Griffiths: Controversy aside, Notre Dame’s defense shines yet again
By DOUG GRIFFITHS
ISL Correspondent
NOTRE DAME, Ind. — Things happened so fast Saturday evening in Notre Dame Stadium.
First, some of us in the press box, including myself were beginning to think the Irish were on the verge of suffering their first loss of the season.
Then we thought they were going to pull out a game they probably deserved to lose in regulation, only to kick a game-tying field goal in the waning moments, to send it into overtime.
Four plays into the extra session, Notre Dame scored a touchdown and it was game over, right? Sure, Stanford got a chance to answer, but it wasn’t going to score a touchdown against a defense that hasn’t allowed an offensive touchdown since Sept. 8 against Purdue.
Stanford was in great shape to score that elusive offensive touchdown having four chances inside the 5-yard line.
Two running plays later the Cardinal were inside the 1 and surely would punch it in with one of the nation’s best running backs in Stepfan Taylor and an offensive line that features a pair of future NFL starters.
What transpired on the next two snaps was something that now will be remembered in Notre Dame lore as the 2012 goal-line stand.
And that goal-line stand for the ages will wasn’t minus controversy either.
Taylor came within inches of crossing the plain of the goal line on third down, but was met by Notre Dame’s all-everything linebacker Manti Te’o, who somehow had enough force to stop Taylor in his tracks and push him back.
With the rain intensifying on fourth down, the Cardinal turned to Taylor yet again. The result was the same. No doubt Taylor’s forward progress was stopped initially, but he rolled off the initial contact and reached for the goal line. Taylor seemed to get the nose of the football to the white-painted goal line, but was ruled down prior to getting to the goal line.
As the side judge came in to mark the ball short of the goal line, Notre Dame’s bench spilled out onto the field while a stunned Stanford sideline remained standing around its bench area off the field.
The officiating crew eventually cleared the field after the public address announcer told the sellout crowd the play was under review by the replay booth.
Replays showed Taylor continue to twist and move and was on top of bodies right up until he reached the ball out to try and get to the goal line. At that time, his left elbow appeared to be touching the ground as the ball was within an eyelash of the goal line. It looked as though he got to the goal line before the ball came lose, which by the way was recovered by a Stanford player who was in the middle of the pile and slightly over the goal line.
My seat in the Notre Dame Stadium press box is located in the front row on the 30-yard line so fans outside of the press box often turn around and look in asking for the scribes’ opinion when it comes to replays since we are privy to television monitors, which show us the replays.
The general consensus in the press box was that the call likely was going to be overturned because Taylor seemed to get to the goal line.
The NBC color commentator Mike Mayock said had the whistle blown, signifying Taylor’s forward progress had been stopped, it would’ve been a moot point and replay wouldn’t have even been necessary.
“Apparently the whistle hasn’t blown because they’re allowing the replay,” said Mayock during the telecast.
It took a while to review.
Prior to the referee announcing the replay booth’s conclusion, he had a puzzling statement.
“There is no excessive celebration foul because the teams thought that the game was over,” referee Shawn Hochuli, the son of legendary NFL referee Ed Hochuli said.
That statement came out of left field because there was no flag ever thrown, which would’ve signaled such an infraction. Not sure what to chalk that one up to.
“The ruling on the field in fact stands as called. The game is now over,” Hochuli said.
And the celebration commenced.
The national coordinator of NCAA football officials backed Hochuli and his crew saying upholding the call on the field was the correct thing to do.
Rogers Redding, the national coordinator of officials told the Associated Press he “would have to let the call stand.”
The bottom line seemed like there was no conclusive video evidence to overturn the call on the field.
So Notre Dame’s magical season now isn’t void of controversy.
Whether the 6-0 Irish, now ranked fifth in the country (and fifth in the first BCS poll released Sunday night), were the beneficiary of a call that went their way or not — it’s worth noting that was a Pac-12 officiating crew — this is a team that has one of the nation’s best defenses.
It’s a Notre Dame defense that now hasn’t given up an offensive touchdown for 16 quarters and a defense that has the Irish faithful starting to really believe that a serious run at the national championship isn’t wishful thinking whatsoever.
With that said, IndySportsLegends.com hands out its weekly grades on what we saw from the Irish against the Cardinal.
QUARTERBACKS – C+
Everett Golson completed just 50 percent of his passes (12-of-24) for 141 yards with a touchdown and a long of just 24 yards. Production like that won’t get it done at Oklahoma or at USC.
Credit Tommy Rees for coming off the bench cold and wet to replace Golson, who suffered a head injury. All Rees did was complete all four of his passes for 43 yards. None of those completions was bigger than the one that came on third-and-8 to Theo Riddick for a 16-yard gain in overtime. It was Rees’ longest pass play of the game.
Like Golson, Rees threw a touchdown pass and neither was intercepted.
RUNNING BACKS – C-
Cierre Wood was Notre Dame’s leading rusher with 66 yards. He averaged 5.5 yards per carry, but the Irish didn’t have a rushing touchdown on the day despite attempting 44 rushes.
Golson was really Notre Dame’s biggest threat running the football. On a couple of occasions when he couldn’t find an open receiver, he did some damage with his feet, scrambling for a net of 41 yards, which would’ve been greater had it not been for his 26 yards rushing.
The thing about Golson is when he does run, he doesn’t do a good job of tucking the ball and securing it. He’s very loose with the ball although on his fumble deep in Stanford territory he did receive quite a hit that would’ve caused most to cough it up.
RECEIVERS/TIGHT ENDS – C
It was good to see Tyler Eifert tie TJ Jones for game-high honors with four catches.
We’ve been saying it and so has Irish coach Brian Kelly, Notre Dame has to get Eifert the ball more. He should the kind of weapon he is and can be on his magnificent 24-yard touchdown catch in which he was closely defended.
To be honest, I would’ve liked to see Kelly call Eifert’s number on third-and-2 from the Cardinal 5 late in regulation rather than run the ball. Eifert might be the best option if such a case arises in the future, especially against stout defenses.
The troubling thing here is Golson didn’t have many open receivers to throw to as his receivers seems to have their hands full with the Stanford secondary. He did miss a few open guys but that was the exception rather than the rule.
OFFENSIVE LINE – D
We had a good idea that this Stanford front would really test the Irish o-line and it did.
Notre Dame allowed four sacks, including one that resulted in a touchdown.
In addition, the ground game averaged just 3.4 yards per carry (1.3 yards less than what their normal average per carry was through the first five games).
DEFENSIVE LINE – A-
Taylor did become the first running back this season to top the century mark against the Irish, but no way does Notre Dame’s group get anything less than the highest mark with that historic goal-line stand to end the game.
The Irish only registered one sack, but part of that was due to Stanford’s quick passing game.
Perhaps the best piece of news was when Louis Nix came back into the game after he was on the ground face down with what appeared to be an injury in overtime. It goes without saying that the Irish can’t afford to lose Big Lou if they want to remain one of the nation’s premier defenses.
LINEBACKERS – A-
Te’o had his best one-on-one tackle of the season when he stood up Taylor on third down inside the 1 in overtime. That play showed not only how dog-gone good Te’o is at his position in the college game, but how good he’ll be on Sundays next season.
Te’o had a game-high 11 tackles.
Te’o and his linebacker mates did a good job in pass defense against a pair of tight ends who are future NFL studs and are easily the best the Irish will see this season.
SECONDARY – B
Notre Dame’s defensive backfield came up with a pair of interceptions that came in its territory and stopped Stanford drives, which were on the verge of putting points on the board. Neither ball was well thrown by quarterback Josh Nunes, but credit cornerback Bennett Jackson and safety Matthias Farley for coming up with the picks in shall we say less than ideal conditions.
No Stanford pass play went for more than 22 yards and the Cardinal didn’t find the end zone as a result of a pass play.
No doubt Stanford missed top receiver Ty Montgomery and that’s why it relied even more on its talented duo of tight ends, but to hold Nunes to less than a 50 percent completion rate is impressive nonetheless.
SPECIAL TEAMS – C
The punting wasn’t very good as it averaged 41.2 yards on five boots (including 36- and 37-yarders in the second half) and the although Kyle Brindza hit both his field goals, a poor snap on a second-quarter try really made his attempt in the waning seconds of regulation nerve-wracking for Irish fans.
Notre Dame continues to excel in kickoffs as all four of its kicks results in touchbacks.
COACHING – B+
The one thing that really stood out was that Kelly seemed to be a little more conservative than usual after Golson fumbled in his own end zone, which resulted in a Stanford touchdown.
There were a few occasions — mainly at the end of regulation — where you thought the Irish would go to the air to try and get into the end zone, but opted on a safer run play.
What continues to impress is how Kelly has really changed the mindset of this team from the one that found ways to lose games last year to the one that every time it hits the field this season exudes confidence to the point where it knows somehow, someway its going to win games. A perfect example of that was the goal-line stand where to a man the Irish defense had a strong feeling Stanford would not get into the end zone even though it had four chances to get four yards.
The Irish have definitely bought into everything Kelly is preaching.
OVERALL – A
This was a game that as the week went on I grew more and more concerned about in terms of Notre Dame’s chances.
This is a very good Stanford team. Considering it was ranked 17th in the country coming into the game, I would love to see the 16 teams that are better than the Cardinal.
Stanford is a program that is going to be good for years to come as it has some impressive talent on both sides of the ball.
Notre Dame had to exit this one feeling very fortunate that it came out on top. It survived Mother Nature, the best offense it has seen this season as far as running and passing threats go, and was able to win a game that it lost the turnover battle in (three fumbles to two interceptions).
As long as the Irish take care of business at home against BYU, they’ll be 7-0 heading to Norman. Who would’ve thought that as Notre Dame headed across the Atlantic to play Navy?
