Riley Leonard, Howard Cross: Stanford vs. Notre Dame game balls
No. 11 Notre Dame (5-1) wasn’t overly impressive to start today in a 49-7 rout of Stanford (2-4).
But leaning on great offensive balance and a smothering defense, the Irish trailed 7-0, then scored 49 unanswered for its fourth straight win.
A balanced performance by both the Irish offense and defense made for plenty of game ball candidates. Here are the three we settled on.
Quarterback Riley Leonard
Playing against one of the worst passing defenses in the country, hopes for a break-out aerial game from the Irish senior ran high, and Leonard didn’t disappoint.
The Duke transfer enjoyed the best game of his Notre Dame career with a season-high 229 yards on 16-of-22 passing, with 3 touchdowns and no interceptions. It marked the second straight game that Leonard has thrown for multiple touchdown passes in a game, after he connected on only one scoring toss through his first four games this season.
Leonard also showed great work on the ground, finishing with 31 rushing yards and 1 touchdown, his eighth rushing score of the season.
Defensive lineman Howard Cross III
Any benefit from the extra recovery time that Cross enjoyed during the bye week before Stanford was evident, when the sixth-year graduate tackle was still recovering from a nagging hamstring injury.
The preseason All-American tied his season high against Stanford with 4 tackles, including 2.0 sacks — which matched his career high — and he added 1 quarterback hurry.
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This marked only the second time in his long career that Cross has recorded 2.0 sacks in a game, the other coming against Georgia Tech in 2021.
The strong performance for Cross helped the Notre Dame defense hold Stanford to only 3.4 yards per play on Saturday.
Defensive lineman/vyper Joshua Burnham
After missing the previous three games with an ankle injury, the Irish junior returned to the lineup against Stanford and made a big impact, recording 5 total tackles, with 2 solo stops, 1.0 tackle for loss, a forced fumble, and a fumble recovery that he returned 15 yards on the most memorable defensive play of the game
Burnham’s strip of junior Stanford quarterback Ashton Daniels set up the Notre Dame offense at the Cardinal 17-yard line.
Two plays later, Irish sophomore tailback Jadarian Price went 16 yards for a touchdown that gave Notre Dame a 28-7 lead.
