Notre Dame Dominated By Stanford: Notes on the Game

The Fighting Irish were physically man-handled Saturday at Notre Dame Stadium by a very good Stanford team.

The Cardinal are not your fathers squad from Palo Alto. They are no longer a pass-happy finesse team, but a big, strong, physical power I run first hit you in the mouth and wear you down unit.

They actually have a player who starts at fullback as well as middle linebacker.

This is old school football, using tons of 22 personnel (two tight ends, two running backs) and has an offensive tackle wearing No. 41 so they can line him up in an eligible position and add one more big body to crack back on the defensive end or outside linebacker.

They were impressive to watch as they relentlessly wore down the Irish, heading to a 37-14 victory.

Honestly, I enjoyed watching Stanford play offense. I'm not yet a fan of this spread style offense, and believe that the way to win is to run the ball, and stop the run. Stanford showed that employing that style of play allows you to wear your opponent down over four quarters.

With the spread offense, you are hit-or-miss. One negative play seems to end drives. If the timing is a little bit off, or if the defense is deep and talented enough to throw a lot of nickle back man-to-man looks at you the passing game can easily stagnate.

For the Irish against Stanford, even more problematic was that the Cardinal were getting pressure on, and hits to Crist with only three men rushing. If a strong defense has the ability to drop eight into coverage against a spread, and still pressure the quarterback, there is little chance of having an effective offensive output.

Crist, for the first time, looked really confused. Facing nearly all two deep zone coverage in the first three games, having both Rudolph and Floyd double manned, with single man-to-man coverage everywhere else made Crist's reads more difficult and slowed his release.

Many of the hits on Crist were a result of his holding the ball too long waiting for a receiver to break open. This is the prime difference between a spread read offense and a pro-style system. In the spread the receiver should be open due to a coverage mismatch. Pro-style offenses require the QB to find soft spots and throw receivers open.

Andrew Luck excels at this concept. Third and 13 seemed to be exactly where Stanford wanted to be, as time and time again Luck managed to throw in good coverage and force a receiver open and complete for a first down.

The most prime example came in the third quarter, on a 3rd-and-13 from mid field. The score was still 16-6, Irish still very much in the football game. Luck dropped and looked left to find no one, came back to spy the tight end with Manti Te'o in man coverage. Te'o had opened to his left to cut off the inside lane to the tight end, who was running wide of him on a seam route.

Luck saw the open middle of the field and threw behind Te'o, allowing his tight end to adjust to the ball and causing Te'o to try to spin his hips and reverse position allowing the tight end to become open and make the catch for a 17 yard gain.

From a talent standpoint, this wasn't a large mismatch. From a preparedness and discipline point of view, there was no contest.

Jim Harbaugh has his team tuned in. They did not make mistakes to hurt themselves, they did everything right, the were disciplined and approached the game with a workman-like attitude.

They are where we want to be.

For the Irish there were bright spots. Despite the apparent domination, the offense did move the ball managing to cross mid field on many possessions. The defense bent but did not break most of the game, and with eight minutes left in the ballgame the Irish were still very much in the game.

Manti Te'o had a career day, with 15 tackles and nearly singlehandedly keeping the game close for three quarters.

Michael Floyd came alive with eight receptions for 110 yards and no fumbles.

Dayne Crist, apart from the game-sealing pick-six in the fourth quarter, played well hitting on 25 of 44 attempts for 304 yards with 1 touchdown and 1 interception.

Most damning for the Irish was the total lack of ability to rush the football.

As a team Notre Dame managed just 44 yards on 23 attempts.

Resulting from the difficulties the Irish defense was forced on the field for 36:25, compared to the 23:35 that the Irish possessed the ball.

Sure, there will always be a time-of-possession discrepancy when running an up-tempo spread, except that Saturday Notre Dame wasn't that up tempo. They were hit with a pair of delay penalties. They were often slow in getting the snap off, moving protections and personnel to slow Stanford's blitz. They didn't move with urgency, and still were -13 minutes in possession.

All in all, for the first time this season Notre Dame was truly beaten. Out gained, out played, and out coached.

Stanford came to South Bend favored and leaves with a total victory.

Notre Dame must re-group and prepare for a trip to Boston College who is also licking their wounds following a shut-out set back to Virginia Tech. The next few have become near must wins for Brian Kelly and his team as a 1-3 start with Utah and USC looming at the end of the year leaves little room for error to achieve Bowl eligibility.

While many may not see the point in going to another low-level bowl, for a team with a new coaching staff and a lot of young players, the extra practice time that a bowl provides could make a large difference in how Notre Dame begins the 2011 campaign.

The remaining 2/3 of the season will be very telling as to the make up of the team. Though they have improved in many ways they remain inconsistent. There is much talent in the Blue and Gold, now comes the test of heart.