Angela Driskell, Irish Breakdown
Oct 10, 2026 6:53 PM
To secure the Legends Trophy, the Irish must leverage their elite statistical advantage by harassing Davis Warren and forcing the Cardinal into manageable long-yardage situations early.
Notre Dame will look for its 16th straight win today when it takes on the Stanford Cardinal (2-3) in a battle for the Legends Trophy. Notre Dame has won each of those games by double digits and they are big favorites over Stanford, with the current line showing the Irish as 39.5-point favorites.
In order to dominate the way it should the Irish defense needs to flourish in four key areas. They are our keys to victory on that side of the ball.
1. Be Locked In - Notre Dame absolutely dominates this matchup on paper, there's no doubt about that. The Irish defense ranks 7th nationally in scoring offense, 1st in total defense, 4th in yards allowed per play, 4th in rush defense and 14th in pass defense. Stanford, however, ranks 131st in scoring offense, 114th in total offense, 121st in yards per play, 135th in rush offense and 53rd in pass offense. Notre Dame also dominates from a talent standpoint, but this was also true last week against North Carolina, but the Irish defense had its worst game of the season.
Breaking the game down it was clear that the Notre Dame defense wasn't quite as locked in as it had been the previous four games. Uncharacteristic mistakes allowed UNC to rip off some big plays and put together three long scoring drives. Notre Dame did not dominate the UNC offense the way it should have, and that can't happen again this week against the Cardinal. Notre Dame needs to quickly get back on track in this matchup and head into its huge meeting with BYU with some strong momentum.
2. Don't Let Davis Warren Get Settled In - Stanford's ground game has been brutal this season, with the Cardinal failing to even reach 90 rushing yards in its last four games. When the Cardinal offense is rolling its because of the pass game, and Notre Dame needs to shut that down. Quarterback Davis Warren has averaged 353 yards in Stanford's two wins and averaged just 167 yards per game in the three losses. Stanford averaged 35.5 points in those two wins and just 5.3 points in its two losses. This isn't complicated, if you shut down Warren and you shut down the Stanford offense.
It's the same story when looking at how often Warren gets sacked. In the two victories, Warren was sacked just twice, once in each game. In the three losses, Warren has been sacked nine times, with four each coming in losses to Duke and Wake Forest. Notre Dame needs to put consistent pressure on the Stanford quarterback and not let him get comfortable.
3. Dominate Early Downs - The recipe for shutting down the Stanford pass game is putting it in a lot of long yardage situations. Stanford ranks just 109th in third-down offense, and it's even worse in third-and-long situations. In fact, most of its third-down struggles are because of how frequently the Cardinal are in third-and-long situations. On the season, Warren has attempted 30 passes in third-and-long (7+) this season, which is an incredibly high number through five games. He's completed just 14 of those passes. It's simple, dominate early downs by putting pressure on Warren, forcing incompletions (or getting sacks) and shut down the run game and Stanford is going to have a really tough time moving the chains.
4. Get The Ball - One area where Stanford has been quite good on defense this season is at protecting the football. Stanford has turned it over just twice this season, but it goes against a Notre Dame defense that ranks 4th nationally with 11 forced turnovers. Notre Dame has recovered six fumbles and picked off five passes. If Notre Dame is able to blow up the run game and consistently harass Warren it should be able to force situations where the football is put in jeopardy. That would be a great sign for this defense, to be able to force turnovers against a team that simply does not turn the ball over.
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