PALO ALTO, Calif. – All Notre Dame had to do was beat Stanford and the book would essentially be closed on last season. The Fighting Irish would have avenged every loss from a disastrous 4-8 year, won 10 games, and become eligible for a New Year’s Six bowl game for the second time in three seasons.

But then No. 21 Stanford beat No. 8 Notre Dame 38-20 on Saturday.

The Cardinal (9-3) have now won seven of the last nine matchups and the Fighting Irish (9-3) have yet to win a game in Palo Alto since 2007. Brian Kelly is now 2-6 against Stanford, 1-9 on the road vs. ranked teams since 2012, and 2-7 in the regular season finale.

The Irish will finish the regular season with nine wins instead of 10 and now have to wait until next Sunday, Dec. 3 following the conference championship games to see if they can still make it into an elite bowl. A win would have likely solidified their place. A loss muddles their status.

1. The four-play, negative-2-yard drive

Notre Dame had struggled to overcome bad field position all night. Up until late in the third quarter, its average starting field position was its own 17-yard line. Then it made the special teams play of the game, downing a punt at the Stanford 1 and proceeding to force the Cardinal offense into a three-and-out.

That’s when Chris Finke returned the ensuing 53-yard punt 41 yards — a season-best — to the Cardinal 19, giving his offense prime field position. Rather than take advantage of the opportunity, Notre Dame’s offense couldn’t score a touchdown on the following possession. On the four-play, negative-2-yard drive, the Irish had two penalties for 10 yards and quarterback Brandon Wimbush was sacked for a 1-yard loss on third-and-11. Justin Yoon knocked down a 38-yard field goal to extend Notre Dame’s lead 20-17.

Stanford responded with a 7-play, 70-yard touchdown drive, which was aided by a facemask penalty that helped the Cardinal move swiftly downfield.

Notre Dame finished the game with eight penalties for 81 yards, while Stanford had three for 30.

2. Stanford forced turnovers, Notre Dame did not

Before Notre Dame’s disastrous 41-8 loss to Miami a few weeks ago, it was one of the best teams in the country with 19 turnovers. It was a complete turnaround after last year’s team only forced 14 total in 12 games.

Since then, Mike Elko’s defense hasn’t been as opportunistic. They forced one against Navy to move their season total to 20, but then had none against Stanford.

Meanwhile, the Cardinal had three takeaways — all in the fourth quarter — and turned them into 14 points. The first was on Notre Dame’s first play from scrimmage in the fourth quarter. Wimbush was looking for tight end Durham Smythe but was intercepted by Curtis Robinson instead. It was only Wimbush’s fifth pick of the season. The Cardinal scored a touchdown three plays later to take a 31-20 lead.

On the ensuing kickoff, C.J. Sanders botched the return, fumbling at his own 18-yard line. Malik Antoine recovered the ball for Stanford and it went on another scoring drive.

Wimbush was intercepted in the end zone on the next series. He finished the night 11 of 28 for 249 yards with two touchdowns and two interceptions.

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3. Bryce Love got his yards

Notre Dame’s defense did an impressive job containing Heisman Trophy candidate Bryce Love — for half the night. At halftime, the nation’s leading rusher had 31 rushing yards on 10 carries. By the end of the game, however, he had racked up 125 yards on 20 carries.

Stanford came into Saturday with the 25th ranked rushing offense, averaging 6.41 yards per carry and more than 215 yards per game, while only allowing opponents 4.28 tackles for loss per game. Additionally, the Cardinal were converting 40 percent on third down.

Stanford was only 2 of 10 on third down and Notre Dame held its rival to 4.4 yards per rush.

Jerry Tillery was a star defensively with stats in every category. He had six tackles, three for loss, two quarterback hits and a sack.