Notre Dame Will Take Advantage of Stanford's Weak Pass Defense

The secret is out.  Notre Dame can once again pass the ball with excellent results. 

After Jimmy Clausen threw for a career high of 275 yards, no one will ever doubt the air game again, nor will any opponent underestimate the talented receiving core that Coach Weis has developed by recruiting and hard work over the off season. 

Purdue lined up with the intent that they would shut down Golden Tate, aka the “Golden Weapon”.  They managed to keep him fairly quiet. If you consider 64 yards and a touchdown quiet.  However, they seemed to have forgotten about freshman Micheal Floyd, who had his career day with six receptions and 100 receiving yards. 

Grimes also had a good day and scored a touchdown and did Rudolph the TE.  All of those plays and some more besides will have be active against Stanford this Saturday, else there may be tears in Irish Eyes.

Weis assures the world that the team understands that they are not good enough to just show up and win, that they will have to play from the first to the fourth.  I for one believe him. 

Michigan State showed the team what happens to them if they just show up and expect to win.  They will not make that mistake again against the Cardinals.  So how do they match up?

The Cardinals have a stout defensive front that doesn’t give up to many yards on the ground.  They did however give up 140 yards to Washington, more than Purdue gave up to Armando Allen last week.  It seems that there is some suspect as to the consistency to Stanford’s offensive line as they gave up only 86 rushing yards to Oregon State. 

Notre Dame needs to show something of a run game this week as well which will cause Stanford to stack the box more.  A defensive move they really can’t afford against Notre Dame’s fast receivers in Golden Tate and Micheal Floyd.

Which brings us to the Stanford Secondary.  A word comes to mind.  Terrible.  Yep that’s the one.  The Cardinal secondary has flown around more like confused penguins than their namesake.  Against Oregon State they gave up 404 yards, only being saved by two interceptions on bad throws.  Arizona State threw for 345 in the air. 

Their lowest so far?  Well that came against TCU, with 145 yards through the air, however TCU rushed for 233 yards.  Against San Jose State, they had nine sacks, but still allowed 165 through the air.  Washington with Locker going out for most of the game, threw for 237 yards.

The point is Notre Dame will be able to throw.  This will be a serious problem for Stanford as the Notre Dame WR core is most likely the best talent they have faced so far this year with the possible exception of Arizona State.  Given time Jimmy Clausen can throw enough to look like a major league pitcher rather than a college quarterback.

Offensively the Cardinal air attack is only passable.  They haven’t fair well against decent defenses and Saturday should be no exception.  With the Brown/Tenuta defense getting plenty of pressure on quarterbacks this season, the Standford quarterback will have to make a lot of quick decisions.  When you push youth like that, you get bad decisions.  I fully expect the Notre Dame defense to take advantage of those.

The Cardinals run much better than they throw, and unless Notre Dame puts a stop on the two tandem backs, Stewart and Kimble, it could put some pressure on the Irish offense to score and score often.

Saturday it will come down to the same thing it did last week.  Which Notre Dame team will show up?  I have a feeling that the emotion will be there this week.  Look for the defensive line to be angry that they havent gotten as many sacks as they would like and so they will pick up a few. 

Pat Kuntz will look like and angry bull looking to smash the nearest thing in front of him.  Armando Allen will need to stretch the field again, and Clausen will have to use drop off passes to him to avoid the blitzes that Stanford will most certainly throw at him.  Look for another one of the backs to have a big day as an asset to Allen. 

Aldridge has been running hard and may get to see more play time this week.  The defense will pick up a pair of interceptions, of those if they score the game will be +21 in favor of the Irish.  Stanford will come to play, but their weakest point is Notre Dame’s strongest and as such will not be able to keep up with the Irish in scoring.

Notre Dame 45

Stanford 21