Both teams missed chances to break the tie earlier in the second half. Tom Zbikowski set up the Irish early in the third quarter with a 60-yard punt return to the 31. Notre Dame lost 16 yards on three plays, but kept the ball when Kelton Lynn was called for roughing the punter. Three plays later, Brandon Walker’s 44-yard field goal attempt went wide right.

Later in the third quarter, the Cardinal appeared to turn the ball over when Terrail Lambert drilled Pritchard in the helmet, causing a fumble. After a replay review, Pritchard was ruled down before the fumble and Ostrander drove the Cardinal down for the go-ahead score but Belch was wide right on a 30-yard field goal attempt. Belch’s miss later in the quarter was eighth in his last 10 attempts.

“I’m just dumbfounded,” Belch said. “If you told me I’d go 0-for-4 I can’t think of anything more embarrassing than that. All my misses were to the right. The leg is not getting through the ball. I let the team down. I lost this game. That’s unacceptable.”

The overturned fumble was one of three replay reviews to go against the Irish. One erased a 29-yard diving touchdown catch by Grimes in the third quarter and the other gave Anthony Kimble a 1-yard touchdown after he was initially ruled stopped short of the goal line on a second-down carry in the first quarter.   Stanford had an interception by Nick Sanchez overturned in the second quarter.

Notre Dame lost three fumbles, and was stopped on a fourth-and-1 from its own 36 in the first 19 minutes of the game but was tied at 14 at the half because the Cardinal had nearly as many miscues.

Belch missed a pair of long field goals and Pritchard threw an interception deep in Cardinal territory to set up Notre Dame’s first touchdown, a 2-yard sneak by Clausen. Stanford also allowed a 44-yard screen pass to Junior Jabbie on a third-and-20 to set up Travis Thomas’ 1-yard run that tied the game at 14 with 48 seconds left in the half.

Notre Dame almost added another score on what would have been a spectacular finish to the half. David Bruton intercepted Pritchard’s last-play heave at the 3 and began a three-lateral return to the end zone that was called back on a personal foul on Trevor Laws.

Zbikowski ran the final 30 yards after a lateral from Darrin Walls and the only thing missing was the band on the field as it was 25 years ago when California shocked Stanford with The Play.

In between Notre Dame’s two scores, Kimble ran for a pair of touchdowns.

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