Blue and Gold Illustrated

December 2019

Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football

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28 DECEMBER 2019 BLUE & GOLD ILLUSTRATED Kmet led the team in both catches (five) and receiving yards (77). He did so with three catches of 18 yards or more and also chipped in with some quality blocking. "Chris is obviously a huge part of what we do, so we had to try and find some things that would work for us like me and Chase trying to get open more," Kmet said. Claypool led the offensive skill players with two touchdowns, in- cluding one that came on a 41-yard jump ball near the goal line near the end of the first half. Lenzy, on the other hand, had a total of six touches — four on the ground and two through the air — for 96 yards (16.0 yards per attempt). He produced two plays of better than 20 yards, including a deep crossing route for 43. But his most impressive play may have been a 16-yard rush that shouldn't have gone past the line of scrimmage. Instead, Lenzy showed off his speed and big-play ability. "Younger players have emerged through the season and, obviously, in the last five games it's been Braden Lenzy, and he showed that again to- day," Kelly said. RUN GAME STILL A MYSTERY The Irish run game was able to produce 190 yards against Stanford by utilizing six different ball carri- ers. Just looking at the stat sheet one would assume the running game for Notre Dame is operating at full strength. Watching the game would prove otherwise. Notre Dame's lead rusher on the day was senior Tony Jones Jr. with 50 yards on 14 carries. That amounts to only 3.6 yards per carry. Notre Dame had a hard time running between the tackles against a normally porous Cardinal defense. The offensive line was doing Jones and the rest of the rush attack no favors with six penalties for 49 yards on several false starts and hold- ing infractions. Of the 190 rushing yards, only 69 came from true run- ning backs Jones, C'Bo Flemister and Jahmir Smith for an average of 3.13 yards per carry. To combat the lack of an interior running game, offensive coordina- tor Chip Long employed an outside attack with the likes of sophomore wideout Braden Lenzy, junior run- ning back Jafar Armstrong and, at times, the scrambling ability of se- nior quarterback Ian Book. The Irish used jet sweeps, pitches, lead plays to get on the outside of the Stanford defense with their speed. The bottom line is Notre Dame averaged over five yards per carry. Whether it was running between the tackles or outside, it was still a com- plementary part of the attack. ✦ STANFORD VS. NOTRE DAME QUARTER-BY-QUARTER COMPARISON Stanford 1st Qtr. 2nd Qtr. 3rd Qtr. 4th Qtr. 1st Half 2nd Half Total Time of Possession 12:06 7:17 3:43 6:43 19:23 10:26 29:49 Third-Down Conversions 3-4 1-5 0-3 0-2 4-9 0-5 4-14 Fourth-Down Conversions 0-0 0-0 0-0 1-1 0-0 1-1 1-1 Average Field Position STAN-21 STAN-30 STAN-24 STAN-22 STAN-26 STAN-23 STAN-24 Notre Dame 1st Qtr. 2nd Qtr. 3rd Qtr. 4th Qtr. 1st Half 2nd Half Final Time of Possession 2:54 7:43 11:17 8:17 10:37 19:34 30:11 Third-Down Conversions 0-1 2-4 2-6 0-3 2-5 2-9 4-14 Fourth-Down Conversions 0-0 0-0 1-1 1-1 0-0 2-2 2-2 Average Field Position ND-20 ND-39 ND-25 ND-41 ND-33 ND-30 ND-31 PLAY CHART (NO. OF PLAYS) Yards STAN ND Nega ve 1 8 0-5 44 33 6-9 15 8 10-19 12 9 20-29 3 7 30-39 0 0 40-49 0 2 50 or more 0 0 RED ZONE EFFICIENCY (INSIDE 20-YARD LINE) No Poss. TD FG Score Stanford 3 2 1 0 Notre Dame 4 4 0 0 BIG PLAYS (25 YARDS OR MORE) Stanford • 3-8 ND27 Mills pass complete to Wilson for 27 yards and a touchdown Notre Dame • 1-10 ND20 Book pass complete to Tremble for 10 yards to the ND30, PENALTY STAN face mask (Reid) 15 yards to the ND45 • 1-10 STAN41 Book pass complete to Claypool for 41 yards and a touchdown • 1-17 ND7 Book pass complete to Lenzy for 43 yards to the 50 • 4-2 STAN29 Book rush for 26 yards to the STAN3 • 2-16 ND22 Armstrong rush for 28 yards to the 50 Junior tight end Cole Kmet posted team highs in receptions (five) and receiving yards (77). PHOTO BY SPENCER ALLEN

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