The Cardinal opened the game almost exactly as we suggested, moving the ball with Hogan's legs and passing the ball over the head of the blitzing Notre Dame front seven. Stanford jumped out early on a pass to Remound Wright chewing up about five and a half minutes on the drive. The ensuing kickoff, however, went for a touchdown tying the game as C.J. Sanders went untouched for the 93 yard return.
On the next possession Bryce Love saw some action but it was the passing game and Hogan's legs that moved the ball. Stanford went on another long drive chewing up clock and working around the pressure from the Notre Dame defensive front. The drive ended when the Cajuste got loose as Hogan hit Devon Cajuste in the end zone. A 7:24 second drive gave Stanford a 14-7 lead with less than 2 minutes left in the first quarter. Interestingly Notre Dame would not run their first play from the line of scrimmage until 1:48 left in the first quarter.
Not surprisingly on the first snap for the Irish DeShone Kizer moved the pocket and went straight to Will Fuller for a huge gain followed by an outside run by Adams and another pass to Fuller followed by two more runs by Adams that moved the Irish to the Stanford 22 where the first quarter would draw to a close.
Second Quarter:
Notre Dame moved deeper into the red zone but the drive stalled on a snap infraction on what was fourth and short that forced the Irish to settle for a field goal. With Notre Dame's propensity to turn the ball over, and Stanford's propensity to significantly reduce the number of possessions for opposing teams Notre Dame opted to go for it on fourth and short. Brian Kelly changed his mind after the penalty and the Irish settled for three. With the likelihood of minimal possessions Notre Dame needs touchdowns to win, forcing the field goal was a big victory for the Stanford defense.
The Irish defense was able to force a punt. The Cardinal punter was able to pin the Irish deep in their own territory but Kizer and Adams were able to move the ball with ease as Stanford was clearly employing a bend but don't break strategy. Notre Dame's drive stalled once again inside the Stanford ten forcing the Irish to settle for a field goal once again. With 5:02 left in the half, Stanford clung to a one-point lead.
Notre Dame made a few tweaks on defense and Kevin Hogan began to wither under the pressure as we have seen him do before. Stanford was forced into another punt as the Cardinal offense looks anemic. Notre Dame then did what Stanford simply could not allow. Kizer threw a deep pass to Will Fuller on the opening play of the drive for a touchdown giving the Irish a 20-14 lead and a huge momentum boost.
The Notre Dame momentum was short-lived however as Shaw made adjustments on offense and Hogan came back out firing a touchdown strike retaking the one point lead.
A fumble by Kizer deep in Stanford territory ended the drive and half.
3rd Quarter:
Notre Dame started the second half once again slicing through the Stanford defense up until the red zone where the Irish once again have to settle for a field goal retaking the lead 23-21.
Fortunately for Stanford Hogan and the offense made some adjustments of their own and Hogan hit Cajuste for a huge gain taking them deep into Notre Dame territory.
Naturally Remound Wright finished the drive punching the ball into the end zone giving Stanford a 28-23 lead and Notre Dame vs. Stanford is turning into a defense optional shootout on the Farm.
Notre Dame responded, however, with another touchdown of their own, this time with a huge run (well outside of the red zone) by Josh Adams. The Irish would go for two but fail. Stanford would go back to work on offense trying but the Irish held a slim 29-28 lead headed into the fourth.
4th Quarter:
Stanford started the fourth quarter with what else? Another touchdown. This time a pass to Austin Hooper. Stanford up 35-29.
The Stanford defense followed up the Hooper touchdown with an actual, honest to goodness defense stop outside of the red zone (literally the first of the night). A three and out no less. Stanford has a 6 point lead at this point and an opportunity to chew up plenty of clock and extend it to a two-score game. Unfortunately the exact opposite happened and Notre Dame made a huge defensive stop of their own. Notre Dame got the ball back with about 12 minutes left in the game but could not accomplish much with it.
With ten minutes left in the game, and a resurgence from both teams' defense the vibe of the game seemed to switch from "last team to score wins" to "next team to score win". Fortunately for Stanford they had the ball and were once again on the move but the Notre Dame defense continued to have answers for Christian McCaffrey and another stop gave the ball back to the Irish.
But the possession was not all bad news:
With the clock below six minutes and Notre Dame trailing by six the Irish are running out of chances, Stanford clearly desperate to keep Notre Dame out of the end zone. This drive quickly turned into the most important drive of the game.
Stanford drove inside the Stanford 10 with under two minutes to play and the clock ticking. David Shaw opted not to use any of his time outs apparently having decided that red zone defense is where Stanford would make their last stand. On third and three from the Stanford ten Notre Dame came up just shy forcing a dramatic fourth and one but Josh Adams came up huge for the Irish converting on fourth down and moving the ball to the Stanford two. The next play DeShone Kizer bootlegged into the end zone. for the touchdown. Notre Dame takes a 36-35 lead with 30 seconds left. The play was reviewed and Kizer probably was short, but the play stood.
With 25 seconds left Stanford took over from the Stanford 27. A Notre Dame face mask gave Stanford a quick 15 yards and David Shaw used a timeout. The next play Hogan throws deep to Rector but the pass sailed over his head. The next play Hogan hits Cajuste for 26 yards across the middle of the field getting the Cardinal into field goal range. \
Conrad Ukropina would attempt a 45-yard kick and nailed it Stanford wins! 38-36. What a game!!
Comments
Just got up
to check the score.
Wow, looks like I missed a great game. Ukropina a hero. I can’t comment, because I didn’t see anything. Looking forward to your summaries.
Great write-up, Nick. Now the big question: who are you pulling for next Saturday?
By Jeff Tarnungus on 11.28.15 8:22pm
"Just got up"? Sleeping off another drunken stupper?
I know better Jeff.
Just the way you predicted it would end (like my friends in the desert).
By Cardinal-in-TX on 11.28.15 8:27pm
Hey, it's 5:30 AM in Central Europe
By Jeff Tarnungus on 11.28.15 8:30pm
You're such a globetrotter!
Be careful, crazy things happen west of the Mississippi River.
By Cardinal-in-TX on 11.28.15 8:32pm
One of my all time favorite games.
So many awesome moments and awesome to see a great game from many of the seniors, particularly Hogan.
I was screaming at Shaw to call a timeout when ND was driving and I still think he was wrong to not call one. Showed me though and I’m glad he didn’t! Also, I hope we stop calling those third down keepers to Hogan. Three straight weeks we’ve come up short on third down. First or second? Great. Stop with the key third down plays. Otherwise, great playcalling and I hope Stanford let’s Hogan air it out next week. He’s been hyperefficient and effective all year and with USC certain to key in on McCaffrey, Hogan deserves a chance to lift this team again.
By Tim Eckert-Fong on 11.28.15 10:23pm
This game was as good as they get.
Should go down as an all time great.
By drkato9 on 11.28.15 10:26pm
One of the best games I've attended
Reminds me of the 2010 USC game and the 1974 Big Game, both of which we had to come back and score field goals after the other team took the lead in the last minute. We’re going to miss Hogan and Cajuste, what a combo!
By vk on 11.28.15 10:30pm
Fantastic ending - just an amazing game to watch...
… and yet I can really only say this because of the way it ended. Still – that ending was immensely satisfying.
I have to ask though – is something wrong with our defense? They have looked completely out of sorts the last three weeks. I expected the defense to start slow and improve over the course of the season but instead it looks like they’ve regressed! Missed tackles, poor coverage, lazy play at the edges. I think the bend-don’t-break strategy/mindset has started to hurt their overall game. Am I missing something?
By RickeySteals on 11.28.15 11:03pm
The injury bug
Is forcing them to play cautiously.
By hpaskov on 11.28.15 11:59pm
I didn't see the game
but from what I have read, I tend to share your worries: rather than being a reliable, improving unit, the D has appeared more prone to getting burned as the season progresses. And that makes me worry about the CCG and, if we win there, how our defense would hold up against the likes of an Ohio State. I did see the OSU/Michigan game; and the Buckeyes looked like the strongest team in the nation during that contest. Elliot just blistered the usually stout Michigan D.
By Jeff Tarnungus on 11.29.15 1:16am
Injuries
The corners are greener than ND’s lerprechaun’s jacket. This is why they are playing bend don’t break every week now. It’s ugly, because it basically gives up lots of yards (a good number of points, too, but not commensurate to yards) and means we need to win TOP strongly and score 35-40+ per game to win. Luckily the offense has been up to that, generally, this season. It doesn’t result in pretty wins, but it’s probably all we’ve got now with the health situation on the defense.
By Brendan Ross on 11.29.15 4:24am
So, what's wrong with the LB's?
ND was able to gash the D on the ground up the middle – and the LB’s were often nowhere to be found, or missing tackles outright? I get that the DBs are hurt, but at least we ought to be able to stifle the run a bit – at this point even that isn’t happening.
By RickeySteals on 11.29.15 9:50am
I think the problem is all three groups need help.
The secondary is young and inexperienced forcing the linebackers and safeties to help there. The defensive line and OLB’s have had problems stopping the run all by themselves, again asking help from the LB’s/Safeties. Those groups can only be in one place, hence the fact that they’re not always at the point of attack immediately.
By Tim Eckert-Fong on 11.29.15 2:37pm
Kizer's leg had something to do with that
I am pretty sure we had the ILBs spy on Kizer and that’s always going to mean they are a step slower in getting to the point of attack. The Irish OL was really good as I alluded to pregame and they really blasted the DL out of the way on those runs. The OLBs were slightly disappointing especially the lack of contain on those outside tackle runs. Hopefully we bounce back against a somewhat suspect USC OL. The green corner are obviously not helping anyone on defense and the play of the safeties has really gone down as the season progressed. Hopefully we get alijah to hold one of those spots for the championship game but expect more of the same bend but don’t break
By layman on 11.30.15 11:12am
I don't think our defense has ever been good this year, which will happen when you lose 9 (?) starters.
It was masked well by the dominance of the offense who held the ball for long periods of time and forced opposing offenses to throw when they were down big like in the UCLA game. They lose that edge in close games.
All that is more problematic when you lose both starting corners.
By Tim Eckert-Fong on 11.29.15 2:40pm
Thank you for saving us from a Notre Dame slobberfest heading into this last week
By scotty256 on 11.29.15 1:19am
A game for the ages
Kevin Hogan’s best game, in his last home game and against Notre Dame, his family’s team. Cajuste was clutch all night. Conrad has been clutch all year. It was, in many ways, a very fitting way to win this game in a way that highlighted the team’s strengths and weaknesses. And what a ride.
ND’s defensive approach at the end of the game — basically softer, prevent defense — was an odd call in that situation and we exploited it mercilessly with that throw to Cajuste. At that point in the game, with Stanford having lots of time outs, assuming we were going sideline was a mistake as well. Cajuste was wide open when the throw was made — it was entertaining watching virtually the entire ND secondary realize its mistake, albeit too late, with numerous white jerseys futilely collapsing toward the middle of the field as Devon was catching the pass. It was a thing of beauty really. I think everyone knew it was likely Conrad would make the kick at that point — just a wonderful outcome to a crazy "whoever scores last wins" type of dynamic that game had.
By Brendan Ross on 11.29.15 4:30am
I had predicted a more comfortable victory
and was wrong.
The part I got right was Hogan’s break-out performance. I knew we would only win that game if he played lights out. I also more or less predicted Stanford’s score correctly: 45 points consisting of 38 offensive and 7 defensive points; but we didn’t get that defensive score. Where I was dead wrong was Notre Dame’s total: they got 36, where I had given them only 24. I was expecting more errors from Kizer, and that didn’t happen. I really am worried about the strength of our D as we move into the CCG. USC has offensive weapons that can do damage to our depleted secondary; and if we get burned on the back-end, we are in for a shoot-out again with the last possession deciding the outcome. We were fortunate this time that our red-zone efficiency was 100% and that we were holding the ball at the end. Terrific win for our seniors and, in particular, for an extremely deserving Kevin Hogan.
By Jeff Tarnungus on 11.29.15 5:47am
The Cajuste play
Bad coaching by Notre Dame. The two safeties just backpedal as if the only thing they needed to do was prevent a touchdown, leaving the middle open, and two of the three corners are soft too. It’s so bad that if Cajuste had fallen down after the snap, Hooper (I think that’s him, can’t quite read the number) could have gotten good yardage there too.
By vk on 11.29.15 8:51am
yes
That was a defensive mess on that play. It was reminiscent, in an eerie way, of how Stanford lost last year in SB.
By Brendan Ross on 11.29.15 9:24am
At no point I felt stanford was going to lose
I thought shaw had supreme confidence that whatever the scenario, if he had the ball last he was going to win. I was watching the match with some stanford fans who were literally cussing shaw for not taking timeouts and let ND score. But I just turned around and said ‘wait for it, they are going to score a field goal’. All night both defense hadn’t shown anything to suggest they would stop the other in crunch situations and it played the same way. Also, I had zero pressure because it was mainly meaningless game for our postseason hopes given the earlier outcomes.
By layman on 11.30.15 11:18am
Most would agree...
Better to play from ahead than behind.
By drkato9 on 11.30.15 1:39pm
Great Outcome But
Shaw playing "not to lose" in the 4th quarter after several defensive stops of ND almost gave the game away. The crowd around me was merciless in their criticism of his conservative play calling during those drives, as well as his clock management at the end of the game. If the ND QB is ruled down at the 1 at the end of the game, they run it once or twice for the score and there is no time left for Stanford heroics.
With Hogan playing lights out and the defensive secondary of ND appearing to be their weak link, why not be a little more aggressive? The current Stanford D, particularly with injuries, cannot be relied on to get unlimited stops. But this is nothing new. Otherwise I thought the game plan was well oriented with good adjustments away from our "set offence" when ND proved they could stop it.
Great game to be at and always nice to beat ND (and their 25,000 or so fans who attended the game!).
By hoyaparanoia on 11.29.15 9:19am
Unfortunately
I didn’t see the game and hence cannot comment on how things unfolded in the 4th quarter. The way you describe it, however, does not surprise me. I sometimes think Shaw is more mindful of the bad things that can happen with aggressive play than the good things. He is more worried about the pick-six than excited about the possible TD. I sometimes wish he and Mike Leach would have a blood transfusion, then maybe both coaches would have the right mix of caution and aggression. In the Wazzu game, it was Leach’s aggressive play-calling that led to the second of Meeks’s picks, setting up Stanford’s winning score. I’m sure Shaw sees that kind of play as anathema in a close game towards the end; and that leads to his conservative style. It worked this time (barely), but it has failed on occasion.
You are also spot on about Shaw’s faith in the defense. I think he sometimes forgets that they are not the elite unit we had the past three years; or he just believes in them to execute flawlessly. Whatever the case, with the current team, it would be wiser to go for the jugular on offense than to try to fend off the onslaught of the opposing team in a game of field position.
By Jeff Tarnungus on 11.29.15 9:43am
You are dead-on about the 4th quarter
Shaw didn’t dial up a single pass during those drives, and ND knew that he wouldn’t – they keyed on the run and it made it very tough for the offense to move the ball. Even one play action pass in that set of plays would’ve made a huge difference, keeping the ND defense honest.
By RickeySteals on 11.29.15 9:52am