The Stanford vs. Notre Dame live blog: Irish make another statement

Notre Dame is 5-0 in 2018. The Irish have beaten everyone they’re supposed to beat, and in addition to their Week 1 triumph against Michigan, they’ve now got a marquee win against Stanford. The No. 8 Irish beat the No. 7 Cardinal on Saturday in South Bend, 38-17.

It was close for a while — 21-14 at halftime, 24-17 entering the fourth quarter — but the Irish distinguished themselves down the stretch. Recently promoted starting quarterback Ian Book was 24-of-33 passing for 278 yards, four touchdowns, and no interceptions. Dexter Williams carried 21 times for 161 yards and a TD, and the Irish defense tightened up late to prevent K.J. Costello, Bryce Love, JJ Arcega-Whiteside, and the Stanford offense from making a comeback. It helped the Irish that Love left with an injury early in the final frame.

The Pac-12’s Playoff prospects are dwindling. Notre Dame’s have never looked better, and the Irish have positioned the sport to have the always-fun argument over whether a team without a conference can possibly make it into the field. Spoiler: if they don’t lose any games, the answer’s almost definitely going to be yes.

You get the idea by now, but a live blog of the game was below:

38-17, Notre Dame

It’s become a blowout. Bryce Love is hurt for Stanford.

24-17, Notre Dame

24-14, Notre Dame

The Irish extended their lead with a 37-yard Justin Yoon field goal.

The Irish have 307 yards of offense to Stanford’s 198, though the per-play numbers are 7.1 and 6.4. Ian Book’s been aces for Notre Dame, going 12-of-14 for 149 yards and two touchdowns. K.J. Costello’s been solid for Stanford: 11-of-17 for 130 yards and a score. Both teams have played turnover-free. The Irish will get the ball to start the second half.

21-14, Notre Dame

The Irish went back in front with 39 seconds left in the half. Ian Book scrambled and threw across his body to Chase Claypool, who was sitting in the back of the end zone for a 10-yard touchdown. The Irish declined a defensive holding call, obviously.

14-14

Tie game. JJ Arcega-Whiteside is so strong, and he just outmuscled Irish cornerback Julian Love in the end zone to catch a fade from K.J. Costello.

Where would Stanford be without Arcega-Whiteside? He’s a front-line Biletnikoff Award candidate, and Stanford’s offense has needed him in a huge way as Bryce Love’s struggled. (Love had a 39-yard touchdown run earlier. If both are ticking, look out.)

14-7, Notre Dame

The Irish pulled back ahead with an 11-play, 77-yard touchdown drive, capped with an Ian Book 6-yard pass to Nic Weishar, who was wide open.

7-7

Stanford tied the game on a 39-yard run by Bryce Love, who’s been quiet at times this season but doesn’t look anything of the sort tonight.

7-0, Notre Dame

A 45-yard run by Dexter Williams opened the scoring.

After two straight narrow victories, Notre Dame switched up its starting quarterback and blew out Wake Forest to improve to 4-0 on the season. The question now is whether junior Ian Book has another big performance lined up for the biggest game of the Irish’s season to date.

Book’s second career start will come against No. 7 Stanford in the friendly confines of South Bend, IN. Notre Dame turned to the former three-star prospect to help put the concerns of too-close-for-comfort wins over Ball State and Vanderbilt in the rear view, and the redshirt sophomore delivered. Book completed 25 of his 34 passes for 325 yards and a pair of touchdowns to set up a showdown with Cardinal QB KJ Costello on a national stage.

Dexter Williams has been “suspended” for the last 4 weeks, but it seems that whatever he did, he is completely out of the dog house. Brian Kelly has raved about his work in the off season and noted in his press conference that we should, “expect him to do something for us this week”. The biggest questions are not surrounding his abilities, but exactly how much he is going to be involved in the game plan this week. Unlike an injury, he will not be limited and will be extremely hungry after watching other carry the load in his absence.

Love made himself a Heisman frontrunner in 2017 with an absurd 2,118-yard, 19-touchdown campaign. He’s been unable to follow up on that hype one month into the 2018 season, rushing for a shade under 85 yards per game as a senior. Even worse, his yards per carry have been nearly cut in half — down to 4.3 after skyrocketing to 8.1 last fall.

San Diego State shut him down to the tune of 29 yards on 16 carries in Week 1, and while he’s been better since he’s still not the player who earned Pac-12 player of the year honors as a junior. On Saturday, he’ll face a Notre Dame defense that’s been stingy to ballcarriers in ‘18 — the Irish are allowing just 3.45 yards per carry through four games this fall.

S&P+ hated the Cardinal’s chances even before Love got off to a rocky start. The numbers pegged Stanford for a double-digit loss in Indiana back in the preseason. With Book looking legit early in his starting career, it looks Saturday will be Stanford’s first loss of the season.