The rejuvenated offense of Notre Dame, led by quarterback Ian Book, picked up where it left off the week, while the Irish defense continued to improve resulting in a dominating 38-17 knockdown of previously undefeated Stanford before another sell-out crowd at ND stadium.

The ND offensive and defensive lines dominated the Cardinal. In fact, the defense shut down Stanford in the second half, allowing the Cardinal just 31 total yards and two first downs in the second half. In the fourth quarter Stanford had minus 13 yards in offense.

ND welcomed back running back Dexter Williams, who added more punch to the running game. Williams’ first carry after serving a university imposed four-game suspension, was a 45-yard gallop for a touchdown. ND finished out-rushing Stanford, 272 to 55, and in total offense 550 to 229. Williams, who had never carried the ball more than eight times in a game or 39 times in a season, carried the ball 21 times for a career-high 161 yards.

ND needed Williams as converted wide-receiver Jafa Armstrong missed the game due to suffering an infection in his left knee and probably won’t be back until the Navy game in three weeks.

Book ran for 47 yards on 15 carries to be the second leading rusher for the Irish, He completed 24 of 33 passes for 278 yards and four touchdowns with senior Miles Boykin catching 11 passes for 144 yards and a score.

The defense was outstanding in stopping last year’s Heisman Trophy runner-up, Bryce Love, and sacking QB K.J. Costello five times. Love finished with 73 yards on 17 carries. Deduct his 39 yard TD run from that total and Love averaged just 2.1 yards per carry.

Jerry Tillery led the defense with four solo tackles and a total of six for the game. Senior Trevor Ruhland, who was pressed into service when left defensive guard Alex Bars went down with a knee injury in the third quarter, was dominating in quarter-and-a-half of play. Also outstanding on defense was cornerback Julian Love, with two tackles and a record-breaking 33rd pass breakup of his career. Others of note were rover back Asmar Bilal who had six tackles, a pass breakup and linebacker Te’von Coney, with a team-high seven tackles and an interception to set up ND’s final score of the game.

More on the game later.

Today the Irish face Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Virginia, for only the second time. ND and the Hokies last played in 2016 in South Bend with ND losing, 34-31.

The Hokies enter at 3-1 with wins over Florida State, 24-3; William and Mary, 62-17; and Duke, 31-14. The lone loss was a upset shocker to Old Dominion, 49-35. The East Carolina game was postponed due to weather conditions in the area due to Hurricane Florence. The win over Duke was impressive as it came a week after the loss to Old Dominion, and Duke was ranked No. 22 in the nation at the time.

The Hokies used backup quarterback Ryan Willis last week. For the season he has completed 30 of 52 passes for 527 yards and four scores. Starter Josh Jacks has completed 36 of 58 for 575 yards and five TDs. Top rushers are Steve People with 310 yards on 55 carries and five TDs and Deshawn McClease with 227 on 45 and one score. Top receivers are Damar Hazelton with 15 catches for 348 yards and four scores and Eric Kumah with 211 on 12 and one score.

The game will be televised nationally by ABC-TV with a 8:20 p.m. scheduled kickoff.

IRISH NOTES; Some more game stats. Tony Jones Jr. ran for 40 yards on 10 carries and Avery Davis 14 on four. Chase Claypool had 23 yards on three catches and a score while Chris Finke had 30 on two. Justin Yoon had a 37 yard field goal but missed a 50 yarder. On defense, Tillery had four of ND’s five sacks, the other was by Khalid Kareem. Due to his performance, Tillery was named defensive player of the week for college football and on Tuesday it was announced he received the Bronko Nagurski weekly honor for his six tackles, four sacks, one forced fumble and two QB hurries.....Last week’s win was a costly one for the Irish. Head coach Brian Kelly announced two serious injuries to two of his captains and two of his most indispensable players as well. Graduate senior Drue Tranquil suffered a fractured hand, but it won’t push him to the sidelines, for now. The more serious injury was to offensive guard Alex Bars. The grad senior suffered a knee injury in the third quarter. He is lost for the rest of the season and will have surgery on the knee next week....The surging offense can be credited to several things, but one big reason is the play of the offensive line. The progress of the offensive line over the past three weeks has helped Notre Dame leap from 99th to 47th nationally in sacks allowed and 105th to 44th in rushing offense....Virginia Tech, at No. 4 in rush defense, tops ND’s opponents in that category, including Michigan, though only Duke (55th) among the Hokies’ four foes so far ranks higher....Running back Tony Jones suffered a ankle injury last week and Kelly feared he may not be available tonight or on a limited basis. However, Jones seems to have made a recovery and should be at full strength tonight....Based on stats, ND needs a strong start tonight. Virginia Tech coach Justin Fuente has never surrendered a halftime lead in his time at Virginia Tech (20-0 when leading), and is 40-4 in such games in his head coaching career....Justin Yoon sits just 10 field goals shy of breaking the Notre Dame career field goals record held by Kyle Brindza. Yoon has connected on 48 career field goals entering tonight’s game at Virginia Tech....In preparation for an expected “very loud” atmosphere at Lane Stadium tonight, Kelly had piped in crowd noise and Metallica music at practices this week. He said it played at 115 decibels. According to the South Bend Tribune, the web site noisehelp.com, indicates that’s 10 decibels louder than a sporting event, five decibels louder than a rock concert, and the equivalent of an emergency vehicle siren....In my preseason picks I have the Irish winning tonight in a rebound victory (I picked them to lose to Stanford). ND is a seven point favorite, that’s up two points from the beginning of the week. I think ND will prevail after a close first half. This will be a test for QB Ian Book because Virginia Tech changes its defensive look weekly to confuse opposing quarterbacks. We’ll see if Book can make the adjustments needed.