Notre Dame is now 6-0 after once more gratuitously flogging the lifeless corpse of Stanford’s football program. There were a ton of great performances to choose from in a game that the Irish won 58-7, so we’re going to restrict ourselves to the ones who should be having the most impact when the competition gets considerably stiffer next week.
Boubacar Traore, Renaissance Man
Notre Dame’s defense was overwhelmingly dominant as a unit on Saturday, but the man who led the way in establishing Notre Dame’s control of the game was the senior
defensive end from Boston. It’s been a while since the Irish had an edge defender who could truly take over a game the way Traore did on Saturday, and not only by rushing the passer (Traore opened the game with a strip-sack of Davis Warren and provided consistent pressure, which his comrades up front surprisingly struggled to do otherwise). Traore effectively set the edge and forced Stanford runners inside and into the arms of Irish tacklers and, most memorably, brought in a leaping interception on a play where he dropped into coverage.
Traore has long been an impact player for the Irish, but between injuries and reduced unit strength on the line last season has struggled to see the full potential of his athleticism and physicality come into bloom. We’re seeing that happen now, and it’s an incredibly welcome development looking ahead to a BYU offense that is extremely QB-centric next week.
The Sanders Redemption
If there was a weakness in Notre Dame’s defense for Stanford to try to exploit in this game, it was Jayden Sanders stepping in to start in place of the injured Leonard Moore. In the opener against Wisconsin, Sanders played with an edge and attitude that was welcome until the precise moment that it wasn’t; the sophomore Michigan transfer was badly burned on a double move that more or less handed the field slot to DJ McKinney. Playing in Moore’s place on the boundary, it would have been easy for Sanders to enter the game overcorrecting and losing that aggressiveness, which the Irish coaching staff still values.
Instead, Sanders entered the game focused and determined to shut down the boundary, and did just that. His two early pass breakups both shut down Stanford drives in the first quarter, and were thus key moments as Notre Dame successfully grasped control of the game early. Sanders then locked down the boundary for the rest of the game, and but for Caden High’s 52-yard catch on a bust in garbage time the Cardinal would not have exceeded 100 yards passing on the day.
Early-Season Questions Answered
Now that we are, bizarrely, already at the halfway point of this season, we can look back at the way this team has progressed and definitely acknowledge that the Irish have answered some major questions on the offensive side of the ball. Is anyone really concerned about who can make plays out of the backfield for Notre Dame anymore after seeing Jonaz Walton rip off long gains and Nolan James continuing to get loose and move the chains? Who Notre Dame’s third receiver will be after seeing Jaden Greathouse score and move the chains in consecutive games, with what we know he is capable of from years past?
Obviously there are still flaws and issues that the Irish have to work on and sure, beating the stuffing out of Stanford is not in itself an especially impressive achievement. But this team has continued to get better and fill in their gaps as a team week over week. I would encourage everyone reading this to look around the country at other contenders in the top ten, watch their games, and ask yourself whether any of them would meet the standard of dominance you seek. We will know a lot more about this Irish team after next week, but for now there is still no reason to believe this team cannot achieve everything they set out to in August.
