Notre Dame cuts Stanford down with ease, 49-7

Long but fun day

It was a long game for a long time coming. Notre Dame came off of a bye and took care of business against the Stanford Cardinal, 49-7.

Things started slowly and ominously for the Irish. After being forced to punt on the opening drive of 6 yards, the Irish defense got pushed down the field to the goaline. Despite what looked like a valiant effort, the Cardinal punched the ball into the end zone (according to the refs) and there was no review from the replay booth.

Moving on…

Notre Dame answered the Stanford touchdown with a methodical 12 play, 75 yard drive that had as good of a mix of run and pass as any drive we’ve seen from the Irish this season. It ended with a Riley Leonard touchdown run — but Leonard’s day was just heating up.

Notre Dame scored two more touchdowns in the first half — both of those were through the air from Riley. The first one was to Jayden Thomas on a really sharp slant route for 15 yards, and the second was to Kris Mitchell.

Notre Dame went into the halftime break up 21-7, but it actually did feel bigger as the defense started to put the clamps on the Cardinal offense and quarterback Ashton Daniels.

The Irish forced a fumble on Stanford’s opening drive of the second half, and Jadarian Price made them pay… the price… with a 16 yard touchdown run to make it 28-7, Irish. Notre Dame put a strangle hold on Stanford’s offense for the rest of the third quarter. The Cardinal’s next three drives consisted of 14 plays for 10 yards.

The Irish, however, turned each one of those next possessions into touchdowns. Jeremiyah Love scored on a 39 yard run, and Leonard found Eli Raridon for a 5 yard touchdown reception. There was a big weather delay due to lightning, but the third touchdown came from a 19 yard run by Aneyas Williams when they got back to playing to make it 49-7.

Riley Leonard didn’t play after the weather delay. The Irish QB was 16-22 for 229 yards and three touchdowns, while only running the ball six times for 31 yards. Leonard took a seat for Steve Angeli in the fourth quarter, but it was an impressive day for him.

More to come on OFD.