Notre Dame College Football's Biggest Winner in Insane Week 6

SOUTH BEND, Ind. — On one of the most unpredictable college football Saturdays in recent memory, Notre Dame needed all 60 minutes to escape unharmed.

From the time the Fighting Irish took the field in miserable, rainy and windy conditions, it looked like Keyser Soze from The Usual Suspects worked his way through the rest of the early-season College Football Playoff contenders. 

Alabama? Dead. Oklahoma? Dead. Texas A&M? Dead. With Oregon in the morgue since a Thursday night loss to unranked Arizona, college football lost four bona fide playoff frontrunners, and that was before the evening games even kicked off. 

That Notre Dame finds itself still standing is amazing in and of itself. Even though the Irish outgained Stanford on offense and outplayed the country's No. 1 defense, a collection of dropped passes, missed chances and bungled scoring opportunities almost cost Notre Dame the game.

But on 4th-and-11 with 1:09 remaining, Everett Golson escaped the pocket and pushed the Irish to 5-0 as he rolled left and spotted senior tight end Ben Koyack wide-open in the corner of the end zone. 

"It felt like the whole thing happened in slow motion," Golson said after the game. 

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Golson's 43rd passing attempt of the wet afternoon was his best, a perfect spiral that found Koyack standing shockingly alone in a rare coverage bust for Stanford's defense. Koyack waited patiently for the ball to arrive, planting his toes just inside the chalk as the Irish made their great escape. 

The victory allows Notre Dame to inch their way into a likely spot in the Top Five. It also puts them on a crash course to meet Florida State in a battle of unbeatens in Tallahassee, Florida, a national showdown where the winner takes an inside track to college football's first-ever Final Four. Michael Bertsch, Notre Dame's director of football media relations, shared a tweet regarding the Irish's defensive impact on the Cardinal:

But Notre Dame didn't make it easy on itself, especially the Irish's star quarterback. Golson essentially spotted Stanford its first seven points, coughing up a fumble at the Irish's 12-yard line, gifting Kevin Hogan and Stanford's offense a key red-zone appearance.

Golson also threw an interception to Stanford's Jordan Richards minutes later, turning a chip-shot field-goal opportunity into another red-zone mistake, his sixth turnover in as many quarters. 

But Notre Dame overcame those mistakes—and a few more, too. It was mostly thanks to the Irish's dominant defense. 

Brian VanGorder's defense gave the Cardinal one of their toughest Saturdays in years. Stanford was held under 100 yards rushing for the first time since September 2012. The Cardinal averaged just 3.0 yards per play, their lowest tally since the Walt Harris era nearly a decade ago. 

But with Hogan able to march Stanford down the field for a clutch touchdown with just three minutes to go, it looked like David Shaw's Cardinal would escape South Bend with a tight victory after losing a heartbreaker in 2012. Notre Dame Football provided coach Brian Kelly's post-win comments to his team:

But three minutes was two too many for Golson and the Irish offense. And while the undefeated dreams of Alabama, Oklahoma and Oregon fans all ended in the first week of October, Notre Dame's continue, thanks to a play for the ages. 

"I mean, I love moments like that. I really do," Golson said after the game. "I think I see it more as an opportunity rather than pressure. It was a great opportunity for us to really just showcase what we have in the kind of very exciting moment right there."

It wasn't perfect. It wasn't even close. But staying alive on an insane Saturday was quite alright for Kelly. 

"Just a great win for Notre Dame," Kelly said after the game. "Let our kids enjoy it, and we'll nitpick on all the other things we've got to get better at later. We're just going to enjoy the victory."