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Turnovers doom Cardinal
By Jeremy Kahn October 4, 2008 |
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When turn the ball over on four occasions, including three interceptions by their quarterback, most of the time you are not going to win the ball game. That is what happened to the Stanford Cardinal, as they fumbled the ball once and Tavita Pritchard threw three interceptions and the Notre Dame Fighting Irish hung on to defeat the Cardinal 28-21 at Notre Dame Stadium. Jimmy Clausen put the Fighting Irish on the board, as he threw a 21-yard touchdown pass to Armando Allen in the first quarter. After the Clausen touchdown pass to Allen, the Cardinal tied up the game in the second quarter, as Toby Gerhart scored on a one-yard run. Gerhart returned to the field after suffering a concussion in the 35-28 Cardinal victory over the Washington Huskies at Husky Stadium on September 27. Allen would put the Fighting Irish back into the lead, as he scampered in from three yards out to give the Fighting Irish a seven-point lead. Clausen then threw his second touchdown of the afternoon, as he hit Michael Floyd for 48-yard touchdown pass to stretch the lead up to 14 points. Once again it was Clausen to get the Fighting Irish back into the end zone, as he threw his third touchdown of the afternoon, this one Kyle Rudolph for 17 yards. In the past, Cardinal teams would have quit, as they trailed the Fighting Irish by 21 points in a hostile environment; however these are not the Cardinal teams of the past. Jim Dray caught his first touchdown pass of the season, as he snared a Pritchard pass to get the Cardinal within two scores in the fourth quarter. Doug Baldwin caught a 10-yard pass from Pritchard to get the Cardinal within seven points. The Cardinal were unable to convert a fourth-down conversion with under three minutes remaining in the game, turning the ball over to the Fighting Irish. Luckily for the Cardinal, the Fighting Irish were unable to run out the clock and were forced to give the ball back to the Cardinal in the waning seconds. With just one play remaining, Pritchard was able to complete the pass to Anthony Kimble, who in turn the lateraled the ball to Baldwin, who fumbled the ball and it was recovered by Pat Kuntz to end the game. Clausen threw for a career-high 347 yards and those three touchdowns, as the Cardinal once again failed to win at Notre Dame Stadium, a place they have not won since 1992. |
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