Notre Dame Defense Needs To Finish Strong Against Duke

Notre Dame (4-1) did a lot of really good things on defense in the 17-14 loss to Ohio State. Holding the Buckeyes to their lowest point total in over six seasons is certainly a great accomplishment, but at the end of the day the Irish still lost, and the defense wasn't able to make the final stops it needed to in the game.

Against Duke, the Irish defense will once again need to play at its best. That will include doing a better job finishing. That means not only late game stops, but finishing at the quarterback (sacks), finishing at the ball (tackling) and finishing on third down.

If the Irish can play the same way it has all season, but just finish better, this defense will be very, very hard to score on.

Notre Dame Rush Defense vs Duke Rush Offense

Notre Dame has been a high quality run defense throughout the season. There were some moments in the Central Michigan game where it wasn't as good as it needed to be, and the 61-yard touchdown run it allowed against Ohio State was painful. Outside of that the rush defense has been quite good.

Notre Dame has held three of its five opponents to a season low in rushing yards, and it was just 4 yards away from keeping Ohio State to its lowest yardage total of the season and 9 yards away from holding Central Michigan to its lowest total of the season. That context shows how effective Notre Dame has been at stopping the run all season, despite being one of the worst defenses in college football at forcing negatives.

Notre Dame's edge players have played a key role, but the high level run defense of defensive tackles Howard Cross III and Rylie Mills has been a key to this success. Getting Gabriel Rubio back into the mix last week was huge, and the Irish staff would be wise to play junior Jason Onye more this week after not playing him a week ago. Their matchup against an extremely veteran Duke line that has four fifth-year seniors and another senior in the starting lineup will be a major key to how this game turns out.

Duke's run game has been very good so far this season, with the Blue Devils averaging 200.5 yards per game, and they rank 15th in the country in yards allowed per rush. Duke also doesn't allow many negatives, and they rank 7th in college football in runs of at least 30 yards. That makes this a very, very interesting matchup, with the Irish struggling to create negatives, but also being very good at limiting big runs (just one allowed all season).

Linebackers Marist Liufau and JD Bertrand will have to play much better this week than they did against the Buckeyes, especially facing athletic Duke quarterback Riley Leonard. He's the team's second leading rusher (238 yards), and he has averaged 97.5 yards per game (9.3 YPC) in two games against Power 5 opponents this season. If Leonard is able to make plays with his legs - on designed runs and scrambles - he'll make life miserable for the Irish defense. They'll need to dominate at the point of attack, play disciplined football and have a plan to contain Leonard (which includes tackling well).

Notre Dame Pass Defense vs Duke Pass Offense

This is a part of the matchup Notre Dame should win, and if they don't have a mental letdown it's one they should win comfortably. I really like the Duke wide receiver corps this season, with Jalon Calhoun and Jordan Moore both showing the athleticism and football IQ to be quality ACC receivers. The Duke offense is a short to intermediate pass attack, and they don't stretch the field much. They will struggle to get separation against Notre Dame's elite corner duo of Benjamin Morrison and Cam Hart.

Notre Dame has to make sure it doesn't make mistakes in coverage on the outside, and if it does it will limit the perimeter pass attack. The key then is making sure the backs and safeties are disciplined and prepared for the running back throws out of the backfield. Running backs Jordan Waters and Jaquez Moore combined for 4 catches and 74 yards out of the backfield against Clemson, and both had gains of at least 25 yards in the game. They were well-called and executed plays out of the backfield against the Clemson linebacker blitzes, which makes it a concerning look against an Irish team that also likes to blitz its linebackers ..... a lot.

The three big concerns I have in this matchup is Notre Dame's inability to pressure the quarterback with any kind of consistency against a Duke offensive line that has allowed just two sacks all season, potential blown assignments, and then Leonard moving the chains with his legs. It might be wise for Notre Dame to get more playing time for sophomores Josh Burnham and Jaylen Sneed in passing situations in hopes of giving the pass rush a much-needed infusion of explosiveness.

Notre Dame Scoring Defense vs Duke Scoring Offense

Duke has been a good offense this season, but it lacks the talent on the perimeter that Ohio State had last week. Duke, however, has the better offensive line and the better quarterback. Notre Dame will have to bring it defensively against the Blue Devils, and more importantly they'll have to play smart and also be disruptive.

This will be a test for the Irish, but if they can finish well in this game they should control this matchup.

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