Notre Dame football put together arguably their finest performance on Saturday, defeating the Stanford Cardinal 49-7 at home. Despite a bit of a slow start, the Irish put together a tremendous performance, especially on the offensive side of the football. That unit accounted for 477 total yards, scored seven touchdowns, and had easily their best passing game performance of the season.
Following the game, head coach Marcus Freeman went in depth on that offensive showing. It was something the Irish staff was waiting for, and they delivered. They were challenged to showcase just how good they can be this week.
“What I challenged them to be, I wanted them to be unrecognizable,” Coach Freeman said. “I wanted you all to watch and say, ‘man, that’s an offense we haven’t seen.’ But our players have seen it. They just gave their best on every play. That’s what you saw today. I thought it was really good, man. I thought they did a really good job, running game, pass game, making good decisions, and taking care of the football.”
As a part of that overall performance, quarterback Riley Leonard was tremendous. He completed 16 of 22 passes for 229 yards and three touchdowns, adding another 31 yards and another score on the ground. Leonard did all of that in just three quarters of action.
We also saw a couple of wide receivers make big plays, including a 53-yard reception from Beaux Collins . He ended the day with four receptions for 85 yards. Kris Mitchell also made his fair share of plays, hauling in four receptions and making his first touchdown reception in the blue and gold. In total, nine players caught passes for the Irish.
Coach Freeman did urge that the expectations don't change following this performance. It will always come down to what the team needs each win to win the football game. That’s the standard.
“I think every game is different,” Freeman explained. “You just have to take advantage of what is in front of you. There might be a big game where someone catches 10 passes. There might be a game like it was tonight where nine different guys catch passes, including an offensive lineman. What we focus on is what we can do to have success and it’s not one thing. It isn’t running the ball, passing the ball, throwing it to one person, or passing it to nine people. It’s what we can do to help this team win. We will see what next week presents.”
This Notre Dame team has been tremendous on defense for the majority of the season so far. The offense has been the one who hasn’t always held up their end of the bargain. They did on Saturday against Stanford. Let’s hope that this is a sign of things to come.
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