Report card: Grading Notre Dame football in loss to Stanford

Notre Dame lost at home as a heavy favorite for the second time this season. The Fighting Irish fell to Stanford, 16-14, in a game that was in some ways even worse than the defeat against Marshall in Week 2.

Here’s a report card explaining why.

Notre Dame Passing Offense: D

A 70-plus percent passer in junior quarterback Drew Pyne became a 48.1% passer overnight. That’s not a good thing.

Pyne didn’t look as comfortable as he did in the wins over North Carolina and BYU. He looked more like the Pyne who stumbled out of the gates with errant passes and less than sure hands in the first half against California.

He tried to connect with junior tight end Michael Mayer on 10 targets but only completed 5 passes to him. He tried to hook up with sophomore wide receiver Lorenzo Styles 6 times, but Styles only caught 2. Some of that was on Styles. He needs to be more of a playmaker. That can be said of everyone in the Notre Dame passing game not named Mayer. One-hundred and 51 yards, 41 of which came on true freshman Tobias Merriweather’s first catch (a touchdown), is not going to cut it. That’s a failing output.  

Notre Dame Rushing Offense: C-

One-hundred and 60 rushing yards, meanwhile, isn’t so bad. Neither is 4.7 yards per carry. Both of those numbers are better than what Notre dame posted against Cal (147 yards on 3.6 yards per carry) in the previous game at Notre Dame Stadium. Sophomores Audric Estime and Logan Diggs ran well in combining for 114 yards. Junior Chris Tyree was less effective with 8 carries for 35 yards. Even Pyne carried 6 times for 23 yards. But there was really only one scoring drive when it felt like Notre Dame could run at will; Estime capped that one with a 10-yard TD.

That was the goal going in. Take advantage of a Stanford rushing defense that ranked No. 120 in the FBS at 207 yards allowed per game. Notre Dame did not do that to the full extent. And when it looked like the Irish were going to lean on their ground game and take the lead again late in the fourth quarter, Estime fumbled for the second time this season. Stanford recovered.

One of those nights.

Notre Dame Passing Defense: C-

Stanford quarterback Tanner McKee completed 26 of 38 passes for 288 yards. No touchdowns, no interceptions. His connection with Michael Wilson was lethal for the Irish. Wilson caught 9 passes for 66 yards before leaving the game with an injury. Four of those receptions went for a first down. Notre Dame could not stop him, and it hardly contained him. Not enough, anyway.

McKee spread the ball around. Six Stanford players caught at least 2 passes. McKee finished the game on a streak of six consecutive completions. Four of those went for first downs. When the game was on the line, the Notre Dame defense was not up to the challenge of pressuring him or making plays on his multitude of outside weapons.

This is an Irish group whose only interception through six games remains a gift from BYU quarterback Jaren Hall to graduate student corner TaRiq Bracy on the first play of that game. Notre Dame is simply not making enough plays on the ball when it’s up for grabs.

Notre Dame Rushing Defense: C+

Excluding two kneel downs and a sack for a loss of six yards, Stanford rushed 39 times for 105 yards (2.7 yards per carry). That’ll do on nights in which a team’s offense is putting up more than 14 points.

Notre Dame wasn’t egregiously porous in attempting to stop the run, but it wasn’t overly dominant either. It was going to take another effort like holding North Carolina to 28 attempts for 66 yards to come out a winner with the way the Irish offense was going (or not going).

The main issue with the Notre Dame rushing defense was not securing tackles in space and getting pushed off the line by a Stanford offensive line missing two starters and not being particularly stout or highly heralded even when at full strength.

It was tough sledding for Stanford’s Casey Filkins to get to 91 rushing yards. He needed 32 carries. But those 91 rushing yards piled up to be pretty pivotal in the ballgame.

Notre Dame Special Teams: B+

Sophomore linebacker Prince Kollie blocked a punt to set the Irish up on the 32 yard line. Notre Dame ultimately turned it over on downs on a failed end-around at the Stanford 5 on the ensuing drive.

Junior linebacker Jordan Botelho had a bone-crunching hit on the opening kickoff of the second half. Graduate student Jon Sot punted five times for an average of 40.2 yards per boot. He pinned Stanford at its own 9 once, and that resulted in the only three and out the Cardinal had all game.

Stanford won the game largely on flawless field goal kicking (made kicks of 45, 43 and 43 yards) while Notre Dame did not attempt a single place kick. It was a quiet game on special teams outside of the Kollie block, which brings this grade up to a B+.

Notre Dame Coaching: D

This was a clunker of a performance. Much of that falls on coaching. Whether it’s head coach Marcus Freeman not having the guys ready to go, offensive coordinator Tommy Rees not dialing up the right play calls or defensive coordinator Al Golden not scheming up effective defenses, a bulk of the blame has to be pinned on the men wearing headsets. The ones who are paid hundreds of thousands and, in Freeman’s case, millions of dollars to get these things right.

They didn’t get them right against Stanford. And the scoreboard reflected that.