Saturday evening on the College gridiron and we will see the PAC-12 square off with an Independent team as the Stanford Cardinal grapples with the Notre Dame Fighting Irish at Notre Dame Stadium in South Bend, Indiana. Stanford is off of a 28-27 home loss to Oregon State to fall to 1-4 on the year. The Irish come in off a 28-20 home win over BYU, which puts them at 3-2 on the year. Last year, Notre Dame beat Stanford on the road by a score of 45-15 and they now lead the all-time series 22-13.
The Stanford Cardinal began their season with an easy win over Colgate from the FCS, but then they started to play FBS teams and it all fell apart. They enter this game off of a 28-27 home loss to Oregon State for their 4th loss in a row. All losses have been against PAC-12 teams and now they have to face a red-hot Notre Dame that beat them by 31 points last ear 20 points in 2019 and 21 points in 2018. It could be a long evening for the Cardinal, but then again, Notre Dame has been anything but dominating this year.
The problem for Stanford this year has been their defense, so we will start there. Stanford allowed just 10 points in their win over Colgate, but they have allowed 38.5 ppg in their four losses against FBS teams. They are ranked 111th in total defense and 121st against the run, which is not good news as the Irish have a solid ground game. In their loss to Oregon State, the Cardinal allowed 442 yards of tot al offense, including 192 yards on the ground. Notre dame put up 510 yards against Stanford last year, including 169 yards on the ground. We could see the Notre Dame ground game have a good showing in this one.
The Stanford offense has not been terrible, especially their passing game which ranks 46th in the nation. Tanner McKee threw for 269 yards against the Beavers with two TDs but he also had one costly INT. He now has 11 TDs on the year, but also five INTs The good news is that Notre Dame has picked off just one INT this year, but the bad news is that the Irish are also 31st against the pass. McKee will need to get much more from a ground game that ranks 91st in the nation. If they can't run the ball, then it will be a long night for McKee.