Notre Dame Finishes Regular Season With Lopsided Win Over Stanford

Notre Dame kept its College Football Playoff hopes intact with Saturday’s late night 49-20 win over Stanford (4-8). The Fighting Irish (10-2) capped the regular season with their tenth consecutive victory for the second straight season and for the fourth straight game the outcome was determined before halftime.

CJ Carr threw for 205 yards on 17 of 27 passing with two touchdown passes. He led an efficient offense that was 5 of 6 in the red zone. Kenny Minchey took fourth quarter snaps for a third straight game and went 5 of 8 for 48 yards through the air. Notre Dame rolled to 524 yards of total offense; it's second-highest output of the season.

The final score was the most important result, but Jeremiyah Love’s Heisman hopes took a hit when the star running back was injured in the first quarter. Love took a knee near his ribs and left the game until late in the first half. Per ESPN’s broadcast, Love was fitted for a rib protector.

He took a handful of snaps in both the second and third quarters but finished with 66 yards on 14 carries. Third string running back Aneyas Williams led the Irish rushing attack for the first time this season with 83 yards on 10 carries, including a 51-yard touchdown. Jadarian Price had 15 yards on four carries.

Love scored the game’s first touchdown on the first drive of the night from two yards out. It set the program record with his 21st touchdown of the season. He ran the ball on eight of Notre Dame’s 11 plays on the drive, running for 18 yards on back-to-back plays to set up the score.

He ended the game 37 yards shy of the program record for yards from scrimmage in a season. He is 66 yards away from the program single season rushing record of 1,437 yards. He can still break those records in Notre Dame’s first postseason game.

Price capped Notre Dame’s second drive with his 12th touchdown from scrimmage and 14th total touchdown of the year. He entered the game after Love was injured on a hit to his midsection on the second play of the 11-play possession. Price gained 42 total yards, 28 receiving and 14 rushing, enroute to the endzone.

Marty Biagi went to his bag of tricks and came up big on Notre Dame’s third drive. Facing 4th and 9 at the Irish 16, the Irish lined up to punt. The snap went to personal protector Josh Burnham, who lobbed a pass to Luke Talich, who then raced down the sideline for an 84-yard score to make it 21-0.

Williams became the third Irish running back to score at the end of ND’s fourth drive of the night. The sophomore picked up 23 yards on five carries and had a reception for 25 yards to help put the Irish up 28-0 with 7:26 to play in the first half.

Stanford got its first points of the night on a 39-yard field goal by Emmet Kenney on the fourth Cardinal drive of the game. Stanford faced 4th and 8 near midfield earlier in the drive but converted on 4th and 3 after Adon Shuler jumped offside when the Cardinal lined up to punt.

Leonard Moore came up with his team leading fifth interception of the season late in the half to give the Irish the ball at the Cardinal 45 with 1:41 to go before halftime. Carr hit Price with a 12-yard touchdown pass with 17 seconds remaining in the half to make it 35-3. The Irish scored touchdowns on five of their six first half drives.

The Irish defense forced a 3-and-out to start the second half and a play-action fake to Love set up a 54-yard pass to Jordan Faison on the first Irish offensive play of the third quarter. Faison scored on a 6-yard pass from Carr just three plays later to make it 42-3. He led the Irish with 68 receiving yards.

After Notre Dame’s second punt of the night, Kenney booted a 44-yard field goal to make the score 42-6. The 15-play drive used 7:36 on the game clock.

Stanford scored its first touchdown of the night after forcing a second straight Irish punt when Elijah Brown hit Bryce Farrell from nine yards out. Brown connected on pass plays of 27 and 32 yards earlier in the drive.

Charlie Mirer, the son of former Notre Dame quarterback Rick Mirer, led a late touchdown drive which was capped by a 3-yard TD pass to Marcus Brown. Mirer, a senior, was playing in the first game of his college career.

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