Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1527865
BLUEGOLDONLINE.COM OCT. 19, 2024 21 NOTRE DAME PASSING OFFENSE: A+ It doesn't get much better than 11 different play- ers catching a pass, including the starting center. Yeah, even the center. Everything went right for the Irish through the air except for freshman wide receiver Micah Gil- bert dropping a gimme touchdown from sopho- more quarterback Steve Angeli. Had he caught it, Notre Dame would have piled up a season-high 283 passing yards. Instead, they settled for 248 and 3 scores. Senior quarterback Riley Leonard had 229 of the yards and all three of the touchdowns. He spread the ball around, took care of it and in turn took care of business. He was also only sacked once in a game in which the Notre Dame offensive line was able to control things up front. All of this success, and tight end Mitchell Evans didn't need to catch a single pass. Jordan Faison didn't even play. A huge step forward as a whole all things considered. NOTRE DAME RUSHING OFFENSE: A+ Can't complain with 39 team carries for 229 yards and 4 touchdowns. That's 5.9 yards per carry and the type of stat line that will break an op- ponent's will, especially when things went the way they did for the Notre Dame passing offense as well. All four touchdowns came from different contrib- utors. Junior Jadarian Price led all Irish players with 12 carries. He took them for 49 yards and a score. Sophomore Jeremiyah Love led the way in rushing yards with 53 on just 6 attempts. His touchdown was a 39-yarder. Leonard also had 6 attempts, and he went for 31 yards and a score — his eighth of the season, top five among all FBS quarterbacks. Freshmen Aneyas Williams and Kedren Young capped off the evening combining for 67 yards on 10 carries. Graduate student Devyn Ford also had 20 yards on 3 carries. Everyone got in on the action. NOTRE DAME PASSING DEFENSE: A+ Notre Dame held three opponents below 100 passing yards in 2023. Add a mark to the board for the 2024 squad. The Irish did it for the first time this season against the Cardinal, who finished with 87. It was the Notre Dame pass rush that prompted such a dominant performance against the pass. The Irish accumulated 4 sacks and generated con- stant pressure on Stanford starter Ashton Daniels, who completed 8 of 13 passes for 74 yards. The Notre Dame secondary didn't come away with any interceptions, but it didn't need to. The passing defense started up front in this one, and that makes everything easier at the other levels. NOTRE DAME RUSHING DEFENSE: A Notre Dame let Daniels get loose for a 27-yard gain on the only drive in which Stanford scored. Outside of that, though, the Irish shut the Cardinal down in holding them to 143 yards on 3.9 yards per carry when you don't include the sacks. Stanford played without standout freshman Mi- cah Ford. Fellow freshman Chris Davis Jr. wasn't terrible, going for 45 yards on 10 carries, but that wasn't nearly enough. Only one of those 10 carries went for double-digit yardage. Daniels wanted to run, and Notre Dame wouldn't let him. Take away the 27-yarder, and the Irish bot- tled him up and contained him nicely. Quarterback run could have been an X-factor for the Stanford offense. The Notre Dame defense stopped that in its tracks. SPECIAL TEAMS: B This is a default type of grade because there re- ally wasn't much that happened on special teams. James Rendell punted one time for 24 yards. The Irish didn't attempt any field goals or return any kicks. Max Hurleman returned three punts for 24 yards. No blunders. But still just a B because no difference-making, either. COACHING: A For the third home game in a row, Notre Dame fell behind in the first quarter. But also for the third game in a row, the Irish responded in emphatic fashion and took control of the football game. This is starting to become a resilient group under head coach Marcus Freeman, and that should come as no surprise considering he's always harp- ing on the bumpy road and overcoming adversity. Forty-two-point victories are always welcome over anybody, too. If you're putting those in the books, then you've got someone at the helm who knows how to get a group ready. Has that always happened in the Freeman era? No. It didn't happen the last time Stanford came to South Bend. It didn't happen earlier this season against Northern Illinois. But it happened versus the Cardinal, and it happened in a big way. The Irish are also 4-0 following a bye week during Freeman's era. Put another feather in his cap for that. Impressive. REPORT CARD BY TYLER HORKA The Fighting Irish rushing attack racked up 229 yards on 5.9 yards per carry and produced 4 touchdowns, including sophomore running back Jeremiyah Love's 39-yarder in the third quarter. PHOTO BY MICHAEL MILLER