at the Stanford 34-yard line. He didn’t pick up the first down but I like the patience from Chip Long (always throwing on 3rd down was a pet-peeve of mine with Kelly’s offenses in the past). For the second time in 3 series the offense went for it on 4th down, this time Book found Cole Kmet for 19 yards to keep the drive alive.
Three plays later, Book converted a 3rd & 2 for a touchdown pass to Nic Weishar. These big plays by Book are the engine driving the offense.
RUSHING OFFENSE
Welcome back and take a bow, Dexter Williams!
The senior from Florida took his first carry of the season 45-yards to the house but what was just as impressive, if not more so, was the game-high 21 carries from Dexter. His previous career-high for a game was 8 carries and he was a complete rock in the run game on a night when Jafar Armstrong was out with injury and Tony Jones had to exit the game in the second half with his own ailment.
Plus, Dexter was really, really good overall! He ran hard and at times was the biggest playmaker on the offense.
Irish Run Success
Williams – 13 of 21 (61.9%)
Book – 6 of 14 (42.8%)
Jones – 4 of 10 (40.0%)
Davis – 2 of 4 (50.0%)
Smith – 1 of 4 (25.0%)
TOTAL – 26 of 53 (49.0%)
Stanford only totaled 4 tackles for loss which largely kept Notre Dame on schedule in the run game. Five unsuccessful carries came on the last series in garbage time slightly lowering the Irish overall numbers here. Ian Book also had a so-so game on the ground, to be fair. He had several runs or scrambles where he didn’t throw the ball away, attempted to get the edge, and settled for little or no gain, with sometimes a loss of yardage. On the other hand, Book had a pair of 8-yards scrambles on 2 different third downs with neither picking up a first down but still putting the Irish into much more manageable field goal spots. Those weren’t technically successful carries on the stat sheet but it’s tough to be critical of 2 carries for 16 yards.
While it’s good to have Dexter back (and possibly as a workhorse back!?!??) injuries are now a concern. Jafar Armstrong will miss at least 2 more games with a knee infection while Tony Jones looked like he suffered a decently serious leg injury after similar injuries really slowed him down last year. Even if he continues playing he might not be the same back we’ve seen this year.
It shouldn’t get lost in the 5-0 start that the offensive line has played pretty well over their last 3 games blocking for a healthy 758 rushing yards. The Irish are now just over 200 rushing yards per game on the season.
PASSING DEFENSE
Mike Tirico mentioned it several times in the early portion of the game that K.J. Costello was connecting on a lot of passes. In the first half, the Stanford quarterback was 11 of 17 for 130 yards and did find a nice rhythm at times. Unfortunately, the second half was one long nightmare for the Cardinal.
Costello only completed 4 of his 10 passes in the second half as the Irish shut down Stanford’s run game (made easier by Bryce Love exiting with an injury) and decided eating the quarterback was an easier tactic for success.
Much love to the defensive line who quite literally took over the game in the second half. Tillery finished with a school record-tying 4 sacks while the defense as a whole combined for a healthy 9 tackles for loss.
There were also 8 passes defended, quite a high number. The defense truly performed at an elite level, especially limiting receiver JJ Arcega-Whiteside to just 30 yards and a long reception of 9 yards.
RUSHING DEFENSE
Clearly, Bryce Love came in a little banged up and he left in even worse shape. Beyond Love’s 39-yard touchdown run the Cardinal had virtually no success on the ground against Notre Dame. Even without the sack yardage Stanford gained a mere 83 yards rushing with only 5 successful carries the entire game. FIVE.
Cardinal Run Success
Love – 5 of 17 (29.4%)
Speights – 0 of 1 (0.0%)
Scarlett – 0 of 1 (0.0%)
TOTAL – 5 of 19 (26.3%)
If you’re Stanford this is kind of scary. They are entirely one-dimensional on the ground and predictably can’t keep Bryce Love healthy. You can see Costello and the passing game becoming better next year (JJAW can return for a 5th year) but there doesn’t appear to be many answers at running back.
SPECIAL TEAMS
Both punters had very strong games, often flipping field position when they got the chance. Yoon missed from 50 yards but did make his other attempt from 37 yards. It was an unusually quiet game for special teams on both sides, although I found it a bit amusing that Stanford put Love back at kick returner in the second half. He probably needs more miles on his body, David.
TURNING POINT
The drive to end the 3rd quarter and that opened the 4th quarter kind of felt like it would’ve been one of those typical back-breakers where Stanford turns the tide in the last frame and pulls away. The Irish had moved the ball just outside the Cardinal red zone with a swing pass to Dexter for a loss of 1 yard (great defense by Stanford), then an illegal snap by Mustipher, then a holding call on Alize Mack,followed up with the missed field goal by Yoon. This all came with Notre Dame nursing only a 7-point lead.
The defense responded with a 2-yard stuff, sack, and another run stuff for -2 yards. It kind of felt like Stanford’s will to win was demoralized at this point. Notre Dame would drive 10 plays for a touchdown on the next series, effectively sealing the game with over 8 minutes remaining.
3 STARS
1 DL Jerry Tillery – He’s now tied for the national lead with 7 sacks. And some wanted him on the offensive line!
2 QB Ian Book – 325 total yards and 4 touchdowns, with one late-game sassy flip pass to Jahmir Smith for 14 yards.
3 LB Te’von Coney – The stats don’t show how disruptive he was, although he led the team with 7 tackles and of course came up with the late interception.
FINAL NOTES
Stanford had long plays in this game of 45, 39, 31, and 29 yards–the first 3 coming in the first half. Those 4 plays accounted for 62.8% of the Cardinal total offense in the game. For the other 47 snaps they gained 1.8 yards per play, absurd!
Asmar Bilal was developed at the Rover position particularly for this game against Stanford. He responded with one of his best games, including an athletic across-the-field tackle for loss and an equally athletic shadow of a tight end in pass coverage for a crucial pass break-up.
The worst part of the game was losing Alex Bars to a knee injury, now confirmed for the rest of the season and his college career. The offense turned to Trevor Ruhland at left guard for the remainder of the game which is likely the short-term answer if not the long-term answer for the rest of the year.
It looks like we truly have something to work with now as Boykin is developing a repertoire with Book. Catching 11 passes in one game is no joke! Boykin now has almost double the receiving yardage as the next best pass catcher on the team. I really never thought he could be this good let’s hope it continues.
Lucky for him that Alize Mack was redeemed catching Notre Dame’s final touchdown of the game after a heinous dropped pass and holding call on an earlier series.
We can’t stress enough how big of a performance this was for both Chip Long and Clark Lea. I can’t imagine there are 2 more confident young coordinators strutting around college football at the moment.
After a slow start to the season the YPP differential has moved up to a healthy +1.35 for the season. The defense remains extremely stingy (4.49 YPP) while the offense (6.80 YPP in Book’s 2 starts) is getting better moving up to 5.84 YPP on the season. If the defense can somehow stay around this number that would be incredible–and it doesn’t feel like an impossible task right now. The offense definitely feels like it’s going to climb over 6.0 YPP with back-to-back 550+ yard performances.
The Pac-12 refs are complete trash. Good riddance.
View this post on Instagram
So, @headcoachbriankelly had plans for the Legends Trophy… #GoIrish ☘️ #BeatCardinal
Well, Eric – good call on Ian Book! I took the opposite end of the argument and now look about as wrong as one can be. And I’m so glad! I would never have dreamed this was possible.
I’m a little worried about depth on both sides of the ball. With injuries to Jafar, Jones, Bars, and Khareem, do you think that we currently (barring more injuries) have the depth to make it until the bye? And will the bye bring enough rest for the injured (besides Bars)? And finally, what do you see as being this season’s November solution for the O-Line without Bars?
I’d imagine they will stick with Ruhland who can now get a lot of experience for a full starting role in 2019.
Aw come on, give us Banks and Lugg. Shiny new things are shiny.
Shiny and big. 6’6″ 319 and 6’7″ 314, respectively. Ruhland is practically a midget at 6’4″ 295.
Didn’t they say that Banks played a bit at LT late in the game?
He did. I believe that he is rated by the staff as the “next man in” and so they wanted to get him a series or two in case he is needed down the line or if Ruhland struggles.
I thought that used to be Lugg..
With all the talent they have it shouldn’t be a problem, but inexperience might be costly given it’s going to be impossible to replace that from Bars.
It’s possible that’s Lugg, I just saw that it was Banks from a ND beat writer. Could be wrong though…
Banks was in at LT on that last series for a few plays. Not sure if Lugg was in on that series at all.
After that first Stanford TD I was worried Love would tear us apart again. But the defense showed no signs of division and stole the Tree’s joy.
Bars injury is really tough both for the kid and the team. Like you mentioned, there was a stretch in the 3rd where I thought we wouldn’t be able to handle Stanford’s blitz. Have to believe we see some of that next week from Virginia Tech, who seems a bit schizophrenic but handled Duke well.
Just super happy with the win and actually enjoy watching this team on offense. I still don’t think I will be able to not cringe on bubble screens for another year or two, regardless if they’re starting to work for us.
Ok guys, run the bubble screen if you absolutely must … but, for God’s sake please do not throw it backwards!!!!!!!
Love, love will tear us apart again . . .
Stanford certainly did cry out in their sleep, failings exposed. ND left a taste in their mouth and desperation took hold.
How many votes for ‘Transmission’ as a kickoff song, or does ‘Love Will Tear Us Apart’ suffice?
Joy Division will always suffice
I feel really bad for Alohi Gillman that his absolutely amazing pick won’t be on zillions of highlights due to a PI call. Did you see that? Incredible.
I agree about the refs. I thought the excess celebration call was BS after the Tevon’s Pick. So glad Alize jammed it in on the next play even with the extra fifteen yards to travel.
Apparently the excess celebration was because 3 different teammates started doing fake-pictures of Tevon hitting his standard arms-crossed pose, and coordinated group celebrations are basically an auto-15 yarder. They didn’t catch the fake photographers on TV, though.
Yeah, they did a quick glimpse. Dumb move by our guys.
As great as the defense played, I can forgive celebrating basically putting a bow on the game by getting a turnover up 14 points with 8 minutes left in the game.
Would prefer they didn’t, but you have to bring the emotion to play at a high level, so be it.
Yeah, about the same here. While I’m usually really annoyed by avoidable penalties this one didn’t bother me much, it was definitely a celebration worthy nail in the coffin!
Meanwhile, I also think it was certainly the right call by the refs, not just because of the coordinated celebration, but because Coney had run a huge circle and so this celebration was occurring right in the middle of the field rather than somewhere near our own sideline.
That being said, how about Book and Mack completely ignoring the penalty yardage and gettting it all back instantaneously? Love that killer instinct
That was one of the most perfect play calls I’ve seen in a long, long time.
Long’s gameplans have really been on point this season. The only slip ups were when they were seeing if Wimbush had developed into the passer everyone wanted him to be and him proving he wasn’t there.
That was spectacular–fooled everyone, even the cameraman for a second. Loved that Book put it on target and Mack caught it in stride and didn’t have the dropsies.
Also like Books flip pass near the end of the game–fun stuff for as change.
That flip pass falls into the category of “THAT WAS GREAT. NOW DON’T DO IT EVER AGAIN”
I thought that was the Boykin one that fooled the cameraman? The camera stayed on Book and I had thought he’d pulled it. I had to watch replay to see how Boykin even got the ball on that pass.
This is right. The cameraman was fooled on a couple of our RPOs, but the scoring play that they missed was the Boykin TD before the INT.
Yep, I stand corrected
Get off this. Officials were fine. The block in the back that brought back the one big punt return was the only really egregious poor call. Everything else was legit. ND even got away with a pretty blatant holding that sprung Tony Jones for a big run down around the 30.
I think Arcega-Whiteside pulled Pride down with him to draw the PI in the end zone early in the game.
Eric, you were right and I was wrong about going to Book! And I’m thrilled to be wrong! He has improved a ton since last year! We beat Va Tech and it’s going to be difficult to not look ahead at what could be. That game won’t be easy though as they seemed to have righted themselves yesterday.
Stanford’s bungling the downing of the punt before our td drive to end the first half was important I think.
Yes! That was a sneaky important play.
Looked like keystone cops.
I don’t really understand the rule here. On any other punt, if the returning team doesn’t touch the ball, the kicking team downs it when they touch the ball. Why wasn’t that the case here?
I was a skeptic, not about Book, but about us being for real given the competition we had played. I don’t consider Michigan a good team, and the others we had played definitely are lower tier. I was doubtful we could stop the offensive weapons Stanford has. Great to be soooooo wrong!
I was also skeptical about Williams’ impact on the offense. It took only one play to educate me. What a debut! Then who knew he could be our work horse RB? I loved his success running inside, didn’t think he could do much of that.
I love Book’s command of this offense. It’s a pleasure to watch him open things up for our entire portfolio of plays and talent. That 2 minute drive end of the half was a thing of beauty, very Montana-like. The play call by Long for the TD toss to Mack late in the game was cool beans.
Wimbush is a stronger runner, but Book is niftier and “feels” the rush much better than BW. I love watching him play.
Side note, I was at the USC-Arizona game last night. USC looked very sloppy and committed tons of penalties, very undisciplined. Beat a really bad Arizona team whose QB is hobbled by a gimpy ankle, and looked unimpressive doing it. USC QB is accurate but immobile and their Oline is not top tier. Unless something changes, we should handle USC, my favorite team to beat.
For today though, basking in crushing Stanford. Pure bliss.
Wimbush is a more explosive runner, but I’m not convinced he’s significantly better than Book over short distances. Book is plenty elusive, he just doesn’t have quite as much top-end speed.
That is to say
Wimbush is the better runner
Book is the better passer
Yes, but Book is a much better runner than Wimbush is a passer.
I watched the Shaw postgame interview–looked like he’d been sucking lemons all afternoon. He pretty much raved about Book (well, “rave” is pretty strong–his tone was funereal), says Book is “outstanding” and unless you can get him on the ground he’ll hurt you with his feet and arm. Also had high praise for Williams.
For More Noise, Shaw several times complained about how loud the stadium was and that it negatively affected his defense. Great to hear, I’m sure you’ll agree? 🙂
I’m delighted that it was so noisy. But doesn’t that usually affect a teams offense?
He said it was slowing the defensive charge by half a step. I thought that odd too.
From my seat, the crowd did a good job of quieting people down when ND was on offense. The stadium was certainly louder with Stanford on O.
I think you mean Boykin and Book are de developing a rapport. Though they certainly jointly have a nice repertoire.
That game was absolutely delightful to watch. I know folks mock Stanford for doing the jump-ball thing too much, but honestly I feel like they didn’t do it enough, especially after that picture-perfect box-out by JJAW against Julian Love in the end zone. Not complaining, though!
Love that we have a legit pass rush – Okwara is constantly around the QB, and Tillery looks like a first-round pick (boy was I off about not having any first- or second-rounders next year! Though I at least got the “Brandon Wimbush is not an NFL draft pick” thing right, so win some, lose some). Dexter is RB Explosiva, Boykin looks like he can be a legit #1 WR now, and the line looked more like Wake-line than Ball State-line. Good stuff all around.
I would say the Bars loss will be huge… but it doesn’t really seem like we have any super tough games left for it to be huge? Odds are we are going to lose a game, if nothing else because the odds of winning 7 games in a row against P5 competition aren’t great. Still, it’s hard pick the loss right now – it may be this VaTech game as we break in a new line, I guess? Early betting lines had us 4.5 point favorites, which seems awfully low to me.
Per S&P+ win probabilities, 24% chance of 12-0 and 63% chance of 11-1 or better. I think we started out around a 2% chance of 12-0.
This is the third time I’ve said this, but I love these charts. Whoever does these is a scholar and a gentleman.
I think it was 4.5% to go undefeated. At least it went up 8.9 points to 13.4 after the Michigan win because I have that one saved in my photos after sending it to someone.
Regarding your “turning point” section – I was thinking to myself as it unfolded that those are the sequences that typically crush BK Irish teams. When the defense came onto the field and stuffed Stanford like a turkey on Thanksgiving day, I knew the game was over in favor of the good guys.
Also – can we give Claypool some love for his special teams play this year? That dude is always making a difference in that critical 3rd aspect of the game.
Just read the Rakes Report – saw in there, nearly 1 in 5 Stamford plays went for a loss or turnover. That’s not good, right?
Also, with a shallow RB depth chart, are there decent odds of seeing BW line up in the backfield again, but as a RB?
Not a chance. He is the back-up QB, can’t have him turning an ankle. Plus, he probably knows none of the plays from that position, and does not run like an RB. This week we will get by with Dexter and Jahmir. He looks a bit like Tony Jones, same power and he really came back for that flip pass. Don’t sleep on C’Bo as a third choice.
A 2 QB backfield would be fun to see
I’m still waiting for the Avery Davis throwback to the QB on a wheel route. Davis had the ball lateraled to him once this week and I had two tenths of a second of hope.
After Avery fumbling the ball twice at the end of the game I’m going all grumpy Belichick and would be fine with him not seeing the field for a while.
The one that wasn’t looked at because the facemask made it unnecessary wasn’t actually a fumble (the ball came out when his forearm hit the ground), but I agree he’s likely back in the doghouse.
For better or worse the doghouse treatment is likely going to need to include a plan for him to be on the field this week though given that Armstrong is out another two games (bursitis) and TJ Jr (ankle) /sounded/ *cringe* very injured when he hit the field.
Yeah the sound of that scream was awful. Hope he’s back soon, although I expect Armstrong will be ready first. Stay healthy, Dex!
Why not 3?
C’mon man, too many.
we’re doing just fine with one QB in the backfield, so long as its Book. Hopefully we wont need BW again unless its spelling Book in trash time.
A note on our very good friend for two weeks ago, Greg Dortch went for 11 catches, 163 yards, and 4 touchdowns this week to single handedly pull Wake to 3-2.
Over the course of the last two weeks against ND Dortch plus all of Stanford’s TEs have combined for 8 catches for 91 yards and no TDs.
I will once again direct to the amazing round-up of NDNation posts compiled at Notre Dame, Our Blogger. Bless him for doing this – https://notredameourblogger.com/2018/10/01/ndnation-stanford-postmortem/
What a bunch of sad, miserable people.
Seems he deserves the life he’s leaving–joyless and bitter, living in the past instead of enjoying today. Sad.
That whole NDN thing has been around for a loooong long time. Prior to BK really — it’s like out of the perpetual whiners who criticized Lou Holtz for not throwing to the tight ends, there coalesced a sort of hard core of grumpy negative sourpuss guys, who just see that glass as 7/8 empty all the time. Remember at the very outset of BK — all that “shanty Irish” BS? I am proud of Murtaugh for standing up to that coterie. What is tragic in a minor sense of that word is that these are supposedly people who care about Notre Dame, and the ND family, and our football team and its fortunes. But anymore it is not at all clear that they really do. I just hope I did not know any of them at school.
On a much happier note — I linked up this weekend in SB with an absolutely superb US Army colonel and her terrific husband and two of their four kids, they came out from DC as my guests as he is a noteworthy subway alum who had never been to a game. OK she is a USMA grad and had a bit of a hard time figuring out how to cheer for the Irish, but the bottom line is that the whole family loved every minute. ND has worked hard on the whole game day experience but fundamentally what is great about our game day is… ND, and us.
There was even a mention in one of the clips on the video board about the 9 stripes on one side, and the 9 on the other…!
I mean if you’re getting rid of tickets again – I gave blood once and was a pickle-ball champion in high school (Not to try to 1up an Army colonel)
USMA grads only deserve to beat Navy as their nice things in life.
(Good on you, MN)
hey friend i put the post together because it’s funny not because i agree with them
you are getting more and more folks noticing it for the first time every week – I think you need to put a permanent disclaimer at the top every week. (Great idea, though – it always makes me laugh. I actually looked at the board Saturday night/Sunday morning to see if I could pick out what you would include. Keep it up!
yeah i’m tired of correcting people hahaha i think you’re right
You’re doing yeoman’s work, my friend. Look forward to it every week.
I cant take seriously a blogger who openly admits he did not watch a single minute of ND football until last weekend. I mean, come on.
These are excerpts from posts from NDNation; they aren’t the views of Notre Dame, Our Blogger.
It’s an echo chamber. They enjoy making themselves and each other unhappy.
Wow! I figured it was a matter of time before we hear “Fire Kelly for not starting Book all year!”
My favorite annoyance about NDN is that they continue to insist on calling it “Kelly’s offense” and speak as though Kelly is calling the plays. They (almost) never talk about Long’s offense or him being the play caller. I expect that they hold to some conspiracy theory that Kelly’s really pulling the strings behind the scenes.
That’s not entirely true. When things are going well, they attribute it to Long. If any play doesn’t work, it’s Kelly’s doing. Last year, they claimed that Kelly took over the play calling duties starting with the Miami game, I think – apparently because Kelly was getting jealous of the praise Long was getting, or some such nonsense. They simply cannot resist any impulse to criticize Kelly for every fault, real or imagined. Jack Swarbrick is a close second and Fr. Jenkins third on their list of people who are actively trying to tear down all that is good at “Our Lady’s University.” A bunch of self righteous, self loathing twits.
Wow!!! 😂😂
So as we all come down from Saturday a question I began pondering while it was sprinkling in the fourth quarter:
More fun win: 2017 USC or 2018 Stanford?
USC, hands down
I won’t claim I completely predicted it, because my emotions and expectations swung all over the place in the 3 days prior to kickoff, but I did suggest in our group chat that this could be a 2017 USC-esque beatdown. Still, USC was a better, more cathartic win because of how badly we bludgeoned them from the opening kick. That game was over somewhere in the middle of the 1st quarter and we didn’t stop kicking them while they were down.
While Saturday’s game ultimately ended up with a nice 21 point victory (which actually did a good job of representing the actual stats), it was legitimately close until there were 8 minutes left in the game. The breaking of the dam that occurred after that score (By play: Kickoff, INT, ND TD, Kickoff, Sack/Fumble, Sack, Give-Up Draw, Punt, and Stanford never saw the ball again) was incredible, but really camouflages that the game was eminently losable with 12 minutes to go.
I had the Stanford game 34-17 good guys on here *self-back-pat*.
Even though Stanford was within 1 score most of the third quarter a Stanford win would have required moving the ball again against our defense. Even the games we couldn’t put away earlier in the year this defense inspires a degree of calm from me.
Yea, that degree of calm is weird. I felt that way against Michigan and I didn’t really know how to feel about it.
I did predict 36-10 in a blustery rant about how much I hate Stanford to friends for a small pick’em pool we do, but I can’t lie, that was mostly hopeful optimism and excitement for the game. My favorite part about the last two years of ND football is that when I say “this doesn’t have to be close!!” I mean it, and the team can prove it. I was always so tired of games vs teams that we’re way better than being slogs into the 4th quarter and hoping to pull out a nail-biting win (looking at you, 2012!). It’s so much more enjoyable to have a team that goes nuclear on middling-talent teams (even if they’re ranked in the top 10 or 15).
I’m puffing my chest some too. I called for 26-13 so my spread was pretty close to the actual line. I just saw something in Ore/Stan that told me we would be able to do the same things that the Ducks did to frustrate them and we wouldnt fart the game away like Oregon had.
2018 USC that puts us at 12-0?
Buy this guy a drink!
USC, easily. Rivalry games are tremendously more important
I enjoy and approve of the not so subtle shade in that second sentence, Clearwall.
Neither, 2014 Michigan. It will forever be 37-0 in my memory.
#RememberTheSix
I thought about the same question… answer: the same!
I will always Remember Q making that USC guy quit on the field. That will always be one of my favorite ND memories.
Watching the highlights clip now, and had to stop and comment on the TD pass to Claypool. Holy S—! I didn’t see the first half due to being at an event with a kid, so that’s the first time I had seen it. Rolling left, across his body, and hits Claypool. Wow. Hell of a throw.
Just because I get some enjoyment out of rolling my eyes at ESPN I wanted to point out that they are really really running with their “ND won’t play anymore ranked teams and therefore should be disqualified from the CFP” thing.
They published another article about it ~today~, a day after announcing ABC would have a ranked-ranked ND game on prime time next Saturday, that ND wouldn’t play another ranked team. You’ve got to really want to sell your story to tank your own network marquee game the next week.
Well if it’s the article I think you’re referring to it was written by Phil Steele, and the only thing he does well is toot his own horn.
That takes some extreme flexibility, too!
The funny thing is they keep posting more articles saying that….after the polls came out with Virginia Tech ranked!
I’ve been following ND football since ’91 and I can’t remember the last time EVERY SINGLE position group played well against a strong opponent. I mean you name it and they played well: TEs, O Line, D line, DBs, etc.
As CW said, it was really enjoyable watching Dexter be mad every time he didn’t take a carry to the house. It’s fun to have a home run threat ready to go every time he touches the ball.