It’s superb how one end result can change the outlook of a season.
Stanford headed to Notre Dame with the nation’s longest dropping streak towards FBS competitors – 10 straight defeats over 54 weeks.
It left with the Legends Trophy and a believable path to bowl eligibility.
The Cardinal (2-4) shut out the Preventing Irish (3-3) for the primary 38 minutes, didn’t flip the ball over, and rode a career-high 32 carries from junior Casey Filkins to dominate time of possession in a 16-14 win in South Bend.
Now Stanford has an opportunity for a successful streak with a house recreation towards Arizona State on deck, Saturday at 1 p.m. at Stanford Stadium. The Solar Devils are 2-4 and are enjoying below interim coach Shaun Aguano after the firing of Herm Edwards.
The Cardinal’s future opponents — Washington State (1-3 within the Pac-12), Cal (simply misplaced to previously-winless Colorado) and BYU (misplaced to Notre Dame final week at a impartial web site) — additionally don’t appear as intimidating as they did only a few weeks in the past, placing a .500 document or higher inside the realm of risk.
“Our guys bought that style of their mouth now,” Stanford coach David Shaw mentioned. “The right way to play effectively, get into a good recreation on the finish of the fourth quarter and discover a option to end.”
It was the other consequence from final week at Stanford Stadium when Oregon State went 76 yards on three performs to attain the successful TD with 13 seconds left.
This time, Notre Dame bought the ball at its 10 with 2:30 left however went solely 15 yards. Stephen Herron recorded a sack on second down and security Jonathan McGill broke up a fourth-down move with 1:04 to play.
“It’s humorous how soccer is,” Shaw mentioned. “You don’t do one thing proper, effectively guess what: The following recreation you’re going to be put in that very same place and now you get an opportunity to come back again out right here and end it.”
As an alternative of displaying any lingering results from final week’s gorgeous loss, when it blew a 14-point fourth-quarter lead, the Cardinal scored a landing on its opening drive and compelled Notre Dame to punt on its first two possessions for the primary time this season.
Stanford wouldn’t discover the top zone once more, however Joshua Karty made subject objectives from 45, 43, and 43 yards and Tanner McKee accomplished 26 of 38 move makes an attempt for 288 yards, together with eight first-half completions to Michael Wilson.
The Preventing Irish finally took a 14-13 lead on the primary play of the fourth quarter, however Stanford responded with a Karty subject purpose on its subsequent drive to retake the lead and finally gained for the primary time since Oct. 2, 2021 towards Oregon.
“We positively felt it final week that we are able to’t play an important half and anticipate to win the sport,” McKee mentioned. “Soccer’s a four-quarter recreation. No workforce’s going to roll over at halftime if we've a lead.”
The Cardinal additionally gained with a reshuffled offensive line. Left deal with Walter Rouse’s streak of 34 consecutive begins ended due to an damage, so proper deal with Myles Hinton made his first begin at left deal with, proper guard Drake Metcalf made his first profession begin, and proper deal with Jack Leyrer made his second profession begin. Leyrer was harm within the third quarter and changed by freshman Fisher Anderson, who completed the sport.
Stanford moved the pocket with McKee and tried a number of shovel passes to maintain the Notre Dame move rush trustworthy. It wasn’t all the time fairly – Filkins’ longest run in his 32 carries was 9 yards – nevertheless it was sufficient to maintain the ball for 36 minutes.
Stanford’s protection additionally pressured two turnovers, matching the variety of takeaways it had all season. That included a fumble recovered by McGill on the Cardinal 21 with Stanford holding on to a 16-14 lead with 6:35 remaining.
It wasn’t an ideal recreation, nevertheless it actually beat the choice of one other loss.
“Our guys have been working so arduous they usually wanted it they usually needed to earn it and I’m glad they did,” Shaw mentioned. “And now we get a pleasant lengthy flight residence with lots of smiling faces.”
However McKee mentioned the workforce wasn’t happy with only one win.
“That is removed from the top product,” McKee mentioned. “We have to preserve getting higher and use this as a stepping stone.”