Notre Dame just picked up their most dominant win in series history against the Stanford Cardinal. The Irish ended the afternoon with a 58-7 victory in the battle for the Legend's Trophy. The offense has had better days at the office, but it was still a very productive afternoon on the stat sheet. Some of the 'disappointment' that I had about the Notre Dame offense at the time of the game was around the preconceived notion of what I expected to see. 

That's a testament to the high standard that they have set in weeks prior and this is still a unit that put up 58 total points and put up the most rushing yards in a single game this season (361). There's still some work to do before they travel out to Provo, Utah next weekend, but this unit has really put up some serious numbers the last few games. Here are my three takeaways from Notre Dame's offense in yesterday's dominant win. 

The running back room was heavily scrutinized early this season for the run game woes. We had talked ad nauseum that this was a majority issue with the offensive line but the narrative of the running back room remained the same up until a few weeks ago. Yesterday, we saw the full force of the Fighting Irish running back room and it didn't disappoint. As a unit, they totaled six total touchdowns and 424 scrimmage yards, over double what Stanford's total offensive output was. 

Within that performance, I think it's safe to say that Notre Dame found their RB1. Freshman running back Jonaz Walton ended the afternoon with 181 rushing yards, 28 receiving yards and two touchdowns including a 97-yard sprint to the end zone that really broke the game open. Sophomore Nolan James Jr. and junior Aneyas Williams had good games in their own right, but Walton's performance from last week combined with this week shows he's the lead candidate in the running back room right now. 

I don't want to make this out to sound like junior quarterback CJ Carr played poorly, but this was his worst performance of the 2026 season up to this point. He looked off yesterday afternoon and didn't start the game off hot. Having said that, the Saline, Michigan native still finished with 181 passing yards, 41 rush yards and three passing touchdowns. Some of my disappointment with his performance came from my pregame opinions of what he would do against Stanford while some of it came from missed opportunities in the pass game combined with a vanilla game plan. Still, Carr put together a solid afternoon. 

One of the more frustrating aspects to this offense was the usage, or lack thereof with senior wide receiver Jaden Greathouse. After his dominant playoff performance to end the 2024 season, he was rarely utilized in 2025 prior to his injury and was inconsistently used throughout 2026 until the last two games against UNC and Stanford. Greathouse now has receiving touchdowns in back to back games and is becoming a go-to target for Carr in the red zone. The storyline all season long has been 'who steps up alongside Jordan Faison' and Greathouse is doing a tremendous job of surging. 

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