Goal line call secures Notre Dame's win over Stanford (VIDEO)
Notre Dame's defense stood tall once again, keeping Stanford out of the end zone on four successive short-yardage plays to secure a 20-13 overtime win in South Bend, Ind.
A Tommy Rees scoring pass to T.J. Jones, a 7-yard completion, gave the Irish a seven-point lead.
After opening its drive with a false start penalty, a pair of 13-yard gains -- the first on a scramble by quarterback Josh Nunes and the second by running back Stepfan Taylor -- moved Stanford to first-and-goal at the Notre Dame 4-yard line.
Four plays, four runs, all short of the end zone. The fourth, however, was so close as to be given a second look by the replay crew – a crew from the Big East, while the on-field referees were from the Pac-12.
It's not even a question of whether Taylor crossed the plane of the end zone, as he clearly does. (He's well across the goal line.)
The question is whether the play deserved to be called dead when it was, whether Taylor was ever down before twisting and turning his way in for the potentially game-tying score.
Mike Pereira, the former vice president of officiating for the NFL and current rules analyst for Fox Sports, gave his interpretation of the call on his Twitter account.
"We have looked at ND/STA last play from every angle & feel that it is a TD. Progress was not ruled & runner was not down. Ball broke plane."
Later, Pereira added:
"Piece all the shots together. Field level shot from inside near the goal post shows the left elbow is not down before TD."
Taylor obviously wasn't down. Was his progress slowed to the point where the play could have been ruled dead? At best, it's a 50-50 call that went against Stanford. At worst, it's a horribly bad call that prevented the Cardinal from forcing a second overtime.
The irony of the situation is that ESPN's College Gameday was in South Bend this weekend for the first time in seven years, since the famous "Bush Push" game that lifted Southern California to victory over the then-Charlie Weis-led Irish.
Seven years later, a goal-line call goes in Notre Dame's favor. Better late than never.
Thanks to SB Nation for the GIF.