Stanford at Notre Dame – 1st Quarter Thoughts

Great start for the Irish offense and opportunistic play by the defense, but Stanford is moving the ball much to easily for my liking at the end of the first quarter.

• We deffered against Stanford?  I am all for Weis deferring against teams like Michigan and USC, but Stanford?
• How do we give up 10 yards on the direct snap when every defender saw it coming?  Stanford already driving into Notre Dame territory.
• Chris Marinelli gets the first penalty of the game.  That’s just funny.
• Phew.  McNeil was beat on the deep ball, but there was just a little too much air under the ball.  We dodged a big bullet with that considering Bruton made an absolute brilliant pick on the next play.
• Michael Floyd just blew up a Stanford defender on Clausen’s second down scramble.  Excellent block from a wide receiver.
• First third down of the day for the Irish offense and Clausen fires a bullet to Kyle Rudolph for a big pick up.
• Hughes just missed a big cutback lane and set up 3rd and short.  If he bounces it back outside, Hughes had a HUGE gain.
• Second third down of the day for the rish offense and a quarterback sneak is stopped short.  Clausen should have checked out of the play and fired a quick hitter to Grimes.  Luckily we got the first down on 4th down by a hair
• Absolutely excellent pass blocking on the Clausen to Allen touchdown pass.  Sam Young and Eric Olsen specifically did an excellent job giving Clausen all kinds of time to pass and Jimmy found Allen wide open out of the backfield for the easy score.
• Early on it looks like the pass rush is still not going to be very effective today.  We’ve blitzed quite a few times early on and Stanford has picked it up very nicely.
• WOW WO WE WO.  What a great play by Kuntz on the interception on the Stanford screen. Stanford has now driven the ball down the field with relative ease on us only to end each drive with an interception.
• Unfortunately Notre Dame can’t capitalize on the Kuntz pick as the drive stalls at the Stanford 39 yard line.  Excellent punt by Maust to pin Stanford deep though.  Hopefully the Irish defense can stop Stanford deep in ND territory.
• Stanford is dirving again to end the first half an right now it doesn’t look like we have any answer for the Stanford running game.  Gerhart is running right at the Irish defense and has been dragging defenders with him along the way.