Stanford beats Notre Dame, 38-36, on final-play field goal

Notre Dame leads 19-10, but Stanford has won three in a row at home.

The decision paid off.

No. 9 Stanford took care of their business Saturday at the Farm, beating No. 6 Notre Dame 38-36 to knock the Fighting Irish out of contention for the four-team playoff while keeping their own playoff hopes alive.

Setting Up The Big Play: Stanford’s points came mostly from long drives while the Irish relied on big plays, and no offensive play was bigger than junior wide receivers 73-yard touchdown reception in the second quarter. Quarterback DeShone Kizer tallied 368 total yards and two touchdowns, including a clutch score to put the Irish up 36-35 towards the end of the game.

Kevin Hogan put quite a capper on his Stanford career on senior day. If that happens, Ohio State would probably go to the playoff, and the committee likely would avoid a Notre Dame-Clemson rematch, so the Irish could play North Carolina in either Arizona or Atlanta.

Notre Dame had taken the lead the previous possession when Adams burst through the line for a 62-yard touchdown run as the offenses dominated. The Irish got outstanding play from the line, as well as freshman running back Josh Adams (168 yards) and sophomore quarterback DeShone Kizer (128 yards). Notre Dame kept pace with Stanford through big strikes.

Hogan threw for 269 yards and led the winning drive in the final 30 seconds for the Cardinal.

Stanford’s Conrad Ukropina is lifted by fans and teammates after kicking the game-winning field goal.

While Notre Dame is 10-1 SU and 7-4 ATS, it lost 1,000-yard rusher C.J. Prosise and senior CB KeiVarae Russell to injuries during last week’s narrow win against Boston College. Hogan could work on becoming more consistent on the bench and ultimately learn about being a solid passer from Palmer. However, if form holds, Notre Dame will be one of a handful of teams with a quality argument for football’s final four. The game remained tied, 7-7, until midway through the fourth quarter, when Brindza connected on a 45-yard field goal for the Irish. “We’ll see where we are after those two games and we’ll see where everybody else is”. A 14-yard touchdown pass – Hogan’s third of the first half – to Michael Rector gave the Cardinal a 21-20 halftime lead. The Notre Dame offense averaged 8.9 yards per play and managed to drain nearly enough time off the clock to seal the win.

Joe Mixon ran for 136 yards and two touchdowns and Samaje Perine had 131 yards and two scores for the Sooners. Both of Notre Dame’s losses were by two points.

In fact, as Ukropina waited through the timeout, Stanford players on the team bench were already ecstatic.

That all set up for Ukropina’s heroics.

However, Stanford (10-2) still had three timeouts left after Notre Dame scored and used those to orchestrate the drive which ended in the game winning field goal.

Strong Run Game: Notre Dame finished with 299 rushing yards on just 35 carries for its most dominant performance of the season considering the competition.

“And at some point, it was going to come down to making a play to win”. Hogan will try to find holes in the Irish defense, but he faces arguably his toughest challenge of the year. (Pac-12 commissioner Larry Scott said at halftime at Stanford Stadium that he remains optimistic the Cardinal could do so.) But this game was never a true play-in game to the playoff, and the Sooners taking care of business in Bedlam only confirmed that.