'Little Bit of Everything' Led to Clemson Getting Exposed by Irish

SOUTH BEND, IN.- For the second time this season, the Clemson defense allowed more than 200 rushing yards.

It was a dominant effort from the Notre Dame offensive line, as the Irish ran for 263 yards in the 35-14 win over the fourth-ranked Tigers, and the most rushing yards Clemson has allowed since a 2016 win over Louisville.

Logan Diggs (114) and Audric Estime (104) both had 100-yard nights, as the Irish averaged 5.6 YPC against the Tigers. Notre Dame routinely won the battle at the point of attack.

"Obviously, we were not the most physical team," defensive coordinator Wes Goodwin said. "That's 100% on me and getting them prepared the right way to come out and execute and be the most physically dominant. And obviously, we lost at the point of attack. We didn't go what we needed to do defensively."

The Tigers were beaten in all facets of the game, as the Irish faithful could be heard chanting "overrated" late in the fourth quarter.

"There wasn't one like resounding theme," Goodwin said regarding what led to some of the issues. "It was a little bit of everything here and there. We got to get back to work on Monday to fix the issues that showed up today. Get better where we got exposed tonight.

"Most definitely, we'll use it as fuel. Come back to work on Monday and get ready for Louisville."

While the defense held up early, Notre Dame really started finding some success on the ground late in the first half. With the offense being limited to just 71 total yards in the first two quarters, it appeared as if the defense was starting to get gassed. However, when asked about the possibility, Goodwin was having none of it.

"Not at all, our job is to stop people," he said. "We don't point fingers, we just take the field wherever the ball is spotted and it's our job to get stops. I didn't feel like our conditioning was a factor at all."

Goodwin took responsibility for the disappointing performance, noting the buck stops with him. The first-year defensive coordinator was also quick to point out that despite the loss, all of the team's goals are still on the table.

"This is on me," Goodwin said. "I didn't have our guys prepared well enough. We just could not flip the momentum after we lost it early. Take ownership come back with a workman's mentality and let's get back to work. Everything on our goal board is still in front of us. Win the division, win the ACC, the state championship, win the closer."

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