Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/219972
Taking A Closer Look What Worked • Forcing turnovers. When Notre Dame head coach Brian Kelly provided his three-part plan to beat Stanford during the week leading up to the trip to Palo Alto, Calif., forcing turnovers did not make the list. A pair of Irish takeaways, however, kept the game within striking distance. With Stanford leading 14-3 early in the second quarter and driving, junior quarterback Kevin Hogan threw the first of two interceptions, with senior safety Austin Collinsworth making the grab. He tossed the other to senior cornerback Bennett Jackson in the fourth quarter with Notre Dame trailing by seven points. It marked a rarity for the Irish: Outside of Collinsworth's interception on a BYU Hail Mary heave to end the first half Nov. 23, it had been more than a month since the unit picked off a pass (Oct. 19 versus USC). • Preventing the big play. One component of Kelly's three-part plan was avoiding the big play. The Irish mostly accomplished that goal by containing explosive junior wide receiver Ty Montgomery and Co. in check. To Stanford's credit, however, the Cardinal did not end up needing big plays because of its success with extended drives. The team's five scoring drives consumed more than a third of the game's 60 minutes and consisted of the following number of plays: seven, nine, seven, eight and 13. The closest the Cardinal came to a long scoring play was senior running back Anthony Wilkerson's 20-yard touchdown on third-and-nine early in the third quarter. What Didn't Work • Running the football. Notre Dame's rushing game left much to be desired in the 27-20 loss to close out an 8-4 regular season. With an average of 2.7 yards per carry in the season finale and the fourth rushing total under the century mark of 2013, Notre Dame depended on its passing game to move the ball against the Cardinal defense. In fairness, the Irish suited up without junior center Nick Martin and senior right guard Christian Lombard, and lost fifth-year senior left guard Chris Watt in the first half. • Third-down defense. One of the striking differences (of many) between the 2012 and 2013 Notre Dame defenses is its opponents' third-down conversion rate. After entering the Stanford game 83rd in the country in the category, the Irish allowed the Cardinal to move the chains 8 of 13 times (61.5 percent) on third down in the 27-20 loss. After Stanford converted five times in six opportunities in the first half, Notre Dame improved in the final 30 minutes by allowing only three conversions in seven tries. Five of the game's eight conversions led directly to Cardinal points, the most notable of which was the 20-yard Wilkerson touchdown scamper on third-and-nine in the third quarter. An Irish stop would have forced a field goal attempt instead of the score that extended Stanford's lead to 21-6. — Andrew Owens by the numbers .0002305 Percentage points separating Notre Dame from Michigan in all-time winning percentage, with the Wolverines at .7330173 and Notre Dame .7327868. This was the second time in November the Irish had a chance to move ahead but were prevented from doing so with their losses at Pitt and Stanford. By lou somogyi 2 Holding calls on Stanford during its 10-2 regular season, with one of them coming against Notre Dame at the Irish 5-yard line. No matter how one might look at it, that almost seems unfathomable. 2-3 Record in Brian Kelly's four seasons versus teams ranked in the Associated Press top