Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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TAKING A CLOSER LOOK What Worked • Pass coverage at linebacker. An issue for the Irish in the latter part of the season was sound coverage at the second level of the defense, which allowed teams to effectively move down the field. Against Stanford, however, the inside linebacker trio of juniors Carlo Calabrese, Dan Fox and Manti Te'o was able to limit the plays over the middle at shallow depth. Outside linebackers Darius Fleming, a senior, and Prince Shembo, a sophomore, also worked well in space. • Capitalizing on red-zone chances. Fifth-year senior kicker David Ruffer may have missed on an attempt from 20 yards out, but the other two trips to the red zone for the Irish offense resulted in put- ting points on the board with a six-yard touchdown reception by senior wide receiver Michael Floyd and a two-yard carry by sophomore signal-caller Andrew Hendrix. In the first half of the season, attempts from that distance caused plenty of issues for the offense and often resulted in turnovers. • Aggressive style of play. In order to have any type of success against the Cardinal, the Irish needed to play fast and aggressively to disrupt quarterback Andrew Luck. The Heisman candidate may have connected on four touchdown passes, but it wasn't without pressure and having to earn those plays. Stanford head coach David Shaw noted the ef- forts by Notre Dame to strip the football — the Irish recovered one of three fumbles — and the safety blitz package also forced Luck into a throw that Fleming intercepted. What Didn't Work • Cohesion along the offensive front. The loss of senior center Braxston Cave didn't show as much against Wake Forest when his season-ending foot injury first occurred, but it proved to be critical in the following two games — particularly Stanford. There looked to be a lack of communication within the interior of the line, and it caused prob- lems for the offense throughout the contest. Be- sides five false starts, the Irish also allowed five sacks with much of the pressure coming right up the middle. The inability to establish a running game, which only produced 57 yards, also didn't making matters easier for Notre Dame while chasing the Cardinal on the scoreboard for the duration of the game. • Keeping disciplined. Penalties have been an issue for the Irish all season, but the program had more yellow flags thrown than any other game of the 2011 season with 10. The previous mark was nine against Michigan. • Execution when given the chance. In order to defeat a sound team like Stanford, the Irish needed to take advantage of every opportunity it had — and they didn't. The biggest example was senior outside line- backer Darius Fleming returning an interception 34 yards to the Stanford 22-yard line and the offense not being able to come away with any points. — Jason Sapp www.BLUEANDGOLD.com Junior tight end Tyler Eifert, whose 57 receptions in 2011 is the most by a tight end in a season in the program's storied history, caught four passes for 79 yards against the Cardinal. PHOTO BY AARON SUOZZI DECEMBER 2011 25 BY THE NUMBERS 3 game winning streaks — but was unable to reach five. The Irish won their last four in 2010, be- fore losing 23-20 in this year's opener to South Florida. Then it won four more, before losing 31-17 to USC. Notre Dame's third four-game winning streak in 12 months was snapped by Stanford, 28-14. 4 a national low three yards on 10 attempts this season. The last time the Irish attempted a punt runback was Oct. 1 at Purdue, when senior wide receiver John Goodman had two for minus-three yards. 7 10 13 Penalties committed by Notre Dame for 68 yards, most notably five false start infractions on offense. The 10 were a season high by the Irish, eclipsing the nine for 75 yards in game two at Michigan. Stanford committed 11 penalties for 113 yards. Turnovers forced all year by Notre Dame after inducing two against Stanford. It was the first time since the Oct. 8 victory against Straight games in which Notre Dame did not even attempt to return a punt. It has BY LOU SOMOGYI Quarterbacks in history to defeat Notre Dame as starters in consecutive years. Pur- due's Mike Phipps was the first from 1967-69, followed by USC's Matt Leinart from 2003-05. Stanford's Andrew Luck became the third with victories in 2009 (45-38), 2010 (37-14) and 2011 (28-14). Three times in his two seasons that Irish head coach Brian Kelly has produced four- Air Force that the Irish generated more than one turnover in a contest. per game. It had three against Stanford, three versus USC, and five apiece in the South Florida and Michigan losses to open the season 0-2. The Irish had only 11 turnovers in their eight victories. 16 28 75 95 Points tallied by Stanford, snapping its streak of 14 consecutive games that it scored at least 30 points (with nine of them total- ing at least 40). The Cardinal entered the contest averaging 45 points per game. 57 Catches this year by Irish junior tight end TylEr EifErT after snagging four for 79 yards against the Cardinal. Eifert's total passed three-time All-American Ken MacAfee's 34- year Notre Dame tight end record of 54 set in 1977. Years since the Associated Press was in- troduced in 1936. Since that time, Brian Kelly is the first of 12 Notre Dame coaches not to record a victory against an AP top 10 team dur- ing his first two seasons. In fairness to Kelly, this year's Stanford game was his first opportunity in 25 games with the Irish. Receptions this season by senior wide receiver Michael Floyd after snaring eight passes for 92 yards and a score against Stanford. The mark surpassed the school record of 2009 Biletnikoff Award winner Golden Tate, who had 93 during a 6-6 campaign. Turnovers by Notre Dame in its four losses this season, or an average of four