Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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24 OCT. 31, 2016 BLUE & GOLD ILLUSTRATED "We probably wore down a little bit," Kelly said. "Probably on the field a little bit too much there late, and they found a little bit of success on some toss sweeps that were get- ting outside and some C gap entries." It was perhaps Notre Dame's best defensive effort of the season. The Irish limited the Cardinal offense to just 296 total yards (176 rushing and 120 pass- ing) and eight points, an encouraging performance in Kelly's eyes. "I thought they were solid," Kelly said of the defense, which has al- lowed just one touchdown the past two games. "We're playing a lot of freshmen back there, so we don't want to expose them in every sce- nario. They're learning a lot as we go. "We want to minimize big plays, and I think we've done a really good job of keeping the points down. The thing that I wanted to do when we made the change was keep the points down and limit the big plays. "Now, you can't be everything that you want to be defensively with just those two things, but you can keep your football team in what I felt was a good position to win games, and we just haven't been able to do the things that I expected to do to win games." Stanford's quarterbacks were un- spectacular against Notre Dame. Se- nior Ryan Burns started and finished 10-of-19 passing for 120 yards. Junior Keller Chryst also played, throwing just one pass (an incompletion). The Cardinal, which was missing All-American junior running back Christian McCaffrey (undisclosed injury), leaned heavily on Love. The 5-10, 187-pounder finished with 129 yards on 23 carries. "He's an every-down back," Shaw said of Love. "He's a physical runner; he's an explosive runner. He's not a small back by any stretch of the imag- ination. You see how he runs through tackles, he's physical; he's strong. "For a guy who's under six-foot, he can push the pile and drive his legs. I'm not surprised at all by the yard- age, and he probably could have had a few more." Notre Dame now heads into a bye week before hosting Miami Oct. 29. "We have to keep the same mind- set because we obviously know we can do it," senior left tackle Mike Mc- Glinchey said. "We're there, we're always in the right spots at certain points in the game. It's just about ex- ecuting when the time's needed. "We're obviously all capable. In some ways it's a learning experi- ence for guys and understanding what is important and what's not and how to focus when push comes to shove in the middle of a football game." ✦ STANFORD 17, NOTRE DAME 10, Oct. 15, 2016 ✦ Attendance: 80,795 Notre Dame Stadium ✦ Notre Dame, Ind. 1st 2nd 3rd 4th Tot. Stanford 0 0 9 8 17 Notre Dame 7 3 0 0 10 FIRST QUARTER SU ND ND Kizer 8-yard run (Yoon kick) 1:57 0 7 Drive: 6 plays, 74 yards, 2:27 SECOND QUARTER ND Yoon 29-yard field goal 6:49 0 10 Drive: 14 plays, 65 yards, 6:47 THIRD QUARTER SU Meeks 50-yard interception return (Ukropina kick) 13:16 7 10 SU Team safety 1:17 9 10 FOURTH QUARTER SU Arcega-Whiteside fumble recovery (Love rush) 10:38 17 10 Drive: 11 plays, 67 yards, 5:39 SU ND Total First Downs 18 16 Rushing 8 9 Passing 9 7 Penalty 1 0 Rushing Attempts 40 35 Yards Gained Rushing 191 195 Yards Lost Rushing 15 42 Net Yards Rushing 176 153 Net Yards Passing 120 154 Passes Attempted 20 29 Passes Completed 10 14 Had Intercepted 1 2 Percent Completion 50.0% 48.3% Yards Per Attempt 6.0 5.3 Yards Per Completion 12.0 11.0 Total Offensive Plays 60 64 Total Net Yards 296 307 Average Gain Per Play 4.9 4.8 Fumbles: No.-Lost 3-2 1-0 Penalties: No.-Yards 5-40 7-47 Punts: No.-Yards 4-163 4-171 Average Per Punt 40.8 42.8 Average Net Punt 39.5 39.5 Punt Returns: No.-Yards 1--7 1-5 Kickoff Returns: No.-Yards 2-22 1-11 Interception Returns: No.-Yards 2-88 1-0 Fumble Returns: No.-Yards 0-0 0-0 Miscellaneous Yards 0 0 Possession Time 32:51 27:09 Third-Down Conversions 7-12 5-14 Percentage 58.3% 35.7% Fourth-Down Conversions 0-0 2-4 Percentage 0.0% 50.0% Sacks By: No.-Yards 4-21 3-11 Senior quarterback Malik Zaire was inserted for three series in the second half, but he wasn't able to complete a pass and also was sacked once. PHOTO BY ANGELA DRISKELL