There are cupcakes on the Notre Dame football schedule this year, and then there are cupcakes like Stanford.
Normally a game that takes place much later in the season, it's entirely possible that the Irish won't face a worse team all year. The Cardinal are in the middle of a rebuild with a new head coach and a new GM. The Stanford offese is lacking in talent and the defense? Well the defense is abysmal.
Already ranked among the nation's worst units, Notre Dame's Twitter account, The Fourth Quarter, pointed out a brand-new way that shows just how easy it should be for Notre Dame on Saturday afternoon.
The Fourth Quarter showed the defensive touchdown rate allowed for every FBS program. Notre Dame's defense is unsurprisingly stingy about letting opponents find the end zone. The Fighting Irish rank No. 13, allowing a touchdown just 12.5% of the time. Stanford? Stanford is very much on the opposite end of that spectrum.
How Often Does Your Defense Allow a TD? pic.twitter.com/bIjyVEzByH
— The Fourth Quarter (@4thQuarterCFB00) October 6, 2026
CJ Carr gets dream matchup as Notre Dame football faces nation’s worst touchdown defense
In fact, the Cardinal are ranked No. 138, dead last among FBS teams. It's not even that the ranking is bad (tho it is). It's that the ACC squad has allowed a touchdown in nearly half of their opponents possessions. Stanford has allowed their opponents to score a touchdown in 46.4% of possessions this season.
CJ Carr must be licking his chops, knowing the Cardinal offer so little resistance to even mediocre offenses.
Even without knowing how often opposing teams score touchdowns against Stanford, nothing about the team's defense looked remotely good. They're ranked dead last in the ACC (a conference not exactly known for great defense) by allowing 38.2 points per game. Stanford is not only last, but also nine full points per game worse than second-to-last Louisville.
Stanford is also allowing an incredible 458.8 total yards per game, 299.8 passing yards per game, and 159 rushing yards per game. Their run defense is the only statistic of the four that doesn't have them entrenched in the cellar; instead, they're ranked 14th out of 18 teams against the run.
There's been a great deal of talk leading up to Saturday's game about how Notre Dame's defense might handle a below-average Stanford offense, even if cornerback Leonard Moore and linebacker Kyngstonn Viliamu-Asa aren't healthy enough to play. There hasn't been enough discussion of just how badly the Fighting Irish offense might tear the Cardinal defense up.
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