Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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"We felt like we had an opportunity to gain some leverage, and I thought we had a pretty good plan going in." As well as the skill players per- formed, the success ultimately rested on the play of the Notre Dame offen- sive line. For most of the game, the Irish line manhandled the Stanford front seven, opening up run lanes all game long. On Adams' 62-yard scor- ing run, he was not touched. "Our offensive line, it all starts there," Adams said after the game, showing the same level of humility he has all season. "They come into games and try to dominate, and that's what they've been doing all season. When you have a line like that you want to run behind them." KEVIN HOGAN A HERO FOR CARDINAL Notre Dame was able to slow down Stanford sophomore running back Christian McCaffrey — but the same cannot be said for fifth-year senior quarterback Kevin Hogan, who put together one of the best performances of his career. The son of a Notre Dame graduate, Hogan ripped the Irish de- fense in the final game he'll play at Stanford Stadium. Hogan completed 17 of 21 (81.0 per- cent) throws for 269 yards with four touchdowns and no interceptions, fin- ishing with as many scoring passes as incompletions. Notre Dame sim- ply had no answers for Hogan, who seemed to always know where the open receiver was going to be. "I thought Kevin was accurate. Kevin is a great competitor, and we know him well, and he's a class act," Notre Dame head coach Brian Kelly said of the Stanford quarterback. "I thought he was on tonight, threw the ball effectively and hit us with big plays down the field. "But that's what we expect when we play Kevin Hogan. He plays very well." The Irish struggled to defend the pass game all night long. Whether it was giving up too much room on short throws against the zone or failing to BIG PLAYS (25 YARDS OR MORE) Stanford • 3-9 STAN33 Hogan pass complete to Rector for 31 yards to the ND36 • 1-10 STAN48 Hogan pass complete to Cajuste for 38 yards to the ND14 • 3-7 STAN48 Hogan pass complete to Cajuste for 42 yards to the ND10 • 2-10 STAN43 Hogan pass complete to Cajuste for 27 yards to the ND30 Notre Dame • 1-10 ND27 Kizer pass complete to Fuller for 73 yards and a touchdown • 3-6 ND29 Kizer rush for 48 yards to the STAN23 • 1-10 ND38 Adams rush for 62 yards and a touchdown PLAY CHART (NO. OF PLAYS) Yards STAN ND (-) Yards 6 2 0-5 Yards 32 29 6-9 Yards 8 11 10-19 Yards 11 11 20-29 Yards 4 4 30-39 Yards 2 0 40-49 Yards 1 1 50 or more Yards 0 2