Just as life is good after acing a math test and english exam in the same week, life was good for Brian Kelly and Notre Dame after winning a seventh straight game to close the 2021 regular season.

It might not have been the Fighting Irish's very best win of the season, but it certainly wasn't one of the worst. Notre Dame easily handled Stanford 45-14 in Palo Alto on Saturday. Here’s how Kelly's team graded out in the victory.

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Three-hundred and 45 yards and two touchdowns — what more could you ask for from graduate senior quarterback Jack Coan if you’re offensive coordinator Tommy Rees? OK, Notre Dame could have done without the Coan interception that led directly to Stanford’s first touchdown of the game.

Outside of that, though? A nearly flawless effort from Coan and the Irish receiving corps. Coan completed 74-percent of his passes. He distributed the ball to three different tight ends, including senior George Takacs for his first touchdown of the season.

Seniors Kevin Austin Jr. and Braden Lenzy and freshman Lorenzo Styles combined for 14 catches. Coan connected on all kinds of route concepts. It was a solid game for the Notre Dame passing offense.

The final line was decent enough; 35 attempts for 169 yards. The first half, though, wasn’t too great; 15 attempts for 36 yards. Notre Dame’s offensive game plan was to come out passing against a Stanford defense daring the Irish to throw the ball, but the passing game wasn’t complemented by a stout rushing game.

That wasn’t the case until sophomore running back Chris Tyree and true freshman quarterback Tyler Buchner got going in the second half. That duo combined for 100 of the Irish’s 169 rushing yards. Junior running back Kyren Williams had a less efficient outing than usual in running 19 times for 74 yards (3.9 yards per carry), but he scored two touchdowns on the ground.

Tyree and Buchner combined for eight carries, and those eight carries were the only things keeping Notre Dame from an even worse grade in this category.

It was trending to be one of Notre Dame’s best performances against the pass this season until the fourth quarter. One-hundred and 30 of Stanford quarterback Tanner McKee’s passing yards came in the fourth quarter. He completed 8 of 9 attempts in the frame. The game was already in hand.

In the first three quarters, McKee was 12-of-16 for 42 yards and zero touchdowns. Stanford could not push the ball down the field at all in three-fourths of the game. A 49-yard touchdown on a defensive breakdown by Notre Dame and two other passing plays that gained at least 19 yards changed that in the fourth.

Still, it was a really impressive performance for the Notre Dame secondary for most of the night.

Stanford didn’t exactly make a consistent effort to run the ball, but that was probably because head coach David Shaw knew it wasn’t going to be easy to do so against a strong Notre Dame defensive front. The Irish held Stanford to 55 yards on 22 carries. The Cardinal scored one time on the ground.

Sophomore running back E.J. Smith, son of Pro Football Hall of Famer Emmitt Smith, had five carries for 25 yards. Junior Austin Jones ran nine times for 35 yards. He scored the touchdown too. McKee was sacked twice and ran two other times for a net loss of 18 yards.

As Shaw likely suspected, his team’s rushing offense which has struggled to gain any traction this season struggled mightily again against one of the premier defensive fronts in the country.

Special teams once again didn’t play much of a factor. Stanford punted eight times, but Williams did not return any of them for positive yardage. It was a fair catch fest once again.

Notre Dame punter Jay Bramblett booted the ball five times for an average of 42.4 yards. A short Bramblett kick almost led directly to a Stanford field goal at the end of the half, but the Stanford kicker missed a 58-yard attempt wide left. It had plenty of leg. Notre Dame senior kicker Jonathan Doerer made his only field goal attempt, a 36-yarder.

Stanford had a few kick returns that looked promising at the start but never ended up being all that threatening. The Cardinal returned three kicks for an average of 24 yards.

Another road game against a rival, another Notre Dame victory. Say what you want about the Irish’s schedule not being menacing or anything else along those lines. Kelly and his assistants still have to get the team prepared to play, and they’ve done a superb job of that in the second half of the season.

Notre Dame was the better team on paper, and the Irish proved to be the better team from the opening kickoff too. A 24-0 lead at halftime is never a bad thing. The Irish even expanded on that lead in finishing with a winning margin of 31. Notre Dame won four games in November by an average margin of 34.8 points per game.

It doesn’t matter who the opponents are. That would be an impressive mark for Georgia or Alabama or any other top-tier team. That’s because Notre Dame is a top-tier team itself.

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