Stanford

Stanford = Passing = Andrew Luck, right?  With over 3000 yards passing (most from Luck), averaging over 275 yards a game with 32 touchdowns coming through the air, of course that’s the case.  But don’t kid yourself; this is a very balanced offense with a very good rushing game.  The Cardinal has amassed nearly 2300 yards on the ground (averaging 209 yards per game) with 29 touchdowns.  This team is an offensive juggernaut to be sure; they have a 98% success rate in the red zone with 77% of that coming via touchdowns.

Stepfan Taylor is their leading rusher with 1035 yards through 11 games with an average of 5.5 yards a carry with eight touchdowns.  Stanford has a handful of other backs that share the rest of the workload; Tyler Gaffney (415 yards, 6.5 yards a rush with 8 TDs), Anthony Wilkerson (278 yards, 5.3 yards a rush with 3 TDs), and Jeremy Stewart (173 yards, 3.9 yards a rush with 8 TDs).  Andrew Luck is the perfect example of this offense’s personality with two rushing touchdowns of his own with 39 rushes on the year, racking up 199 yards. 

Luck has a very diverse receiving corps and is not picky about who he throws to.  Stanford has 18 different players with a reception this season, including one by Andrew Luck himself.  Seven receivers have 22 catches or more and 10 different players have caught a pass for a touchdown. 

Although Stanford’s offense gets all the press, their defense has had a good season as well.  Their defense has racked up 33 sacks, 80 tackles for a loss, four interceptions and 14 fumbless recoveries. 

The Game will be on 8pm at Shamrock Jacks.

A Win is a Win!?

At the end of the day it worked out in the win – lose column, as the Irish improved to 8-3.  Remember, this team started 0-2 and has won 8 of 9 since.  Now, the Irish will prepare for Stanford.  Boston College always seems to play Notre Dame tough; better than most teams in their situations.  Most teams with losing records who are expected to lose to the Irish come out fired up and put pressure on Notre Dame at the start of the game.  Usually, the adrenaline wears off, the players settle in, the coaches make adjustments and the Irish pull away to a comfortable win.  On Saturday, the Eagles kept pushing and held firm to keep the Irish on their heels. 

That’s not to take away for Notre Dame’s defense, as they did have five tackles for a loss and one sack, but Boston College’s offense could not get on track in the second half (10 consecutive incomplete passes at one point).  If they had just a little bit more success, the Irish may have ended their senior day game with a loss.  I can assure you Andrew Luck will not have that issue next week. 

Offensively, it started out as if it would be an outstanding afternoon for Rees and the crew.  The Irish’s first offensive series went 80 yards on 8 plays for a touchdown by Jonas Gray.  Outside of scoring, the Irish had a decent day:  Cierre Wood had 92 yards to get over 1000 for the season, Michael Floyd had 10 catches for 92 yards and David Ruffer had his best game of the year making 3 field goals of 40, 41, and 27 yards.  On the stat sheet, the Irish dominated the numbers a little more than a score of 16-14 may reflect.  Notre Dame doubled B.C. in rushing 161 yards to 80, led in passing yards 256 to 170 and converted 8 of 19 third downs compared to the Eagles’ 3 of 13.

There were some issues on offense Saturday.  The Irish had no passing touchdowns (Brian Kelly tried blaming it on the weather during his post game interview).  That is not a huge issue, but it is magnified by having only one rushing touchdown on the opening series.  It’s not that they did not have opportunities but they did not capitalize.  Jonas Gray went out with a knee injury that did not look good.  Not that the offense could control it, but their starting field positioning was awful.

Special teams actually looked almost decent.  Without Ruffer’s three field goal game, the Irish lose, period.  Ben Turk did a solid job and George Atkinson’s one return for 17 yards was respectable.  The punt return game is still non-existent with unnecessary fair catches instead of attempting a return. 

The bottom line is that the Irish won and have one more win than last year.  However, Stanford will not be as lethargic on offense as Boston College was.  If Gray does not play Wood can carry the load himself, but it would not be the same offense.

Not for nothing, Brian Kelly said when asked about Tommy Rees’s play “He’s 12 and 2, did you know that?”  Thumbs up to Troy N for making the last tackle to end the game.