Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1034282
28 OCT. 8, 2018 BLUE & GOLD ILLUSTRATED CREATING CHAOS Entering the Stanford game, Notre Dame averaged two sacks per contest in its four wins over Michigan, Ball State, Vanderbilt and Wake Forest. The Irish defense wreaked havoc on Stanford junior quarterback K.J. Costello and the Cardinal running game — especially in the second half — while registering five sacks and nine tackles for loss. Notre Dame allowed just 229 yards during the win, including an incred- ible minus-13 yards in the fourth quarter (31 in the second half). Senior defensive tackle Jerry Til- lery came up with four of the five sacks on his own, while junior de- fensive end Khalid Kareem notched the other one. During the final 30 minutes of play, Notre Dame recorded four of the sacks and two additional tackles for loss to keep the Cardinal at bay. With some momentum swinging toward Stanford early in the fourth quarter after Irish senior kicker Justin Yoon missed a 50-yard field goal and the chance to push a 24-17 advantage to double-digits, Notre Dame's front four rose to the occasion. On second-and-18, Tillery sacked Costello for a loss of three yards to force a long third down for Stanford. The Cardinal tried to sneak a run play by Notre Dame, but junior de- fensive end Julian Okwara stuffed star running back Bryce Love for a loss of two yards, leading to a punt. Junior quarterback Ian Book and company rewarded the defense's ef- forts on the next drive, taking a 31-17 lead on a Book touchdown throw to senior wide receiver Miles Boykin from eight yards out. "I don't know if they get enough credit for who they are as a de- fense," head coach Brian Kelly said. "They've been really good of taking away what your strengths are. Wake Forest was a very difficult team to play because of their tempo. We got them off the field. "Stanford is really good if they can control down and distance. We put them behind the chains and made them predictable. The defense has to exert themselves in a fashion to do that in all three parts of the defense, on the D-line, linebacker and defen- sive back." Notre Dame's five sacks were its most since a 49-14 win over USC in 2017. ✦ NOTRE DAME VS. STANFORD QUARTER-BY-QUARTER COMPARISON Notre Dame 1st Qtr. 2nd Qtr. 3rd Qtr. 4th Qtr. 1st Half 2nd Half Total Time of Possession 8:11 7:10 8:43 10:19 15:21 19:02 34:23 Third-Down Conversions 1-3 1-3 3-6 4-5 2-6 7-11 9-17 Fourth-Down Conversions 1-2 0-0 0-0 0-0 1-2 0-0 1-2 Average Field Position ND-23 ND-20 ND-24 ND-48 ND-21 ND-34 ND-28 Stanford 1st Qtr. 2nd Qtr. 3rd Qtr. 4th Qtr. 1st Half 2nd Half Final Time of Possession 6:49 7:50 6:17 4:41 14:39 10:58 25:37 Third-Down Conversions 1-3 1-4 1-4 0-2 2-7 1-6 3-13 Fourth-Down Conversions 0-0 0-0 0-0 0-0 0-0 0-0 0-0 Average Field Position STAN-28 STAN-18 STAN-25 STAN-27 STAN-24 STAN-26 STAN-25 BIG PLAYS (25 YARDS OR MORE) Notre Dame • 2-11 STAN45 Williams run for 45 yards and a touchdown • 2-1 STAN45 Book pass to Boykin for 33 yards to STAN12 • 1-10 STAN35 Book pass to Mack for 35 yards and a touchdown Stanford • 1-10 ND39 Love run for 39 yards and a touchdown • 2-8 STAN30 Costello pass to St. Brown for 45 yards to ND25 • 1-10 STAN20 Costello pass to Parkinson for 31 yards to ND49 • 3-5 STAN43 Costello The Fighting Irish defense recorded five sacks and nine tackles for loss while limiting Stanford to 229 total yards. PHOTO BY BILL PANZICA PLAY CHART (NO. OF PLAYS) Yards ND STAN Nega ve 5 9 0-5 42 28 6-9 21 9 10-19 16 1 20-29 1 1 30-39 2 2 40-49 1 1 50 or more 0 0 RED ZONE EFFICIENCY (INSIDE 20-YARD LINE) No Poss. TD FG Score Notre Dame 5 3 1 1 Stanford 1 1 0 0