Notre Dame Football: The Stanford Hangover
Notre Dame lost its season finale at Stanford, 38-36, and in the process, the Irish were eliminated from the playoffs.
One Play Away?
Was it really one play? Was it the Stanford kicker nailing a 45 yard straight shot? Was it the long pass to Cajuste? Was it the 15 yard facemask penalty? Was it a Kizer touchdown run that looked no good only to be reviewed and accepted?
Was it one of those plays, or was it all of them in the last 35 seconds? The best bet would be to include all of them, for post hoc ergo propter hoc can’t really be used for the linear motion of a football game.
In fact, why don’t we give this game the justice it deserves (and most of us will fail to grasp this decade) and say that it was a great game. One play? Sure, but you better go back though the full 60 minutes and not just the last half of the last one. Stanford was 8 of 12 on 3rd down. There’s 8 plays right there.
Notre Dame was forced to kick 3 field goals from the redzone. There’s 3 plays plus the Kizer fumble which makes 4- FOUR PLAYS at least that held 15-19 points in the balance. That’s crazy. One play? Every play until the last one, and that play was made by Stanford.
Even Brian Kelly struggled with the notion after the game:
"It’s never about the last 30 seconds. We had a number of opportunities in the red zone that we should have converted or could have converted into touchdowns that we had to settle for field goals.So, it’s never about just one series or one play. It’s a culmination of the game and the reality is, we’re two plays away from being undefeated and being the number one team in the country, you know. One play at Clemson and one play here at Stanford."
Red Zone, Hurt Zone
November 28, 2015; Stanford, CA, USA; Notre Dame Fighting Irish bench reacts to the 38-36 loss against Stanford Cardinal following the second half at Stanford Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Gary A. Vasquez-USA TODAY Sports
How can a team that is so incredibly explosive and a danger to score at any point from 50 plus yards away, be so ridiculously awful at scoring touchdowns from less than 20 yards away in 5 or 6 plays? The frustration level Irish fans have felt about that over the course of the year reached a boiling point against Stanford.
I suppose in a 2 point loss, that’s a fairly easy assessment, but it doesn’t water down the truth. Notre Dame’s failure to secure touchdowns instead of field goals on at least one of three occasions, lead to their downfall on a night that they held the lead with 6 seconds left.
There is no easy answer. This is just another regretful oddity of a team that has had a fairly amazing year given the circumstances. Why an offensive guy like Brian Kelly with all of the weapons he could want at his disposal- why he and this team score from the redzone is a damn mystery. More so- it’s an awful “twist for no reason” mystery.
Mission Fail, War Endures
Nov 28, 2015; Stanford, CA, USA; Notre Dame Fighting Irish wide receiver C.J. Sanders (9) breaks free for a kickoff return for a touchdown as Stanford Cardinal kicker Conrad Ukropina (34) pursues in the first quarter at Stanford Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Matt Cashore-USA TODAY Sports
All season long, we have heard Brian Kelly and this team (team #127 if you please) talk about completing the mission. The mission being a national championship via the college football playoffs. That dream is dead. Perhaps it died in Death Valley, or in Fenway Park, or in some leather clad room with massive egos in Texas last week, or perhaps the death of that dream just happened in Palo Alto with a swift kick to the ass.
It doesn’t matter when it ACTUALLY happened, all that matters is that the finale nail was delivered on the last game of the season with the last play. It stings- hell it’s an avalanche of hurt.
Still, if you can’t see the forest because of those damned trees in California, then you might be blind. The truth of the matter is that Notre Dame suffered an enormous amount of injuries this year and the backups played well. The backups of the backups played well too- because even they were needed.
Three big names from tonight; Kizer, Adams, and Sanders all have 3 more years of eligibility left- and that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Notre Dame is loaded with talent, and even if and even after some of this years stars move on to the NFL, the next team- team 128 will have a fighting chance at the next mission. The same mission.
None of that eases the pain of tonight, but the season isn’t over. One more game- one more HUGE game that could help bring some happy closure to this season and some hope for the next. The war for elite status in college football is an endless one, and one the Irish are fit to fight.