Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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DEFENSE RISES TO THE CHALLENGE The seeds of Notre Dame's defen- sive uprising were planted during spring practice, even if outside per- ception held that the unit would be a liability. However, through five games, first- year defensive coordinator Brian Van- Gorder's group has allowed an aver- age of 12.0 points per game and led the way in a thrilling 17-14 win over Stanford. Few outside the program expected such strides from a unit that lost a slew of talented players, particularly from the line. Sophomore linebacker Jaylon Smith, however, saw it coming months ago. "The week before the spring game, there was a session where we totally STANFORD GAME NOTES NOTRE DAME VS. STANFORD QUARTER-BY-QUARTER COMPARISON Notre Dame 1st Qtr. 2nd Qtr. 3rd Qtr. 4th Qtr. 1st Half 2nd Half Total Time of Possession 6:45 6:21 8:18 8:24 13:06 16:42 29:48 Third-Down Conversions 1-4 2-5 0-3 3-6 3-9 3-9 6-18 Fourth-Down Conversions 0-1 0-0 0-0 1-1 0-1 1-1 1-2 Average Field Position ND-27 ND-40 ND-34 ND-42 ND-32 ND-38 ND-34 Stanford 1st Qtr. 2nd Qtr. 3rd Qtr. 4th Qtr. 1st Half 2nd Half Final Time of Possession 8:15 8:39 6:42 6:36 16:54 13:18 30:12 Third-Down Conversions 0-4 1-4 1-3 3-5 1-8 4-8 5-16 Fourth-Down Conversions 0-0 0-1 0-0 0-0 0-1 0-0 0-1 Average Field Position SU-39 SU-22 SU-16 SU-37 SU-32 SU-26 SU-29 RED ZONE EFFICIENCY (INSIDE 20-YARD LINE) No Poss. TD FG Score Notre Dame 4 2 0 2 Stanford 2 2 0 0 Sophomore linebacker Jaylon Smith played a big role in stifling the Stanford offense, racking up a career-high 14 tackles, 2.5 stops behind the line of scrimmage and one sack. PHOTO BY BILL PANZICA BY ANDREW OWENS AND DOUGLAS FARMER