Notre Dame chops the Stanford tree into pieces with 49-20 win on the road

It’s kind of like Notre Dame knew it had to be on a mission with its trip to Palo Alto to take on the Stanford Cardinal for the Legends Trophy, and perhaps, a potential berth in the college football playoff. The game ended 49-20, but the Irish won this game before halftime.

Notre Dame scored touchdowns on its first 4 possessions of the game. The first was a Jeremiyah Love special as he gained 58 yards before finally scoring his 21st touchdown of the season. On Notre Dame’s next possession they did much of the same, but they were hit with a bit of a gut punch when Jeremiyah Love went down on the ground in pain.

Love suffered a cheap shot when Stanford defensive player, Wilfredo Aybar. dropped a knee into Love’s ribs on the ground — and then kicked him. Jadarian Price came in for relief of Love and all he did was put the second touchdown up on the board to make it 14-0.

Notre Dame’s 3rd touchdown of the night came on a play that no one would have guessed in a billion years. After suffering what looked like a 3 and out, the irish ran a fake punt that had defensive end Josh Burhmam throwing a short pass to Luke Talich that went 84 yards for a touchdown.

Then it was Aneyas Williams’ turn to put in the work with Love on the sideline. Williams put together 48 yards on the ground and through the air on a drive that ended with him in the endzone on a short run to make it 28-0 Notre Dame.

Stanford kicked a cowardly field goal with less than 3 minutes in the half and down 28, but Notre Dame responded with a 9 play 45 yard drive that ended with a short swing pass from carr to Price to put Notre Dame up 35-3 at the half.

On Notre Dame’s first possession of the 2nd half, Jordan Faison took over. He caught a long 54 yard bomb and then the short 6 yard slant for the touchdown to make it 42-3. The drive was only 4 plays long.

After that, the Irish got a little sloppy on both sides of the ball and Stanford added 10 points to its total. The first was another cowardly field goal down 42-3, and then they put together a long 91 yard drive that ended with a 9 yard TD pass from Elijah Brown to Bryce Farrell to make it 42-13 early in the 4th quarter.

Notre Dame answered the Stanford touchdown with another score with the Irish starters on the bench. It was Aneyas Williams (again) and he sprinted to the endzone for a 51 yard touchdown run to make it 49-13 with about 10 minutes left in the game.

Stanford was able to put together another long touchdown drive with Charlie Mirer at quarterback. The son of Irish legend, Rick Mirer, took the Cardinal down the field with his arm and legs and got a 3 yard TD pass for his effort to make it 49-20 with a little over 4 minutes left in the game.

Notre Dame drove the field to end the game. Kenny Minchey tried getting the Irish into the endzone one more time, but a bad snap that went back 19 yards ended the day.

Leonard Moore had a fantastic game to help strengthen his campaign for the Bednarik Award and the Thorpe Award. Moore had an interception, 3 pass break ups and 5 tackles on the night.