Notre Dame-Stanford: How the Irish Can Win

Going into the season, Fighting Irish fans expected this game at Stanford to be a good one to end the year with. Almost everybody has respect for Jim Harbaugh and love what he has done with the program. The program appeared on the verge of breaking out. Notre Dame was expected to contend for a BCS.

Stanford has done its part. Despite the disappointing loss to California last weekend, Stanford has shocked the Pac 10 with dominant wins over Oregon and USC. Toby Gerhart has been a big reason for Stanford's success. With 1531 yards rushing and 23 touchdowns, he has just been a workhorse for the Cardinal.

Freshman quarterback Andrew Luck has been a nice compliment to Gerhart with 2377 passing yards and 13 touchdowns and only four interceptions. His rating is 142.8.

While Stanford has lived up to its expectations, Notre Dame has not. After a 6-2 start, the Irish appeared to be rolling toward a big money bowl game, possibly even a BCS bowl.

Jimmy Clausen and Golden Tate were lighting up the scoreboard. Then with Michael Floyd returning from injury, the team was sure to roll.

Unfortunately, after three close heartbreaking losses the program is in major turmoil. At 6-5, the Irish are no better than they were a year ago. Charlie Weis's days as coach appear to be numbered. Will the team even want to play in a bowl game?

Based on all that, it seems that there is no way Notre Dame can beat Stanford on the road. There are a couple of factors though that do play into the Irish's favor. One is that Weis has had success against the Pac 10 other than USC. In fact, he has never lost to a Pac 10 team other than the Trojans.

The other factor is that being on the West Coast is about as far away from South Bend and all the media attention the players deal with constantly. That could help them just focus on football.

Looking at this game, there is really one thing Notre Dame has to do to win. That is take Gerhart out of the game. That does not mean take a cheap shot at him, it means force Harbaugh to take him out of the game plan.

John Tenuta should assign a spy to him. Manti Te'o should go wherever Gerhart goes and tackle him on every play whether he has the ball or not. The best way to stop a runner like this is to not let him get started. Three-and-out's are huge.

The other part is the offense needs to do its job as well. Clausen and company need to jump on the Cardinal defense early and often. Tate and Floyd need to be catching everything. If the offense is clicking on all cylinders, the Irish can establish a big lead.

Once a lead of about three touchdowns is established, It is time for Armando Allen to take over. He needs to continue to run the ball with authority and just take minutes off the clock.

Then Stanford would not be able to use Gerhart the way they like. They will have to speed up the pace and have Luck throw the ball more. The only problem is that freshmen quarterbacks have lit up this Irish secondary.

That means it is time for Robert Blanton, Sergio Brown and company to finally step up. Kyle McCarthy has done too much by himself back there.

This article is also posted on http://fightingirishgameday.com/