Game Observations - Defense: Notre Dame 52, Bowling Green 0
Notre Dame dominated the Bowling Green offense statistically and physically, earning a 52-0 victory. It was Notre Dame’s first shutout victory since a 31-0 victory over Michigan back in 2014.
Analysis of the Irish defense from today’s victory:
DEFENSE
*** There were some sloppy moments in the second and third quarters, but the Notre Dame defense set the tone early against Bowling Green. The Falcons tried to run some different looks at Notre Dame, going with a quick pitch, a screen and a perimeter RPO throw on their first series, and the Irish shut them down. They tried to run a reverse on series two and Notre Dame played it perfectly and blew it up. A third-down screen on series three was thrown into the ground because the Irish played it perfectly.
*** Starting with the fourth series the defense started having some issues and gave up a few too many yards at times. The team had a 21-0 lead at that point, and the defense ultimately buckled down and kept Bowling Green out of the end zone and off the scoreboard (with help from a missed field goal). But those mistakes must get cleaned up a bit.
*** There were three main issues that crept up at times. One, the defense lost contain outside too many times on the quarterback and perimeter pass routes. The Falcons were able to convert multiple first downs with outside run/pick plays and similar concepts over the middle. Two, the defense had an issue on a few too many snaps on the backside of the zone runs. Bowling Green was able to wash down the backside a few times in the second and third quarter that opened up run lanes. Three, there were way too many missed tackles considering that Bowling Green doesn’t really have playmakers that are capable of bringing out those kinds of plays.
*** Despite the mistakes the Irish limited the really big plays, and the areas where I’d be frustrated as a coach are more about wanting this unit to really play at an elite level. Today they did that at times, but weren’t as locked in series after series, which the Irish coaches will surely point out. But there was also some quality things to see and gain from this game as well, and anytime you shut an opponent out you clearly played strong football overall.
*** Notre Dame held Bowling Green to 228 yards of offense, 3.3 yards per play and gave up just 110 passing yards. Bowling Green had 118 rushing yards (2.8 YPC).
*** Senior ends Julian Okwara and Khalid Kareem didn’t arrive at the quarterback often but they were still disruptive in this game. Kareem used power to get a push and Okwara gave Bowling Green fits on the edge in the pass game. He got washed down a couple of times on the backside of runs, but he also got a few pushes into the backfield. The duo shut down Bowling Green’s first threatening drive of the game. The Falcons were close to field goal range but Kareem and Okwara combined to get the quarterback to roll out and throw the ball away, but he was so far away that he couldn’t get the ball past the line of scrimmage, which knocked BG out of field goal range.
*** The backup ends were a bit up-and-down. Senior Ade Ogundeji had a couple of strong power rushes but it also appeared he lost contain on multiple snaps and wasn’t getting off blocks effectively. He has had much better games than he showed today. Senior Jamir Jones played hard and was disruptive at times, getting after the quarterback, making power plays against the run and he showed discipline backside early when Bowling Green tried trick plays. Like the rest of the ends he lost contain once or twice and got beat outside on a run play, but overall he was solid. Jones jumped a hitch route in coverage on a 2nd-8 that forced a third-and-long.
*** There were some misses inside that opened up run lanes, especially in the second and third quarter, but I couldn’t tell if those were interior mistakes up front or at linebacker position. But keep that in mind when reading the breakdown of those players. I’ll need to go back and review the film, so look for more detail in my grades on Monday.
*** Junior defensive tackle Myron Tagovailoa-Amosa had a good day getting after the quarterback and he had some positive snaps in the run game as well. I thought the other defensive tackle - Jayson Ademilola - also showed disruptive ability. He made more plays at the line today, which is something he’s been doing all season. Ademilola had an especially impressive stack-and-shed play against the run on the third series. This one-two punch at defensive tackle has been really good all season.
*** I’ll need to see more film on the nose tackles, who I didn’t watch much during the game, but I loved the motor that I saw from junior Kurt Hinish. I saw him getting a push up the middle almost every time I keyed on him during a play. His game seems to have stepped up a notch the last two weeks, with his pad level improving, his push improving and his ability to disrupt the offense improving. I will need to see the film before evaluating Jacob Lacey and Ja’Mion Franklin.
*** The linebacker play was spotty, but from what I evaluated during the game it was another solid performance from fifth-year senior Asmar Bilal. He sniffed out a screen and had a tackle for loss on the second play of the game and was good getting downhill in the run game. He was one of the defenders that sniffed out the reverse on series two and shut it down. Bilal’s sideline pursuit was good from what I saw in the game.
*** Junior LB Drew White played aggressive and played hard downhill, but he also seemed to have a few too many fit mistakes. I’ll correct myself in the grades on Monday if I’m incorrect, but White’s fit miscues seemed to lend to some of the inside run game issues in the second and third quarters. The middle pass game was also spotty at times, which also played into the areas where White was in coverage.
*** Junior rover Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah had some quality perimeter snaps but also had some contain mistakes in the game. The most egregious was a bootleg where he opened up and took off running instead of keeping contain on the quarterback, which allowed for a bootleg run of over 10 yards that was just way too easy. White was in the slot during Notre Dame’s nickel snaps in this game.
*** Eventually opponents are going to realize that throwing screens at sophomore linebacker Jack Lamb is a really bad idea. There are parts of his game that could use improvement, which is true for all young players (he’s basically a redshirt freshman), but one thing he has shown well all year is the instincts, range and athleticism to dominate the screen game, and we saw that again today.
*** Notre Dame’s veteran safeties had been playing really good football up to this point in the season, but today the duo of Jalen Elliott and Alohi Gilman struggled mightily. Both had missed tackles, but Gilman’s were the most problematic. He took a poor angle on his first missed tackle, but his next few were simply a veteran player looking for a big hit instead of playing disciplined football and making a clean tackle. A veteran player/captain should not make those kind of mistakes as frequently as Gilman did today. Elliott’s issues were mostly in coverage. It appeared he was peaking into the backfield too much and was very late responding to routes, which got him beat.
*** Freshman Kyle Hamilton was better, making sound tackles and showing good range in coverage. I didn’t see Hamilton as much in coverage, but when I did he was in good position. Hamilton also played more disciplined and seemed to make fewer mistakes than the veterans.
*** Overall there were communication issues between the defensive backs that allowed Bowling Green to get a number of pick/run routes open.
*** I thought CB Troy Pride Jr. was good in the game, although he has to get off blocks a bit better on a couple of scrambles where he could have got to the ball carrier if he was able to get off blocks. His coverage, however, was good. Bowling Green rarely tried to go after TaRiq Bracy in the game, which I found to be a bit surprising. What I did see from Bracy was that he was effective locking down the deep routes that were run against him.
On to the younger players …
*** Freshman end Isaiah Foskey was a lot more confident and active today than he was when he got in the game against New Mexico. He closed on the ball well and showed more burst/power off the edge as a pass rusher. His technique needs a lot of work, but you could see the physical tools shine today.
*** Sophomore LB’s Shayne Simon and Bo Bauer were very aggressive and played hard. When they got in the game in the second half they were constantly around the football. Their range and burst was really, really impressive. Sophomore rover Paul Moala was also very active when he got in the game, showing good range and he was smart with his coverage decisions.
*** I only saw freshman CB KJ Wallace on a few snaps, but he was tight in coverage and aggressive. Freshman Cam Hart lined up at cornerback today after moving over to that position this week. We also saw sophomore Houston Griffith at safety, another move that happened this week.
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