On Saturday at 8:00 ET, Notre Dame will take on Stanford in the regular season finale for the Fighting Irish. The game will be broadcast on ABC with Brent Musburger and Kirk Herbstreit in the booth. Notre Dame and Stanford enter this week's tilt #22 and #6 respectively in the BCS. A win would give the Irish an opportunity to vault into the BCS. It would also be the signature win of the Brian Kelly era to this point.
There are five keys to victory for the Fighting Irish on Saturday. Only fulfilling all of these keys will lead to an Irish win. The five keys to victory are:
1.) Run the Ball-The purpose of this goal is two-fold. Notre Dame needs to prevent Stanford from dropping into coverage Rees and keep Andrew Luck off the field. If the Irish make it into 2nd and short or 3rd and short opportunities, it will not allow the Cardinal to drop 8 defenders into an obvious passing down. Furthermore, if the Irish control the ball by running, Andrew Luck will have fewer opportunities to hurt Notre Dame. This task became more difficult with the season-ending injury to Jonas Gray last week. Cierre Wood will have to play one of his best games of the season. Also look for a combination of George Atkinson III, Theo Riddick and Andrew Hendrix in special packages to supplement the running game.
2.) Win the Turnover Margin-Two weeks ago against Oregon, Stanford was -3 in the turnover margin. This obviously was a contributing factor to Stanford's loss. Notre Dame has a solid defense that forces teams to go the length of the field and execute. Most teams cannot do this consistently. For this reason, Notre Dame is only allowing 20.3 points per game. However, Stanford is a team that can execute long drives. Irish Defensive Coordinator Bob Diaco will need to take risks to attempt to force turnovers. Notre Dame as well must hold on to the football. There is no margin of error on offense for the Irish this week. Tommy Rees will need have an efficient game throwing the football. Success in goal #1 would help that immensely.
3.) Pressure Andrew Luck-As stated earlier, Notre Dame needs to force turnovers. USC and Oregon were able to do this well. If Luck is allowed to sit in the pocket, he will pick up any defense in the FBS. Notre Dame needs to generate pressure through blitzes and with a three or four man rush. Aaron Lynch and Darius Fleming could be key factors here.
4.) Successfully Go One-on-One with Stanford's Receivers-In order to stop the run and play the aggressive style of football need to win on defense, Gary Gray and Robert Blanton need to go one-on-one with Stanford's receivers. The group is productive as a whole but Notre Dame's secondary should be play right with them talent wise. If the Irish can lock down the outside with their DBs, it will allow Notre Dame to load the box against Stanford.
5.) Be as Healthy as Possible-Last week, Notre Dame had several players ill or still banged up from injuries suffered earlier in the season. Hopefully sometime off of school (and a Thanksgiving Dinner) will help Notre Dame enter this week's game against Stanford as healthy as possible.
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