ND-Stanford live blog: Cardinal defeat Irish 37-14
Published 7:16 pm Saturday, September 25, 2010
NOTRE DAME, Ind. – From beginning until the end, the Stanford Cardinal owned Notre Dame on Saturday.
Stanford improves to 4-0 for the first time since 2001, while Notre Dame drops to 1-3 for the second time in three years.
The Cardinal head back to the West Coast with a 37-14 victory.
– In maybe the biggest play of the game for the Notre Dame offense, the Irish go for it on fourth-and-one from their own 49-yard line with 13:39 to play. The play was stuffed for a yard loss and Stanford gets the ball at the Irish 48.
– Through three quarters, Stanford holds a 332-171 advantage in total offense. The Cardinal have rushed for 117 and Luck has thrown for 215.
– Despite the lopsided advantage in total offense, Notre Dame’s defense has allowed just one touchdown to Stanford through three-plus quarters of play.
– Finally with 7:58 to play, the Cardinal finds the end zone again and ices the game with a 1-yard run by Owen Marecic and a 2-point conversion to go up 27-6.
– Two-way player Marecic sticks a knife in the heart of the Notre Dame fans with a pick-six to give Stanford a 34-6 lead with 7:45 remaining.
– The wheels have completely come off the Notre Dame wagon. The Irish simply can’t do much of anything against a Stanford team what is off to the best start in decades.
– It’s not really a surprise that the Fighting Irish aren’t able to throw the ball effectively against the Cardinal as Stanford has the nation’s best past defense, allowing just over 90 yards per game. Notre Dame entered the game as the nation’s eighth best passing offense, averaging over 318 yards per game.
– After scoring a touchdown to cut the lead to 20 points (34-14), Notre Dame tries an on-side kick. Unfortunately, like pretty much everything else that has happened today, it failed.
– Nate Whitaker capped a stellar day against his former team with his career-best field goal with 1:47 to play. The 29-yard effort put Notre Dame down four scores.