Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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the clock to capture the seven-point win — its fourth in five years against the Irish. "The first one, third down, they're dropping eight, and we're trying to make a play in the seam," Rees said. "The defense did a good job of rerouting C.J., and I probably should've brought it back down, and the second one we got man [coverage]. With Fuller out there we're trying to take a shot at tying the game up." For Notre Dame, the list of players out because of injury or otherwise (junior safety Eilar Hardy and sophomore safety Elijah Shumate did not travel due to a violation of team rules) grew again this week. Fifth-year senior guard Chris Watt left in the first half due to what appeared to be a knee injury. Kelly did not want to speculate after the game, saying only it "didn't look good." Combined with the previous losses of junior center Nick Martin, senior right guard Christian Lombard, senior nose guard Louis Nix III and junior inside linebacker Jarrett Grace, the Irish were stretched thin on the offensive line and defensive front. "There's still some good things we did, but in the end they made one more play than us," said fifth-year senior linebacker Dan Fox, who led the Irish in tackles for the second straight week with 15. "We just needed to make the play when we needed to and didn't. "I think just overall shedding blockers [led to the second-half improvements]. Don't latch onto the blocker, shed him quick and get to the ball." Each team reached the red zone twice in the first half. However, Stanford possessed a 14-6 halftime advantage, converting both of its opportunities into touchdowns, while the Irish settled for a pair of field goals by junior kicker Kyle Brindza. On the first drive of the second half, Cardinal senior running back Anthony Wilkerson breezed through the middle for a 20-yard touchdown on third-and-nine to hand Stanford a 21-6 lead. Notre Dame answered by engineering its first touchdown drive of the game on a seven-play, 76-yard march that culminated with a fouryard touchdown pass from Rees to senior wide receiver TJ Jones. The score marked Rees' 60th passing touchdown of his Irish career. His 61st, recorded later in the third quarter, moved him past Jimmy Clausen (2007-09) for second all time in the Irish record books. After a 51-yard kickoff return by Stanford junior Ty Montgomery against a unit that has plagued the Irish the entire season, the Cardinal added a field goal to claim a 24-13 cushion. Gaffney had plunged into the end zone from five yards out to finish the drive, but officials called the play back for holding. Two plays later, the Cardinal settled for three points. The infraction marked just the second holding penalty called against Stanford's offensive line during the entire 2013 season. On first down of the next drive, Lyons nearly intercepted Rees after jumping a pass attempt at the Irish 25-yard line. On the next play, Jones hauled in a 20-yard reception from Rees. Stanford handed Notre Dame