Notre Dame Escapes Cardinal

NOTRE DAME, Ind. -- Two years after the Cardinal fell on the short end of a controversial overtime decision, Notre Dame quarterback Everett Golson found tight end Ben Koyack in the back of the end zone on fourth down with 1:01 remaining as Stanford lost to the Fighting Irish 17-14 Saturday evening at Notre Dame Stadium.

The loss in Saturday’s defensive struggle drops the Cardinal to 3-2 on the season, while Notre Dame improves to 5-0, keeping pace in the hunt for one of the four spots in the College Football Playoff.

“Two good teams fought all the way towards the end. We had a chance to seal it and we didn’t, and Notre Dame came back and won the game,” said Bradford M. Freeman Director of Football David Shaw.

A relative explosion of offense led to another dramatic finish in this storied rivalry between highly-regarded athletic and academic institutions. The final eight minutes of the game featured three scoring drives totaling 17 points after the first 52 minutes produced just two scoring drives and 14 combined points.

Stanford quarterback Kevin Hogan finished the day 18-of-36 passing for 158 yards, two interceptions and a rushing touchdown. He appeared to lead the Cardinal on the game-winning drive punctuated by Remound Wright’s third-down, 11-yard touchdown run with 3:01 left in the fourth quarter that put the Cardinal up 14-10, but Golson would work some late-game magic to give Notre Dame its second win against Stanford in its last six tries.

The Stanford defense forced Golson to beat it on Notre Dame’s last drive, dropping eight guys into coverage many times. The strategy worked for much of the game, but Golson was able to stand tall on when his team needed it most. Facing a 3rd-and-10 at his own 46, the senior quarterback found Corey Robinson for a 17-yard gain to move the chains. After a pass-interference call moved the ball towards the red zone, the Stanford defense stiffened up, with Henry Anderson shoving an offensive lineman into Golson to force a 4-yard loss and bring up 4th-and-11 from the Cardinal 23 yard-line.

Again facing a three-man front, Golson had time to stand in the pocket, keep his eyes down field, roll out to his left and find a wide-open Koyack in the end zone for the winning score.

Stanford drove the ball to midfield on the ensuing possession, but an intentional grounding with six ticks remaining mandated a 10-second runoff that ended the game.

“There was no coverage on Notre Dame’s touchdown pass,” Shaw said. “That sounds sarcastic but he was wide open.”

Those end-of-game fireworks were somewhat surprising considering the lack of offensive punch displayed by either side for the first three quarters and change, although the Notre Dame offense did have much more success moving the ball, outgaining Stanford 370 yards to 205 in total offense.

The Stanford defense struck the first big blow when Ronnie Harris jarred the ball loose from Golson and safety Kyle Olugbode recovered it on the Notre Dame 12-yard line. The Cardinal attack did its job from there, with Hogan perfectly executing the read option and housing it himself from 10 yards out.

Even though Stanford scored, the tone of the game was clear- this was going to be a knock-‘em-down, drag-‘em-out fight between two prized heavyweights; scoring 20 would be a huge accomplishment.

Of course, the conditions didn’t help either. On this dreary, rainy and windy day, throwing a slick ball was tough, catching it was even tougher, and placing it down for a field-goal attempt was near impossible. Notre Dame had a chance to cut it to 7-3 in the second quarter with a 41-yard field goal attempt from Kyle Brindza, but holder Hunter Smith was unable to catch the snap cleanly, forcing Brindza to rush his kick and sail it wide. Likewise, Jordan Williamson never got a chance to make it 10-0 on the ensuing drive after a snap went over the head of Ben Rhyne, forcing Williamson to fall on the pigskin.

The special teams miscue jump-started a six-play, 62-yard touchdown drive for the Irish buoyed by Golson’s 33-yard run on a terrific play call on third-and-10 and capped by Golson’s toss to Chris Brown that went 17 yards to paydirt.

That touchdown pass to even the score at 7-7 would be the last time the scoreboard would light up for 25:34 of game action. Not only was there no scoring for more than a quarter and a half, but there were seven combined first downs in the nine drives that spanned the gap from Golson’s touchdown pass t0 Brindza’s 45-yard field goal that gave Notre Dame a 10-7 lead with 7:32 remaining in the fourth quarter.

A game for Arena Football League fans this was not.

Notre Dame had a golden opportunity to take the lead after Cole Luke picked off Hogan on the first play of the fourth quarter for his second interception of the game, but Smith had more troubles putting down the snap on a Brindza 27-yard field-goal attempt. A.J. Tarpley caught the botched kick and returned it 39 yards to the Stanford 44 – the longest play of the game from scrimmage.

Stanford was unable to do anything with the good field position, however, as the Cardinal would go three-and-out; one of nine such drives to not produce a first down on the day for Stanford.

Notre Dame used that momentum created by its defense to drive down the field 50 yards on nine plays to finally break the 7-7 tie with Brindza’s 45-yarder. The drive was helped along by a 13-yard completion to Corey Robinson that looked like the ball may have hit the ground. Shaw called timeout to get the officials to review the play, but the ruling on the field stood and the drive continued.

“Congratulations to Brian Kelly and Notre Dame,” Shaw said. “They fought longer and harder than we did.”