Key takeaways from a dominant win

Notre Dame improved to 5-1 on the season Saturday after dominating Stanford with a 49-7 win. Despite shaky first possessions on both offense and defense, Notre Dame was in complete control the rest of the game.

Stanford won't win many games this year, but Notre Dame did what it was supposed to do with inferior opponents.

Here are immediate thoughts after Notre Dame's dominant ouster of the Cardinal on Saturday.

Notre Dame Football: Howard Cross comes to life

Defensive tackle Howard Cross III began the year as a preseason All-American. He played well against Texas A&M but struggled against Northern Illinois and didn't seem like a regular player early on. Saturday was his best game of the year so far. He recorded two sacks, four tackles in the first half and was a menace in Stanford's backfield all day. Cross' progression is a big development for Notre Dame's already strong defense.

Notre Dame Football: Best offensive performance to date

It didn't match the 66 points it scored against Purdue, but Saturday's win was Notre Dame's most complete offensive performance to date.

Notre Dame's offense averaged over 10 yards per pass and over five yards per carry. It was against Stanford, I understand that. However, it's what a top-10 team should do against Stanford, and Notre Dame did exactly that.

Notre Dame Football: Riley Leonard's best game yet

If you're Notre Dame, you must be thrilled with what Riley Leonard did on Saturday. The Fighting Irish quarterback completed 16 of 22 pass attempts, averaged more than 10 yards per attempt and ran for 31 more yards, including a touchdown. Perhaps my favorite part of Leonard's game on Saturday was his distribution when throwing. Nine different players caught passes for Notre Dame, a testament to the ability to create variety — even if one of them had an oddly deflected ball that ended up in the hands of center Pat Coogan.

This year saw more game action than ever before, and although Leonard's runs didn't result in huge yards, multiple runs were instrumental in extending drives and putting points on the board.

Saturday was a big step in the right direction for Notre Dame's offense, Leonard included.

Notre Dame Football: Dominant Defense

Stanford had a great opening series as it rushed 63 yards in nine plays to take an early 7-0 lead. From then on, Notre Dame's defense took control, allowing just 137 yards of offense the entire rest of the afternoon. If you want to take it a step further, 32 more of those yards came on Stanford's final drive of the first half, as Notre Dame played a more secure defense and intentionally gave up yards underneath.

Notre Dame was regularly under pressure and stopped the run. Overall, it was a great performance from the Notre Dame defense.

Notre Dame Football: The Irish are a really good football team

You can sit and say “That's Stanford” all you want, but Notre Dame did exactly what a very good football team should do with a team like the Cardinal. It dominated with full force.

Notre Dame's defense was dominant all afternoon after the first possession and the offense was completely out of order except for a few early self-inflicted mistakes.

This is what a top ten team looked like. It may not have the same build as most of the other top 10-15 teams in the country, but it certainly has the talent to be one if it performs like it did Saturday.

Notre Dame Football on Sports Illustrated

Notre Dame vs. Stanford In-Game Blog