Grades: Notre Dame Linebackers, Secondary vs. Virginia

Notre Dame’s defensive line got much of the publicity from Saturday’s 35-20 victory over Virginia, and for good reason. The Irish front four was brilliant in that game, and it played at a very high level throughout the game.

Notre Dame’s back seven was also good in the game, but there were mistakes and snaps where the Irish got beat at one of those two levels. Those instances often resulted in Virginia being able to make big plays, especially in the first half.

But even in the first half, the back seven made plays that allowed the front to make plays. After making halftime adjustments the back seven was especially good. We saw the secondary effectively mixing up coverages and the linebackers were much better at playing the underneath routes and forcing Virginia quarterback Bryce Perkins to hold onto the ball.

For as good as the front was, the eight sacks was partly on the play of the secondary and linebackers as well, and this snap proves that. Virginia is running a max protection play-action pass that was designed to get the secondary to bite, which would then open up a downfield shot.

Instead, safeties Jalen Elliott and Alohi Gilman read their keys, see pass and jump into coverage. The corners also read the pass well and got in good position to jump the wheel to the left of the defense and the post by the wideout to the right of the defense.

Perkins wanted to go deep but the secondary was all over the play. That allowed end Julian Okwara to get a late sack and strip, which ended a potential Virginia scoring drive.

We saw this many times against Virginia. Yes, there are certainly things that must be cleaned up in the back seven at all three positions (linebacker, safety, cornerback) but we saw some very good things from those units against a talented quarterback and talented wideouts.

Now let’s move onto the individual grades:

LINEBACKER

#6 Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah (66 snaps) - Owusu-Koramoah continues to be more consistent from a technique and assignment standpoint. He had two snaps where I felt he could have done a better job with contain, but overall he was must better in this department. Owusu-Koramoah also didn’t get enough depth on a perimeter coverage, which allowed for an out cut to come open, but overall I felt he played a strong game.

Owusu-Koramoah did a much better job with the little things in the game. Here’s an example:

Early in the season this is the kind of play where Owusu-Koramoah would have keyed the backfield and bit hard inside, which would have opened up the boot. Instead, Owusu-Koramoah reads his key, stays on the tight end and jumps his route.

When given the chance to make physical run plays we saw him do that, with the junior making several of the hardest hits of the game both in the box and on the perimeter. GRADE: B

#40 Drew White (56 snaps) - White had a solid performance against the Cavaliers, especially against the run. He played smart football, read his keys, was patient when he needed to be and attacked when he needed to be more aggressive. His angles attacking downhill were effective and the timing he showed getting downhill allowed him to beat the Virginia blockers to the point of attack, although the blockers were usually too preoccupied with the defensive line.

He overpursued on a quarterback sweep in the second half, but overall he was sound and disciplined in the run game. Where White had some negatives in this game was in the pass game, at least early on. He was late getting out over number two against trips sets multiple times, which allowed for some easy completions. He was also late reading and jumping a crossing route, which resulted in a completion. GRADE: B-

#22 Asmar Bilal (43 snaps) - Bilal wasn’t overly impactful in the game, but he wasn’t really asked to be. He was asked to do a lot of dirty work against Virginia, and he did it well. For the third straight game I graded him well on reading his keys and reacting quickly to what was happening. He constantly beat Virginia players to the point of attack, which allowed him to play contain effectively when that was his job.

My only knock on him in this area is he didn’t finish as well once he arrived at the football. That knocked his grade down a bit, but overall he was solid against the Virginia ground game.

Where Bilal’s grade went up was in the pass game. He did a good job all game at getting underneath routes that were trying to break behind him and he did a good job getting out to the perimeter on routes to his side. GRADE: B

#33 Shayne Simon (13 snaps) - Simon saw 13 snaps after not playing at linebacker last week against Georgia, and I graded the talented sophomore out well. Simon played aggressively and crashed the line hard. His angles were sound and he was able to explode through gaps when asked to stunt or blitz. GRADE: B

#31 Jack Lamb (17 snaps) - Lamb was a bit up-and-down in this game. He showed good range and was once again good in coverage, but I believe he was the player responsible for a read zone that broke free and his pass rushes weren’t overly effective. I did like the punch he showed when asked to engage. GRADE: C+

#13 Paul Moala (1 snap) - Moala bit up on a Perkins scramble on his only snap, which allowed Joe Reed to get behind him for a touchdown. The quarterback was accounted for so Moala didn’t need to bite there, he needed to stay back in coverage. That kind of mistake will result in you not playing anymore that game, and that’s what happened with Moala.

SAFETY

#11 Alohi Gilman (68 snaps) - Gilman had three big mistakes that ding his grade a bit, but he also had some big plays in the game that evened those mistakes out and then some. On the second series of the game he was peaking into the backfield while fitting behind a Bilal blitz, but Gilman was too focused on the quarterback, which allowed the tight end to run right by him, resulting in a 21-yard gain. Later he had a missed tackle on a bad run fit and also got dragged a few yards while trying to strip the ball instead of securing the tackle.

Out of that I was impressed with Gilman’s performance, and in typical fashion for him, he came up with a big play late in the game that helped the Irish put the game away. His fourth quarter interception was perfect safety play; he got underneath the route, knowing he had safety help, he rode the inside hip of the wideout and then when he saw the receiver play the ball he turned around, found it and picked it off.

Gilman also helped play a key role in one of the big plays of the game.

On this particular play, Notre Dame is showing blitz and Gilman is over the ball. Right before the snap he drops, reads the seam route by number three and takes away that throw, which is where Perkins wanted to go with the ball. The result is the Virginia quarterback holding onto the ball too long as he looked for secondary options on the third-and-10 throw. Holding onto the ball against the Notre Dame front four is often going to result in a bad play for the offense.

There were several similar snaps in the game where Gilman and Elliott were able to take away downfield options, forcing Perkins to hold onto the ball too long. GRADE: B+

#21 Jalen Elliott (63 snaps) - Elliott is often playing more of a centerfield role this season, so he’s not around the ball as much as he was a season ago. It’s not that he isn’t playing the ball well, it’s that he’s being used differently. In that role I graded him out well in this game. His tackling was sound and he showed a good feel for what Virginia was trying to do. When the Cavaliers wanted to take some home run shots it was Elliott who often sniffed them out.

He did have one blown coverage early that resulted in a 17-yard gain, but overall he was steady and effective. GRADE: B

#14 Kyle Hamilton (30 snaps) - Much of the discussion is on the freaky athletic play he made late in the game to come away with the interception, but that’s the kind of play you expect from an elite athlete. What really impressed me, and what allowed Hamilton to earn such a high grade, were the heady plays he made in the game.

Hamilton showed a good feel for what Virginia wanted to do in this game, and it allowed him to get downhill and make plays near the line against the run and pass.

This is a good third-down call by Virginia, whose offense was getting thrashed on third-down by the Irish pass rush. The Cavaliers went with a screen that had a chance if Hamilton doesn’t read it, attack it and blow it up. Combining plays like this with the athletic plays we saw on the interception are why he is so impactful right now for the Irish defense. GRADE: A-

CORNERBACK

#5 Troy Pride Jr. (73 snaps) - Pride was solid in the game but continues to not play at the level he should be. He played with better angles in coverage but again in the first half he didn’t play the ball well. Pride also had sloppy technique on an early slant throw in which he was flat on his feet when the receiver broke inside, which gave the wideout the room he needed to separate from Pride for a 17-yard gain.

On the pass interference penalty against him, Pride was in great position and played the route perfectly, but by unnecessarily grabbing the jersey of the wideout he was fagged, rightfully so. At the time I didn’t think it should be a penalty because of how well Pride played the route, but that last second play, which screams a lack of confidence, was the difference between a great coverage play and a 15-yard penalty.

Pride was good against the run and a positive is that later in the game he started to really play at a high level. If his second half performance is any indication of what he can do moving forward he’ll start playing to his full potential. GRADE: C+

#20 Shaun Crawford (27 snaps) - Crawford was solid in the run game and was aggressive playing the short routes. Where he had issues was not reacting quickly enough to deep throws and not showing good situational (down-and-distance) awareness, which allowed Virginia to complete two balls in front of him on third-down. One was ruled incomplete, which was a questionable call by the officials. GRADE: C+

#28 TaRiq Bracy (46 snaps) - Bracy had a brutal first half, partly because of his own mistakes and partly because of the Virginia wideouts and quarterback making excellent plays against him. He bounced back and had a good second half, but the first half was one he’ll have to learn from and quickly move on from.

What got Bracy in trouble was him just not playing with good technique. Here’s an example:

Bracy is in decent position when the wideout makes his break, although I’d like to see him have his feet in better position to plant and drive. The mistake is that he’s too vertical in his drive on the route. If you run where the wideout is he’ll beat you. You have to anticipate and beat him to the spot, get in front of his route and put your body in position to play the ball. Bracy doesn’t do that and he gets beat.

On the post route that was caught in front of him, Bracy had poor footwork and didn’t put himself in position to quickly plant, turn and run. He also didn’t properly use his inside leverage to take away the post. He bit on the corner fake and lost his leverage, which combined with his footwork allowed the receiver to beat him inside.

Bracy did show good run support in the game. GRADE: D+

Follow me on Twitter @CoachD178