Notre Dame Football: Miles Boykin was Offensive Player of the Game

SOUTH BEND, IN - SEPTEMBER 29: Miles Boykin #81 of the Notre Dame Fighting Irish stretches for the touchdown as Malik Antoine #3 of the Stanford Cardinal tries to make the stop at Notre Dame Stadium on September 29, 2018 in South Bend, Indiana. (Photo by Michael Hickey/Getty Images)
SOUTH BEND, IN - SEPTEMBER 29: Miles Boykin #81 of the Notre Dame Fighting Irish stretches for the touchdown as Malik Antoine #3 of the Stanford Cardinal tries to make the stop at Notre Dame Stadium on September 29, 2018 in South Bend, Indiana. (Photo by Michael Hickey/Getty Images) /
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The Notre Dame football win over Stanford doesn’t look nearly as impressive without the dominant and clutch play of Miles Boykin on Saturday.

Notre Dame football moved to 5-0 after a dominant performance Saturday against a top 10 team in Stanford. This was absolutely a matchup you would have expected to be a nail biter until the very end, especially with how it has played out over the past several years.

The Irish changed all of that when they took over the game in the second half. The defense was outstanding for the majority of the night and gave the offense every opportunity to capitalize.

And with all the opportunities it was given, the Irish offense did just that.

These are the games I love to see, because you could have several choices for the most valuable player on offense. Ian Book again was very solid from start to finish, while Dexter Williams put on a show in his first appearance of the year after being “suspended” for four games.

But the guy that had a career night and made clutch catches all game long was Miles Boykin.

Boykin had 11 catches for 144 yards and a huge fourth quarter touchdown to get the Irish up by double digits. This was the best game of Boykin’s career to date, and a welcome performance at that.

The senior wide receiver hasn’t been the player everyone knows he can be for the offense over the last two weeks, logging only two receptions during that span. But that all changed against the Cardinal on Saturday night.

If it wasn’t for Boykin and the big-time plays he made en route to his huge night statistically, the game would have been a lot closer.

Boykin needs to carry over the same mindset he had against Stanford when the Irish head to one of the most hostile environments in college football to take on Virgina Tech for a primetime match up this coming weekend.

Next. Tillery was Defensive Player of the Game vs. Stanford. dark

We all can assume the Hokies will be desperate to win this game in front of their home crowd after an embarrassing loss to Old Dominion just two weeks ago. Boykin and the Irish need to be prepared for the adversity they will face Saturday night.