Van Morrison said it best: There’ll be days like this.
Stuck in neutral for much of the afternoon, Notre Dame’s took a large step backward as Jim Harbaugh’s Stanford squad easily defeated the Irish 37-14, dropping Notre Dame to 1-3 on the season.
The Cardinal physically dominated the game, winning the battle at the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball. The revamped Cardinal defense was all that was advertised, holding the Irish to only 44 yards rushing and continuously taking Dayne Crist to the ground. On offense, Stanford put together a workman-like performance, getting 166 yards on the ground and giving Andrew Luck all day to throw the football. Even on special teams, Stanford had the upper-hand, limiting the Irish kick returners to meager gains and consistently dominating the field position battle.
With three losses in the first four games of the season, Notre Dame will have to reevaluate their goals for the season. Here are five things we learned during Stanford’s 37-14 win over Notre Dame.
1. Notre Dame’s offensive line was exposed.
Today was not a banner day for Ed Warinner’s crew. The three-man front of Stanford’s defense confused and dominated the Irish, keeping Notre Dame’s running game obsolete. More surprising, Stanford was able to pressure Dayne Crist with a three- and four-man pass rush, allowing Cardinal defenders to drop seven and eight men into coverage and clog up passing lanes.
Stanford blitzed early and often and drilled Dayne Crist just as much, continually putting the Irish quarterback to the turf. The first three weeks, Notre Dame’s inexperienced tackles looked up to the task at hand. This afternoon, they didn’t. No offensive line is immune to growing pains, but this afternoon’s performance was an ugly reminder that Notre Dame is breaking in three new starters up front. Expect an emphasis in practice this week to be put on the snap count, as Stanford took advantage of Crist’s predictable delivery and timed their blitzes perfectly.
2. The Irish special teams need to improve quickly.
There’s no excuse for Notre Dame not to be better on special teams, and this afternoon’s performance was mediocre at best. Earlier in the week, Brian Kelly put Cierre Wood on notice that his hesitance on kick returns wouldn’t be tolerated. Wood failed to answer the bell this afternoon, tip-toeing out of the end zone on the opening kickoff and failing to get past the 20 yard line multiple times. It’s not all on Wood either, as the blocking up front failed to create running lanes.
The hidden yardage battle was also becoming glaringly obvious, with punter Ben Turk only averaging 32 yards a kick on his five punts, including a massive shank when he tried to kick one rugby style. While the game was already out of reach, the onside kick attempt by the Irish was a triple-failure as well, with kicker Nick Tausch failing to kick the ball ten yards, Harrison Smith running offsides, and Stanford recovering the ball.
On Thursday, Kelly had this to say about the special-teamers:
“We’ve taken our lumps on some effort things, more so than we have
schematically, Kelly said. “Obviously one of things I mentioned earlier in the week,
I didn’t like the effort of some of the veteran players on special
teams… I’m not putting you on the bus —
if you’re the third string whatever position and you’re not giving us
great effort on special teams, then I’m just going to leave you home.”
Mike Elston’s a very good special teams coach and you can bet there will be plenty of time dedicated to fixing these problems. Now we’ll see if Kelly is true to his word when the travel squad is announced for next week’s game at Boston College.
3. Manti Te’o is a dynamic presence.
While it was in a losing effort, Manti Te’o was all over the field this afternoon, making a career-high 21 tackles this afternoon. Te’o runs sideline to sideline as good as any middle linebacker in college football, and the hit he made on the Stanford sideline is a great reminder that he’s a got knock-out power as well.
“He played with a will today,” Kelly said about Te’o. “He had a look o his face, a toughness to him that he hasn’t displayed since he’s been a player here at Notre Dame. Today is one of those watershed moments for a defensive plyer that we can model.”
If you’re looking for reasons to believe that Te’o’s becoming a complete player, don’t look at the stats he’s putting up. Instead, rewatch the great job he did in coverage, running stride-for-stride down the seam and making a great play on a well-delivered Andrew Luck pass for a pass break-up. Te’o is a true sophomore and still very much a work-in-progress, but Notre Dame has found the rock in the middle of its defense.
4. Dayne Crist is having growing pains.
Dayne Crist reminded us that he’s only making the fourth start of his career this afternoon. Even though he got off to a quick start, Crist once again hit a lull in the middle of the game, grinding the Irish passing attack to a halt as he missed on five consecutive throws and struggled making the correct reads. With the Irish ground game MIA, it was up to Dayne to carry the offense and the first-year starter just wasn’t able to get it done.
“Every day he’s growing,” Kelly said of Crist. “There’s new things he’s confronted with. He’s learning. But it is a process. This is the maturation of a quarterback right before your eyes.”
Stanford defensive coordinator Vic Fangio had Crist off-balance or in the turf much of the afternoon, giving the quarterback multiple looks and dropping as many as eight white shirts into coverage. Fangio also took away tight end Kyle Rudolph, and Crist was lost without his safety valve.
5. Stanford is in a different class than Notre Dame right now.
At the quarter-mark of the season, it’s clear that Stanford is just a better football team than Notre Dame right now. Think about this: The Irish defense picked off Andrew Luck twice, held him below 250 yards passing, kept the vaunted Cardinal running game below four yards a carry… and Stanford still beat Notre Dame by 23 points.
“Begin by tipping my hat to Stanford, Coach Harbaugh,” Kelly said. “Well-coached football team. They were well prepared. It’s a fine football team. They deserved to win today.”
Harbaugh’s troops play an incredible effective brand of football, controlling the clock, the line of scrimmage, and never backing down from an opponent. We’ll find out if Stanford has a Rose Bowl worthy squad in the next two weeks, but Stanford’s last three wins — dominating UCLA, Wake Forest, and Notre Dame — certainly rank among the best in college football.
As for the Irish, they’re at a fork in the road and Kelly knows it.
“There’s going to be a lot of 1-3 football teams across the country,” Kelly said. “Some are going to finish 1-11, some are going to be 9-3. It’s what you decide to do from here on out.”
