Stanford at Notre Dame: Opening Bullets

...or "Cardinal Sins, Cardinal Virtues," if you will.   Let's run through these quickly:

• On the injury front, as Matt posted yesterday, it appears Jamoris Slaughter is returning to the starting lineup.  This is very promising news, as safety play has ranged from "Meh" to "Dear lord..." in his absence.  On the other sideline, Stanford's leading receiver Ryan Whalen is likely to miss the game with a dislocated elbow.  Whalen had 57 catches for 926 yards and four scores last year, the best on the team by twenty receptions.  There are still plenty of toys for Andrew Luck to work with, but fans having flashbacks to last year's game at least won't have to worry about Whalen or new Minnesota Viking Toby Gerhart. 
• Speaking of Luck, he's third in the nation in passing efficiency, behind only the unbeatable Greg McElroy and Northwestern's Dan Persa (?!).  He leads an offense that is third in scoring (51.7 per game, behind Oregon's point-a-minute attack and Oklahoma State) and 16^th in total offense.  The Cardinal are 11^th in yards per play (7.1) and averaging nearly six yards a carry.  They can put some points up, although the quality of their competition hasn't been stellar when you consider that Wake Forest gave up 48 points to Duke and UCLA yielded over three hundred yards rushing to Kansas State. 
• On defense, the Cardinal were not very good last year and have seen some improvement, although again, not the hottest competition with the Bruins' train wreck of an offense.  The Cardinal currently sit fifth in total defense, allowing just over 224 yards per game.  We'll find out a lot about any improvements Jim Harbaugh did or did not make on that side of the ball over the next two weeks, with games against Notre Dame, Oregon and USC.
• Perhaps the Cardinal's biggest weapon this season - and Notre Dame's biggest area of concern - is turnover margin.  Luck is yet to throw a pick and that helps out, as Stanford is plus-five in only three games, good for sixth in the country.  To compare, Notre Dame's interception buffet against the Wolverines and Michael Floyd's dropsies have them ranked 105^th in the nation at minus-four.  For Brian Kelly to get back to .500, he's going to need to have his offense deny the Cardinal any short fields and have his defense get Luck off the field with a big play or two.
• Stanford's starting tight end is some guy named Konrad Reuland.  Cool name, wish Notre Dame had recruited him just for...what's that?...oh really?...and so all of our skill position players just transfer to the PAC-10?  Well then, thanks.