With six seconds left, Ukropina trotted on to attempt the first game victor of his career.
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“Where else would you rather be right now? Chris Brown and Amir Carlisle had big games for us”, Kelly said postgame. “We were all excited”.
Notre Dame’s complete and total inability to execute and take care of the ball in the red zone cost them the Clemson game, it cost them style points last week against BC, and tonight it cost them whatever tiny chance was left for them to reach the College Football Playoff.
Stanford ended any hopes the Fighting Irish had of getting into the College Football Playoffs when Conrad Ukropina kicked a 45-yard field goal as time expired to give Stanford a 38-36 victory over Notre Dame in a regular-season finale with national playoff implications before a sellout crowd of 50,242 at Stanford Stadium on Saturday night.
Cardinals head coach David Shaw will give his star running back Christian McCaffrey plenty of opportunities on Saturday night, as he leads the team in rushing yards this season.
“The year after, 2013, at Stanford, great game”, Irish Linebacker and Captain Joe Schmidt said. Kevin Hogan’s 33 wins are the most all-time for a Cardinal quarterback and he ranks second in completion percentage (65.7 percent), passing efficiency (151.5) and fourth in TD passes (67) and yards passing (8,749). The two teams had slashed and passed and chunked and speed-rushed at each other all afternoon into the cool evening. Hogan’s been the starting quarterback for three of those runs.
“I couldn’t have pictured it going any better”, Hogan said. “Belief in the work we put in, belief in our preparation, and belief in our struggles”. He’ll be looking to have a huge game in this his farewell. I love my team. “I’m still smiling from it”.
Hogan threw for 269 yards and calmly led the winning drive in the final 30 seconds for the Cardinal (10-2), who kept their slim playoff hopes alive with the win. McCaffrey and the gang can have a big game against an athletic Notre Dame front, but also an Irish team that has surrendered nearly 168 yards on the ground per game to opponents (though they have faced tough running teams in Georgia Tech and Navy).
Kevin Anderson threw for 329 yards with three touchdown passes for Fordham. However, the unifying theme between them all is offensive anemia. Chip Kelly even once admitted that he lets the PR flak make them.
Smith did a little bit of everything for the Irish defense – he flew downhill and took on Stanford’s power blockers, he played sideline to sideline in the run game and when put in coverage he shut down the Stanford tight ends.
A first-quarter touchdown pass to Remound Wright on a play-fake from the heavy set was followed by a fade touchdown to Cajuste and a perimeter touchdown pass to senior Michael Rector, who broke a tackle before sprinting into the end zone.
Notre Dame’s only major goof of the first half was Kizer’s first fumble of the season, inside the Cardinal 30-yard line with 12 seconds left before intermission. He also caught the 27-yard pass that set up the game-winning field goal. However, the scoring in the first half was not yet done.
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“I don’t know a better quarterback in college football in the two-minute drill”, Shaw said. We already hammered Kizer for his back foot looper to the middle of the field, but add in an extra point snap that bounced off both of his hands and after showing wisdom beyond his years for the entire season, Kizer looked and played like a freshman unable to shake a crisis of confidence.
