Notre Dame: Chase Claypool was Offensive Player of Game vs Stanford

Notre Dame receiver Chase Claypool capped off a tremendous regular season with another big-time performance against Stanford.

The Fox broadcast, led by the ever entertaining Tim Brando, wondered for much of the first half why Chase Claypool wasn’t getting targeted more often. After all, he wasn’t targeted until Notre Dame went into the two-minute drill.

Credit to Stanford there. They covered Claypool well. They were determined to make other Notre Dame weapons beat them.

Early in the game, those weapons weren’t stepping up. Once again, the running game was disappointing. Tony Jones Jr. only averaged 3.6 yards a carry. Most of the ground game came in bursts from non-traditional runs like a jet sweep to Braden Lenzy. Cole Kmet and Tommy Tremble were doing well to get open and move the chains some, but they weren’t lighting up the scoreboard without the help of Chase Claypool.

That’s when the two minute drill happened. Book completed a pass to Claypool for about 20 yards, and it was like the dam burst. The next play was a bomb from Book to Claypool for a touchdown. You’d be excused for thinking that Claypool looked a lot like Randy Moss as he went up to catch the ball over multiple defensive backs.

It was on the back of this touchdown that Notre Dame took a lead which they would not give back all game.

Early in second half, Claypool drew a pass interference penalty which got their initial drive moving. It would stall with a couple of tough break incompletions from Book and a missed field goal attempt.

Given that Claypool would only have one more catch all game, it would be easy to make an argument for someone like Ian Book, who had a strong game. Cole Kmet had 5 catches, and kept the chains moving all night long.

Still, that other catch was another touchdown. So, a two touchdown night and giving the Irish offense the confidence and momentum they needed to take control of the game is worthy of being offensive player of the game.