Notre Dame is coming off a bye week after earning a top-15 win over the Louisville Cardinals at the end of September. Now, it’s time to see if they can capitalize on the momentum they’ve built up over the last couple of months. They will be facing off against Standford on Saturday at 3:30 pm EDT, 2:30 CDT for the Legends Trophy. Now, Notre Dame holds a 22-14 all-time record against Stanford, including a crushing 56-23 victory in Northern California that ended the regular season last season. Here are some keys to the game and what you can look out for Saturday when the Irish go up against the Cardinals in a historic matchup for the Legends Trophy.
Notre Dame Looking To Keep The Momentum Going After Coming Off Bye Week
The bye week was an advantage for the Irish, as they dropped to number 11 in the polls from 14 due to how last week’s games played out. It was also an advantage for this beaten-up Notre Dame team to get some rest. Now they face off against Stanford, and here are some keys to the game the Irish need to utilize to come out with the victory on Saturday.
The Notre Dame defense needs to continue to shine in this game, they’ve been elite this season through five games. They rank top five in the nation in defense in every efficiency ranking, and they’re going up against a struggling Cardinals offense. A Cardinals offense that may depend on the healthiness of quarterback Ashton Daniels. Will Ashton Daniels play against Notre Dame on Saturday?
That’s probably the biggest question mark going into Saturday’s game for the Cardinals. If he plays that changes everything for Stanford then they have a fighting chance because Daniels at least brings the threat of the pass to the Stanford offense while Justin Lamson his backup is more of a runner type and will never challenge the Irish with his arm most likely.
This Game Will Depend On How Productive This Side Of The Ball Is
Outside of Notre Dame’s win against Purdue and first half against Louisville the Irish offense has been relatively mediocre and quiet. The hope is that the bye week gave this unit time to figure out the answers and hopefully to some degree they did. They need to do their job and jump on Stanford early, then just let the defense do what they’ve been doing all season and then they should run away with this.
This won’t be an easy victory with Stanford expecting Ashton Daniels back Stanford will be coming out firing, so far the Cardinals have relied a lot on the ground game, but Ashton Daniels ass an aerial attack although Stanford hasn’t hit 180 yards in any of the four games against FBS teams. The Irish secondary can’t be afraid and needs to be ready for the Cardinals to keep on pressuring throughout the game.
The Notre Dame offense hasn’t been dominant enough to strike fear in opponents, but that defense on the other hand may end up being what wins this game for the Irish, but if the offense comes alive that wouldn’t hurt either.
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