Notre Dame handled business last night on their business trip out to the west coast beating Stanford 49-20 in the battle for the Legends Trophy. The defense played well, for the most part, but had some sloppy mistakes at other times. That being said, they still held Stanford to 312 total yards of offense, 86 total rushing yards and kept them out of the end zone until the fourth quarter. Junior captain and middle linebacker Drayk Bowen led the team in tackles with seven and recorded a sack on the night.
Sophomore standout Leonard Moore capped off his push for the Jim Thorpe Award and Bronko Nagurski Award in style recording five tackles, one interception and three pass breakups. Why teams continue to target the best cover corner in the country is beyond me. In a similar conversation to the offense, the defense also left a lot to be desired in their matchup with Stanford despite holding out of the end zone for three quarters.
The defensive line was shockingly ineffective against a bad Stanford offensive line. The Cardinal came into this matchup ranked No. 132 in the country in sacks allowed and No. 106 in the country in tackles for loss allowed. Both their right tackle and left tackle allowed a combined 24 hits plus sacks on the quarterback heading into their matchup with this hot defense. But when the night was over, Notre Dame's defense had only 2.0 sacks and 3.0 tackles for a loss which was a fraction of their stats against Syracuse when they had 15.0 tackles for a loss and 5.0 sacks.
The gameplan, at times, was too soft and allowed Stanford's offense to put themselves into favorable third down situations after being in second and long. Defensive coordinator Chris Ash would then revert back to an aggressive gameplan on the following set of downs and shut the Cardinal offense down. The lack of consistency last night was frustrating at times, but the talent gap was such that Stanford struggled to move the ball on the first team defense. At halftime, Stanford had a mere 89 total yards of offense, 54 passing yards, 35 rushing yards and went 2 of 8 on third down.
Last night's performance wasn't bad by any means, just left a lot to be desired. This defense's turnaround was a major factor in this team ending the regular season on a 10-game win streak. They now rank 13th in the country in scoring defense allowing 17.6 points per game. After starting the season allowing 32.7 points per game, that stat is beyond impressive. The Notre Dame defense also ranks 11th in the country in rush defense, 1st in the country in interceptions gained and 8th in the country in rushing touchdowns allowed with eight.
This is an extremely talented and experienced group, young at most spots and will get some reinforcements come the post season. Redshirt freshman safety Tae Johnson, who will likely be a freshman All-American, will be back for the playoffs and interior defensive lineman Gabriel Rubio will also likely be back in the post season. The unit is poised to have a strong post season performance. Now, it's about fine tuning the details and preparing for their next opportunity wherever and whenever that may be.
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