Through five games, Stanford is averaging 3.4 yards per running play. It is rushing for 94.4 yards per game.

To those who have been following the Cardinal in their bowl era, those numbers must look like misprints.

The program of Toby Gerhart, Stepfan Taylor, Tyler Gaffney, Christian McCaffrey and Bryce Love ranks 123rd out of 129 Football Bowl Subdivision teams on the ground.

Saturday night’s 38-17 beatdown at the hands of Notre Dame in South Bend, Ind., dropped the Cardinal (4-1) from No. 7 to 14 in the Associated Press poll and, according to linebacker Sean Barton, forced them to look in the mirror.

“You never want to have a wake-up call where you have a loss,” he said Tuesday. “We could have played better. It wasn’t a Pac-12 game, but it’s something that makes you have to look at yourself and realize … maybe we weren’t as good as we thought we were coming in, and take stock of what we have to do from here on out to get to our goal, which is the Pac-12 championship.”

Love, who had a 39-yard touchdown run but was otherwise held to 34 yards on 16 carries, will be “day-to-day” this week, head coach David Shaw said. Love reinjured the left ankle that troubled him over the last half of the 2017 season.

He was hurt on a sweep early in the fourth quarter when defensive end Julian Okwara swooped in untouched from the back side to grab him.

As a policy, Shaw doesn’t disclose the nature of injuries. This one, however, was apparent to anyone watching the game, and Shaw indicated it was to Love’s left ankle when he said it’s “not as severe as last year.” Shaw said, “There’s a chance he plays this week. We’ll see how he is late in the week. We’ll make the right decision for him.”

As Shaw saw it, the Irish played extremely well, and the Cardinal were subpar.

“We played against a top-10, borderline top-5 football team and did not play our best football,” he said. “Lot of errors — coaching and playing. All that being said, we’re down by seven in the fourth quarter, with the ball. From there, our poor play continued, and the score got out of hand.

“With as many mistakes as we made in all three phases, the game was still within reach in the fourth quarter.”

Shaw won’t get much of an argument for saying Notre Dame has the “best defense, best defensive line we’ve faced.”

Where the Stanford ground game goes from here, starting with Saturday night’s home game against Utah (2-2, 0-2 Pac-12), is anybody’s guess.

Shaw said it’s unfair to stack up this year’s rushing attack against last year’s, which featured Love’s school-record 2,118 yards.

“What we did last year was historic,” he said, “so that comparison is not even worth bringing up.”

The offensive line has struggled with injuries as well as inconsistency, he said, although he said he hoped that it will be healthier going into the Utah game.

Asked to assess the play of offensive tackles Walker Little and A.T. Hall against Notre Dame, Shaw said it was “not their best effort, either one. Both have a chance to play on the next level. Both guys went up against some really good competition.”

Against edge rushers like Okwara, Khalid Kareem and Daelin Hayes, Shaw said, “If you’re not quick enough to get out of your stance, they’re going to beat you around the edge. If you lean too much, they’re going to beat you underneath. It’s about continuing to work technique and being in great position. I think both guys will rebound.”

Additionally, Stanford couldn’t handle tackle Jerry Tillery, who had four sacks, six tackles, two quarterback hurries and a forced fumble.

Tom FitzGerald is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: tfitzgerald@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @tomgfitzgerald