SOUTH BEND — For a program that places such weekly emphasis on “starting fast,” Notre Dame football sure does put itself in some early predicaments.

It happened again Saturday in a 49-7 beatdown of unranked Stanford.

Don’t let the final margin fool you. These Irish, now 5-1 and ranked 12^th nationally in the US LBM Coaches Poll, fell behind in the first quarter and didn’t take the lead for good until midway through the second.

Did we mention Notre Dame was coming off the first of its two bye weeks this season? And that Stanford was coming off a 31-7 home loss to middling Virginia Tech?

Some of the alarming initial bloopers included:

∎ A holding penalty on freshman left tackle Anthonie Knapp that wiped out Riley Leonard’s 19-yard scramble to the Stanford 30;

∎ A third-and-17 sack, also at Knapp’s expense;

∎ A 24-yard shank by 24-year-old Australian punter James Rendell;

∎ A 27-yard scramble for Stanford quarterback Ashton Daniels on a play where defensive end RJ Oben, the Duke grad transfer, had a clear shot in the backfield;

∎ A 1-yard touchdown run on QB Power by Cardinal backup Justin Lamson, marking the third time in the past five games an opposing offense reached the end zone on its first series against the Irish.

“Terrible first series on all three phases,” Notre Dame coach Marcus Freeman said. “We’re moving the ball, we have a holding penalty, a bad punt and they go down and score. I said, ‘OK, let’s see how this group responds.’ “

The answer was “quite well,” continuing an overarching theme this season.

Notre Dame built a 21-7 lead by halftime and kept piling it on until a 60-minute lightning delay before the start of the fourth quarter.

“I was really proud of the way we responded after that first series,” Freeman said.

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And yet, giving early hope to Stanford, now 2-4 despite a Week 3 road win at Syracuse, wasn’t exactly the game plan.

It never is in the Notre Dame locker room, and yet this has become the dangerous formula.

Halfway through these “12 guaranteed opportunities,” aka the regular-season schedule, Notre Dame has trailed at some point in the first half every time except the 66-7 walkover at Purdue.

Texas A&M jumped out to first-half leads of 3-0 and 6-3 only to see Notre Dame take control late at Kyle Field.

Northern Illinois, on its way to a 16-14 shocker in Week 2, led 13-7 barely a minute into the second quarter. The Huskies, oddly enough, were the only Irish foe besides Purdue not to strike first thus far.

Against Miami (Ohio), Notre Dame bungled along with a 3-0 deficit until finally taking the lead with 3:33 left in the first half.

And two weeks ago against Louisville, Devyn Ford fumbled away the opening kickoff, and it was 7-0 for the visitors after just 90 seconds.

That Notre Dame responded each time is encouraging. The Irish have yet to face a deficit larger than seven points at any stage this season.

Then again, what happens when a revved-up opponent races out to a double-digit lead, maybe even a two-touchdown bulge, before Notre Dame stirs to life?

Pretty sure that’s not what Freeman had in mind when he coined “Choose Hard” as one of his go-to mantras.

“Starting fast is a result of execution,” he said. “Starting fast is a result of winning that play over and over and over.”

'Maintaining that momentum'

Junior center Pat Coogan, fresh off the first “reception” of his career at any level, admitted the “message of the week” was about making the first move.

“Starting fast, which I know Coach Freeman talked about,” Coogan said. “Starting fast every possession. Starting fast every play. It’s one thing to score on the first possession or the first possession coming out of the half, but maintaining that momentum … I think we did a really good job of that.”

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Howard Cross III, who recorded a pair of sacks in a four-play span when the game was still tied at 7, explained why this defense is so comfortable climbing out of an early hole.

“If it happens, that’s great, but it only happens once, all right?” Cross said. “They gash us, they scheme it up or something, that’s great. But next drive, it won’t happen again. That’s the mentality for everything until eventually there’s just nothing else they could do. That’s the mentality we have.”

So far it seems to be working, but what happens when it doesn’t?

Over the past 20 games, coordinator Al Golden’s defense has allowed points just once on the opening series of the second half. Those came on TreVeyon Henderson’s 61-yard scoring run for Ohio State nearly 13 months ago.

After Saturday’s opening salvo, when Stanford drove 63 yards on nine plays and chewed up more than five minutes on the clock, one of the nation’s best defenses clamped down. The Cardinal, who came in 112^th nationally in offensive efficiency, did nothing with its final nine possessions.

“I have no concern about a big picture: ‘Hey, you didn’t start fast; you got behind in the game,’ “ Freeman said. “I have more concern about, ‘Hey, what happened on that play?’ Why didn’t we execute? What do we have to do to make sure we fix it? … That’s my concern. Evaluate what we have to do on every single play.”

He tapped the lectern for emphasis.

“I hate the thought of ‘starting fast,’ ‘finishing,’ ‘you got to win the middle,’ “ Freeman said with some annoyance as he reeled off those trite reminders. “No, you have to win this play and you have to win it over and over and over and over.”

And if you do?

“Guess what,” he said. “They’ll say you start fast, you play good in the middle and you finish.”

Mike Berardino covers Notre Dame football for the South Bend Tribune and NDInsider.com. Follow him on social media @MikeBerardino.

This article originally appeared on South Bend Tribune: Analysis: Notre Dame keeps digging itself an early hole