Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/219972
A Little Short The depleted Irish fight back from an early deficit, but can't complete comeback in 27-20 loss at Stanford N By Andrew Owens otre Dame-Stanford is an annual matchup that head coach Brian Kelly has often cited as a barometer for his program during his four-year tenure. The Irish fell behind 14-3 early at Stanford this fall and, as a team with no postseason implications on the line and with a slew of players absent on each side of the ball, it would have been easy to succumb to the Cardinal's physical attack. Powered by a defensive surge in the second half, Notre Dame (8-4) hung around with Stanford (10-2) but fell a score short in a 2720 loss to close out the regular season. The Irish possessed the ball three times down one score, but exited Stanford Stadium with zero points on those drives, the last two of which ended on interceptions by senior quarterback Tommy Rees. "There are no moral victories," Kelly said of losing to a Stanford team that could earn a second straight Rose Bowl berth with a win in the Pac-12 championship game Dec. 7. "I'm very disappointed we weren't able to come up with a play and win the football game. We didn't come down here to play a close game. "There are a lot of disappointed guys in that locker room. I feel for them, but obviously we came up a little short today. Stanford's a good football team, and we wanted to get it to the fourth quarter with an opportunity to win the game. We got it to the fourth quarter and needed to make one more play and just couldn't make the play when we needed to." Notre Dame scored a pair of second-half touchdowns to narrow the deficit to 24-20 with 1:37 to play in the third quarter, but could not rally to take the lead in the fourth quarter. Senior cornerback Bennett Jackson intercepted Stanford junior quarterback Kevin Hogan with 6:23 to play in the game. Just a few plays later, junior cornerback Wayne Lyons intercepted Rees after sophomore wide receiver C.J. Prosise collided with Cardinal defensive backs in traffic. The Irish defense, however, mustered a critical three-and-out to get the ball back down 27-20. With 2:24 to play, Lyons intercepted the Irish signal-caller again on an underthrow to freshman wide receiver Will Fuller. Behind senior running back Tyler Gaffney, Stanford ran out