Notre Dame took another step towards salvaging the 2024 season, crushing their rival Stanford 49-7. Now sure this shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone. Stanford has struggled all season and was a 20-point underdog to the Irish. However regardless of how good the Irish do no game is a guaranteed win, due to what happened in week two against Northern Illinois.
But, despite the fears that Notre Dame fans about the underperforming team look increasingly irrational as time passes. Every week since the NIU game, the question has gone from how good this Irish team, is to how Notre Dame lost to them. With how the Irish and NIU have been playing, that game makes less and less sense.
Despite the slow start, the Fighting Irish dominated every aspect of this game. Even a weather delay at the beginning of the fourth quarter wasn’t enough to stop their momentum. This is the type of performance we were expecting out of Notre Dame this season. Now sure it’s only Stanford and this result was expected, however, this is how they need to play. They need to blow out inferior opponents for them to be in the same conversation as the other top teams in the country. Here are the major takeaways from the game against Stanford.
Everyone Getting Involved in the Offense
A lot has been made about how this offense has underperformed. Talks about how the passing game is non-existent, and Riley Leonard is not the QB we thought he was. Now their offense has slowly been getting better week to week. However, what we saw on Saturday was the best this offense has looked. Not from a point or yards-gaining aspect, but from how they were able to get everyone involved.
In the run game, the Irish’s two-headed monster of Jeremiyah Love and Jadarian Price showed why they’re the faces of this offense. The two of them combined for 102 rushing yards and two touchdowns. Love also got involved in the passing game, recording a 25-yard reception. Lots of the success of the Irish offense hinges on what these two can do. If they continue to put up these performances the Irish rushing attack will be dangerous. It also helps that freshman Kedren Young showed he’s a reliable option.
In the passing game, Leonard spread the ball around to anyone. In total eleven Notre Dame receivers would record a reception in the game. As well as no receivers recording more than five receptions. The only person close was Beaux Collins and Kris Mitchell who had four. This makes the Irish passing game much more dangerous. A defense can’t plan to cover one or two Notre Dame receivers, because they don’t know which one will be used week in and week out.
Notre Dame Played a Clean Game
One of the biggest things a team can do is not beat itself. Don’t do things to put them in a hole that they have to dig out of. These things include a large amount of penalties. So far this season the Irish have averaged six penalties per game, as well as 53 penalty yards per game. Now this is on par with the national averages, however, this is an area the Irish want to improve in.
We saw some improvements Saturday when the Irish only received four penalties for 35 yards. Both are lower than what Notre Dame has averaged this season. This a promising step for the Fighting Irish. If they want to make a run this year, they’re going to have to beat the best teams in the country like Texas and Oregon. To do that they going to have to play a near-perfect game, they can’t beat themselves with stupid penalties. If they can repeat this performance and keep the penalties to a minimum they’ll be in good shape for the playoffs.
Brian Germinaro is a sportswriter for Belly Up Sports. Follow him on Twitter/X for more sports coverage and Belly Up Sports for even more college football content. Feature image credit: Michael Reaves.
