what we learned: stanford
A day after Notre Dame's 49 to 20 win over Stanford, the regular season closes at 10 and 0 following the team's 0 and 2 start, extending the winning streak to 10 straight games. It is as complete a turnaround as college football has seen in years, and it now hands the College Football Playoff selection committee a genuinely difficult decision.
The Positives
Notre Dame scored touchdowns on each of its first four possessions on Saturday, building a 28 to 3 halftime lead before cruising to the finish. CJ Carr had one of his best statistical days of the season, completing 23 of 36 passes for 337 yards and three touchdowns, including an 84 yard connection with Luke Talich that was the longest passing play of Notre Dame's entire season. The offense as a whole piled up 524 total yards, its highest output since the Arkansas blowout in late September, and did so without committing a single turnover for the second time in three games.
Jeremiyah Love's first quarter touchdown run broke Jerome Bettis' Notre Dame record for total touchdowns in a season, and though Love was shaken up on the play and left the game for a stretch, he returned in the second half to keep piling on yardage, finishing with a touchdown that tied Audric Estime's single season rushing touchdown record. Aneyas Williams added two rushing touchdowns of his own, giving Notre Dame three different players with multiple scores on the day, and Christian Gray picked off a pass in the third quarter to snuff out Stanford's only real scoring threat of the first three quarters. Marcus Freeman used his postgame comments to make a direct, public appeal to the College Football Playoff selection committee, arguing that a team that has won ten straight games by double digit margins deserves to be considered among the best in the country regardless of its slow start.
The Negatives
The most concerning moment of the day had nothing to do with the scoreboard. Love absorbed a cheap shot to the ribs well after the whistle from a Stanford defender, an unnecessary and dangerous play that knocked the best player in the country out of the game during his own record breaking sequence, even though he returned. It was the kind of late hit that has no place in the sport, and it is worth watching whether the conference reviews the play further given the stakes and the player involved.
With backups seeing extended time in the fourth quarter, Notre Dame's reserve secondary was uneven, allowing two late Stanford touchdown drives that made the final score look closer than the game actually was. Stanford finished with 312 total yards and 226 passing yards on the day, numbers that were padded considerably by that fourth quarter stretch against Notre Dame's depth pieces rather than anything the Cardinal did against the starting defense. Beyond that, the only lingering uncertainty this morning is entirely out of Notre Dame's hands: whether a committee that watched this team start 0 and 2 will fully credit a ten game winning streak when the field is announced, a question that will not be answered until the playoff selection show.
Who Shined
Jeremiyah Love's record breaking, injury interrupted performance was the defining storyline of the game, and Aneyas Williams and Luke Talich both provided big play contributions that underscore just how deep and dangerous this Notre Dame offense has become by season's end. Carr's 337 yard, three touchdown day was arguably his best all around statistical performance of the year, spreading the ball to multiple targets and connecting on the longest play of the season.
Christian Gray's interception was the individual defensive highlight among the starters, coming at a moment when Stanford had at least some hope of making the game interesting, and the offensive line's work in springing both Love and Williams for long touchdown runs deserves real credit for a group that has quietly rounded into form over the second half of the season.
Who Disappointed
There is little to criticize about Notre Dame's starting units in a 29 point win to close the regular season. The reserve secondary's late struggles are a minor footnote in the context of the final score, allowing two touchdown drives that did nothing to change the outcome but did inflate Stanford's final offensive numbers.
The real disappointment this morning is the injury Love absorbed late after the whistle, a play that has no place in the sport regardless of the score, and one that will be worth watching as the postseason approaches and Notre Dame awaits word on its playoff fate.
