Key Takeaways From The Notre Dame Defense From The BYU Victory

Breaking down what we learned about the Notre Dame defense from the win over BYU

Notre Dame won its third straight game with a victory against the previously 16th-ranked BYU Cougars by a 28-20 score. It was an important win for Notre Dame, and while it wasn't always pretty, it showed the Irish program continues to show growth this season.

There was a lot to learn about the Irish football team. We already broke down the offense, now it's time to break down the defense.

Pass Defense Was Quite Good ... For The Most Part - The 53-yard touchdown pass given up to Kody Epps was the play that allowed BYU to get back in the game. It was a busted play that turned the game around, but outside of that play the Irish pass defense was outstanding against BYU. The combination of a disruptive pass rush, strong coverage and at least for a half good scheme rattled BYU quarterback Jaren Hall.

BYU came into this game averaging 287.6 passing yards per game and 8.4 yards per attempt. Hall had a 12-1 touchdown to interception ratio. 

Notre Dame held Hall to just 120 passing yards, including the 53-yard touchdown throw. He went just 9-17 in the game. Since being inserted as a starter this was Hall's lowest yards per game output, his lowest completion percentage and the fewest number of completions in a start.

Situational Football Shines - Another key to Notre Dame's victory was its dominance of situational football. The Irish offense was outstanding on third down, going 11-16 on this money down. The defense was almost as good, holding BYU to just 3-9 on third down. BYU scored on an early fourth down opportunity, but on its final fourth down the Irish defense came up with a huge stop, which led to the offense putting the game away.

BYU ended just 4-11 on third and fourth down in the game, which was a major factory in the win.

Of course, there was one huge glaring exception, which I'm about to discuss.

Big Plays Were Once Again An Issue - Notre Dame has defeated 5-1 North Carolina and 4-2 BYU in back-to-back games. The Tar Heels ranked 25th in the most recent Coaches Poll and BYU was right behind them. Notre Dame completely dominated North Carolina and controlled BYU for the vast majority of the game.

The Irish beat UNC by just 12 points and had to hang on late to beat BYU. Notre Dame out-gained the Tar Heels 576-to-367 yards and out-gained the Cougars 496-to-276 yards. Notre Dame had 35 first downs to UNC's 18, and had 24 first downs to BYU's 13.

The final score of both games was much closer than what the level of dominance Notre Dame had would otherwise indicate. 

Notre Dame's penchant for giving up big plays was a major culprit. It helped turn a 38-14 Irish lead into a closer game against North Carolina, and turned a 25-6 Notre Dame lead into a much closer game against BYU.

With Notre Dame up 25-6, a blown coverage resulted in a 53-yard touchdown pass from Hall to Kody Epps. One possession later, Notre Dame had BYU backed up at its own 5-yard line and staring down a 3rd-and-18. Instead of forcing a punt from deep in their own territory, Notre Dame completely blew the conversion and allowed a 20-yard chain-moving run. 

The drive ended with back-to-back big runs from BYU back Christopher Brooks, who went 15 yards and then followed it up with a 28-yard touchdown. All of a sudden a would-be blow out turned into a nail-biter.

Eliminate the big plays and Notre Dame still has the same record, but the Irish are coming off back-to-back blowout victories over two really good football teams. That stuff didn't cost the Irish a victory against UNC or BYU, but that might not be the same story against Clemson, USC and whoever Notre Dame plays in the postseason. It has to get cleaned up immediately.

Run Game Woes - I realize Notre Dame was playing the game without its top two nose tackles - with Howard Cross III missing the game with an injury and Jacob Lacey quitting the team earlier in the week - but the run game was still too soft against the Cougars.

Notre Dame's interior had been a strength all season but it folded far too often against BYU. They got moved around, especially on the lateral runs, and when the defensive line wasn't getting knocked into the backers, that unit simply wasn't impactful enough out of the play of Jack Kiser and a couple of other individual plays by other backers.

It marked the third time in five games this season that Notre Dame allowed an opponent to rush for at least 160 yards. BYU also averaged 5.4 yards per rush despite coming into the game averaging just 152.6 yards per game on the ground and 4.9 yards per carry. Baylor held this ground attack to 83 yards and Oregon held it to 61 yards. Even Utah State held BYU to just 117 yards and 3.7 yards per attempt.

This was an unacceptable performance and broke the trend of two good games in a row. Perhaps it was just a bad game, but one thing is for sure, the run defense absolutely must become more consistent and effective over the next seven games.

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