Stanford at No. 3 Notre Dame
This has been a tough road trip for the Cardinal. In Week-5 they lost 57-3 to Wake Forest and this past week they lost 58-7 in front of 77K+ Fighting Irish fans at Notre Dame Stadium. The ACC Media had Stanford pegged to finish dead last in the conference and so far they seem to be living up to the low expectations, although they are not quite in the basement as they are ahead of both Syracuse and Boston College.
In this one, Notre Dame shut them out completely in three of the four quarters, allowing just one TD with Stanford’s Senior QB Davis Warren connecting on back-to-back-to-back passes of 13, 52, and three yards to Benji Blackburn at the end of the 3rd Qtr. But before that the Fighting Irish scored two TD’s in the 1st Qtr. The first being 4 plays after Stanford fumbled the ball on the very first play of the game that was recovered inside their red zone. After holding the Cardinal on back-to-back three-and-outs, Notre Dame would score again on a 12 play 70 yard drive and 3 yard TD pass from Junior QB CJ Carr to Senior WR Jaden Greathouse to give them a 14-0 lead at the end of the quarter after forcing Stanford to punt after five plays with time running out,
Instead of starting off their possession of the 2nd Qtr with a fumble like they did the first, Stanford would mix it up and throw an interception instead leading to a Notre Dame 33 yard field goal and 17-0 lead. The Cardinal would punt on their next three possessions of 5, 3, and 4 plays respectively while the Fighting Irish would put up back-to-back touchdowns, both in just three plays. The first on a 31 yard TD run and the second on a 70 yard TD pass to make it 37-0 where it stayed through the break. Both teams would punt after their first possessions of the 3rd Qtr and then get a TD each to make the score 44-7 going into the final quarter. The Fighting Irish would get the ball to start the 4th Qtr and score on back-to-back TD’s while Stanford had to punt after 4 plays on their first possession and then threw another interception on their second. Final score—58-7.
For Stanford, Senior QB Davis Warren was 12-of-22 for that 1 TD and 1 interception. Junior RB Micah Ford gained 48 of the team’s 58 total yards on the ground without anyone recording a rushing TD. For Notre Dame, starting Junior QB CJ Carr who they sat down after three quarters connected on 14-of-20 for 181 yards, 3 TD’s, and no interceptions. On the ground, Freshman RB Jonas Walton and Sophomore RB Nolan James Jr. combined for 254 of the team’s 361 rushing yards on 23 carries and two TD’s each with Freshman RB Javian Osborne picking up their fifth. Notre Dame led in every category including first downs, 26-9; total yards of offense, 598-202; averaged 5 yards more per rush; converted their third downs at a 62% clip compared to just 13% for Stanford; had possession of the ball 15 minutes longer, had fewer penalties, and no turnovers compared with three by the Cardinal. Stanford head coach Tavita Pritchard had this to say afterwards; “That was a disappointing effort. I take full responsibility for that. We were not ready to play. We didn’t play well enough.” Hopefully getting back home and playing a non-major program in Elon will help Stanford right the ship before their final five conference games.
Virginia Tech at Cal
After losing 35-33 last week to Pitt on a field goal that everyone watching said was good but ruled no good by the striped shirt under the goal post, the Virginia Tech Senior Place Kicker John Love just hasn’t been right. After forging a 14-10 lead by halftime Virginia Tech was up by just one point, 20-19, on a late 4th Qtr TD run by their backup QB Ethan Grunkemeyer with one minute left to play. Aided by two 15 yard Hokie penalties and a 31 yard no huddle shotgun pass from Cal’s Junior backup QB Jackson Brousseau to Senior WR Ian Strong down to the Virginia Tech 2 yard line, Sophomore RB Ashten Emory would take it home for a 25-20 lead with just 15 seconds left on the clock. Virginia Tech would field the kickoff at the 22 yard line and run it back to the VT 40 taking 5 of those seconds to do it. A 15 yard pass interference penalty on the next play would move the ball down to the Cal 45 yard line. Back-to-back completed passes of 18 and 20 yards would find the Hokies at the Cal 7 yard line with just 6 seconds left to play. But Grunkemeyer’s pass out of the shotgun would fall incomplete with time running out. Having missed two field goals during the course of this game—including one from 39 yards in the 4th Qtr—I imagine the VT PK John Love is feeling as though he has lost them two games in a row.
For Cal, their starting Sophomore QB Jaron-Keawe Sagapolutele was ruled out due to a concussion he got during the Gold Bears loss to UNLV last week. So it was up to Brousseau and he didn’t disappoint connecting on 29-of-43 for 321 yards, 1 TD to Sophomore RB Carson Perry-Smith, and no interceptions. Cal rushed for less than 100 yards, but Sophomore RB Ashten Emory matched the Hokies on the scoreboard picking up two TD’s while carrying the ball for over half of the team’s 82 yards on 19 carries. For Virginia Tech, Junior QB Ethan Grunkemeyer—also their backup—was 21-of-31 for 288 yards, 1 TD to Senior WR Ayden Greene, and no interceptions while also rushing 8 times for another score. On the ground, in addition to Grunkemeyer’s TD, Sophomore RB Jeffrey Overton Jr. and Senior Marcellous Hawkins Jr. combined for 118 yards on 24 carries with Hawkins picking up another rushing TD. The team stats were almost identical. Virginia Tech had just one more first down while Cal had just two more yards of total offense in addition to being within seconds of each other regarding time-of-possession. Cal was a bit better on the defensive side of the ball recording 3 sacks, 10 tackles for loss, and 2 pass disruptions. Sitting 2-1 in conference play, Cal stays at home to host No. 21 Wake Forest on Saturday.