Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1481872
www.BLUEANDGOLD.com OCT. 22, 2022 25 -6 Turnover margin on he season for the Fight- ing Irish after coughing up a pair fumbles and failing to take the ball away from a Stanford team that entered the game 117th in the country with 13 turnovers. The Irish did force a couple fumbles, but Stan- ford recovered both. In addition, they had a fum- ble recovery overturned by replay. Regardless, the end result was 0 takeaways against a team that had shown a penchant for giving it away. The first lost fumble for the Irish by junior quar- terback Drew Pyne set the Cardinal up for a field goal at the end of the first half that gave them a 10-0 lead. The second lost fumble by Audric Estime short-circuited a promising drive midway through the fourth quarter that had covered 54 yards in 8 plays before the Cardinal fell on the loose ball at their 21-yard line. 0-7 Combined record for Marshall and Stan- ford vs. all FBS opponents not named Notre Dame. 1 Touchdown negated by penalty for the Fight- ing Irish. Pyne connected with junior tight end Michael Mayer for a 16-yard touchdown late in the first quarter, but sophomore tight end Mitchell Evans — playing in his first game of the season after suffering a broken foot in July — was called for being an ineligible receiver downfield. Notre Dame eventually marched to the Stanford 5-yard line, but turned the ball over on downs af- ter opting to hand the ball off to sophomore wide receiver Jayden Thomas, who was stuffed for no gain on fourth-and-2. 2 Blocked punts this season for the Fighting Irish, after sophomore linebacker Prince Kol- lie got his hand on a first-quarter punt by Stan- ford's Ryan Sanborn to set up the Irish offense at the Cardinal's 32-yard line. 3.0 Yards per play for the Notre Dame of- fense in the first half. The Irish managed just 96 yards on 32 plays while getting shut out. They finished at 4.9 after gaining 205 yards on 29 plays (7.1 per play) in the second half. 10 -Game winning streak for the Fighting Irish in night games at Notre Dame Stadium was snapped with the 16-14 loss to Stanford. The last time the Irish dropped one under the lights at the House That Rockne Built was a 20-19 defeat at the hands of No. 15 Georgia on Sept. 9, 2017. The last time the Irish lost a night game at home against an unranked team was a 17-10 loss to Stanford on Oct. 15, 2016, six years to the day of this year's setback. The Irish are now 2-2 vs. the Cardinal and 21-6 overall in night games at Notre Dame Stadium. 11- Game losing streak against FBS competi- tion for Stanford was snapped with its vic- tory at Notre Dame. The last time the Cardinal had defeated a FBS foe was a 31-24 overtime victory over then-No. 3 Oregon on Oct. 2, 2021. During that 11-game skid, Stanford lost by an average score of 37.2-18.5. In six of those games, they allowed at least 40 points. 13 Tackles for senior linebacker JD Bertrand, a new career high. He had managed just 11 stops in the past three games combined, due in large part to missing parts of each of those games due to a pair of targeting calls. His previous career best was 12 stops in a win over Purdue on Sept. 18, 2021. 70 Members of the 1977 Notre Dame foot- ball team, who returned to campus Oct. 15 to celebrate the 45th anniversary of their national championship season. 150 Rushing yards for Notre Dame marked a season low for a Stanford opponent. The Cardinal entered the game vs. the Irish ranked 121st nationally with an average of 207.0 yards allowed per game. They surrendered 159 yards on the ground to FCS opponent Colgate, 164 to USC, 169 to Washington, 351 to Oregon and 192 to Oregon State. BY THE NUMBERS BY STEVE DOWNEY 41 -Yard touchdown grab by true freshman wide receiver TOBIAS MERRIWEATHER on the first play of the fourth quarter gave the Irish a short-lived 14-13 lead and marked his first career reception at Notre Dame. PHOTO BY CHAD WEAVER