In the third quarter at Wake Forest, Davis Warren watched a 167-attempt interception-free streak that had matched Davis Mills' school record end in the middle of a 57-3 loss. He finished with 136 yards and no touchdowns. Micah Ford was met in the backfield most of the afternoon and gained 45 yards on 16 carries. Stanford's only points came on a 43-yard Emmet Kenney field goal in the second quarter, after he had missed from 48 in the first, and the defeat pushed the program's road losing streak to 13 games.
That streak is the thing to keep in view, because Notre Dame is where it gets its last 2026 audition. Stanford plays at Notre Dame Stadium on Saturday at 12:30 p.m. Pacific on NBC. It's the third of three Eastern time zone road games, following Duke and Wake Forest, that bracketed the whole question of whether this team could win anywhere but Stanford Stadium. Stanford arrived at Duke carrying an 11-game road losing streak, already the longest in school history, with its last away win at Syracuse in September 2024. The one left is against a 5-0 Notre Dame team that has Stanford as a 35.5-point underdog. Our simulations put Stanford's chance of winning at about 0.5%.
So the window closes against the hardest opponent on it, which means the honest read is that the first two games already told the story. Notre Dame has won the last three meetings 56-23, 49-7 and 49-20, a combined 154-50, since Stanford's 2022 upset in South Bend. Nothing about last Saturday argues for a break in that pattern.
What's actually worth watching
Two things, both narrower than a result.
The first is whether anybody blocks anybody. Wake Forest put up four sacks and held Stanford to 197 total yards, and Warren spent the afternoon throwing off his back foot. Notre Dame's front is a meaner version of that problem. If Warren gets to a clean third quarter, with the pocket holding long enough for him to set his feet, the offensive line has taken a step regardless of the scoreboard, and the same line that produced Warren's 396-yard, three-touchdown comeback against Georgia Tech showed it can hold up for a half when it's right.
The second is the linebacker level. Stanford played Wake Forest without Matt Rose and Jahsiah Galvan, and the Deacons threw behind and over the second level at will, averaged 7.7 yards per play and converted 10 of 13 third downs. Rose is targeting a return this week, with no formal clearance reported, and if he holds up for 60 snaps against a top-five offense, that is the best news available Saturday. Third-and-6 stops, specifically. That's where last week went sideways.
Pritchard, for his part, said after the game, "We played poorly, and you know, I have to take a look at myself first and see where I can better help prepare the team," and that tackling issues "showed up in the first half again." It's the same note he struck after Duke. He is also the quarterback who beat No. 2 USC in 2007 as a 41-point underdog, which makes this a strange thing to be watching from the other side of a 35-point line.
The number under the number
ACC media picked Stanford 17th of 17 in the preseason, and nobody can claim the league was wrong yet. The larger number that matters to this fan base is the one under it. Three straight 3-9 seasons, then 4-8 in 2025. Breaking that ceiling was always going to run through home games, Elon visits next week, then NC State, and through five Eastern time zone trips, the 129th Big Game at California on November 21, and the home finale against SMU. None of those get decided Saturday.
What Saturday can do is smaller and still worth your time. It can show whether a team that just got beaten 57-3 can look organized for four quarters on the road. Stanford has not managed that on this trip yet. Watch the first 15 minutes, and judge by whether the game looks like football rather than by the final margin.
Full week in the interactive guide; the numbers come from our methodology.