Key Takeaways From The Win Over Boston College: Defense
Notre Dame earned a hard-fought 45-31 victory over Boston College. It wasn't always the prettiest game for the Irish defense, but the unit made enough big plays to come away with the victory.
Here are my key takeaways from the performance of the Irish defense.
Defense Buckled Down When It Was Needed
Notre Dame has now given up over 30 points in back-to-back games, something that hasn’t happened since the end of the 2016 season. It’s concerning to a degree, but sometimes, when you play really good teams, you’re going to give up points.
That is the case the last two weeks, when a talented Clemson team was able to score 33 points in regulation due to it making big plays and with a couple of Notre Dame mistakes. Against Boston College, a part of the Irish giving up 31 points was the opposing quarterback making plays that only a handful of quarterbacks in the country can make. The defense also harassed Phil Jurkovec and kept him from making enough of those plays to beat the Irish.
Sometimes you have to tip your cap to the opponent, and that has been the case the last two weeks. Are there things to clean up? Absolutely, especially with high-powered offenses like North Carolina and Wake Forest left on the schedule, but this isn’t a scenario where the Irish defense is being exposed.
It’s a tired unit that is about to get a week of rest, and that tired unit has gone against two very talented young quarterbacks.
The positive from the game is that when the defense needed to make stops it did just that.
Trailing 7-3, the Irish offense fumbled the ball on the first play of its second series, and Boston College recovered it at the 19-yard line. The defense held firm, limiting Boston College to a field goal. Boston College recovered another fumble in Irish territory later in the game, but the defense held firm yet again, recovering a third-down fumble of its own to set up a score.
Boston College attempted a third quarter comeback, taking the opening drive of the half inside the Notre Dame 10-yard line. If Boston College scores on that drive its 31-23 with a lot of game left. Instead, the Irish defense - led by defensive tackle Myron Tagovailoa-Amosa and Drew White - make a crucial 4th-and-1 stop to force the turnover on downs.
The Irish offense lost another fumble later in the quarter, but on the ensuing play linebacker Jack Kiser jumped in front of a Jurkovec pass, and his interception set up the back-breaking touchdown for the Irish.
Boston College got into the red zone seven times, but only three resulted in touchdowns, which in a game determined by two scores was important.
Daelin Hayes Continues His Hot Streak
Fifth-year senior end Daelin Hayes has played at least solid football all season, but in the last three games he has been lights out. It began with his two-sack game against Georgia Tech, and the veteran was dominant against the run and had a crucial overtime sack in the win over Clemson.
Hayes continued his outstanding play in the win over the Eagles. The Michigan native was once again dominant against the run, setting the edge effectively, taking on pulling blockers with force and shutting down the backside runs. When Boston College tried to run at Hayes it had no success.
Hayes showed hustle on his crucial second quarter fumble recovery. His numbers (two tackles, one tackle for loss, zero sacks) do not do justice to just how good Hayes was in this game. According to Pro Football Focus, he led the Irish defense with five quarterback hurries, and the only blemish on his game (and that of the rest of the defensive line) was the inability to bring Jurkovec down on most of the pressures, but that is something opposing defenses have struggled to do all season and says more about Jurkovec than it does about Hayes and the defense.
The constant pressure of Hayes and the rest of the line prevented Jurkovec from ever getting into a rhythm throwing throwing the football.
Run Defense Was Solid For Most Of The Game
The run defense had good production in the win, holding Boston College to 85 rushing yards. That stat was aided by a 16-yard loss on the blown second quarter snapped that was discussed in the breakdown of Hayes. Even with that 16 yards removed, and the sacks removed, Boston College would still have just 109 yards on 23 carries.
Notre Dame was far from perfect against the run, and you saw that early when a poor backside run fit from linebacker Shayne Simon opened up a 22-yard gain. The Irish also lost contain on a wrap play and on a read zone by Jurkovec that resulted in a 17-yard gain.
Despite some sloppiness, the Irish still dominated at the line of scrimmage and largely shut down Boston College. While I could point to certain plays resulting in a skewing of the numbers, a similar case could be made that some of Boston College’s late rushing yards (57 yards in the third quarter) was more about the Irish being geared towards stopping the big play passes at the expense of some ground in the run game.
Overall, when you look at the numbers and you look at the ability to come up with big stops in the run game when the game was in doubt, this was another solid run game performance for the Irish run defense.
Tacking Improved
Notre Dame had trouble bringing Jurkovec down in the backfield, but so did Clemson, Pitt and every other team that has played Boston College. The key in that battle was harassing Jurkovec and not letting him take the game over and forcing mistakes, and the Irish accomplished that mission.
Outside of that the tackling for the Irish improved dramatically. Missed tackles were a huge problem in the win over Clemson, and Notre Dame made quick improvement against Boston College. The Eagles have quality playmakers on the outside, and the Irish secondary and linebackers kept them from getting yards after the catch.
Limiting the yards after contact played a key role in Notre Dame largely keeping the Boston College offense in check.
Big Plays Remain An Issue
When Notre Dame has gotten in trouble on defense this season it has been a result of big plays, and that continued against Boston College. The Eagles had six plays of at least 20 yards and 11 plays of at least 15 yards, with nine coming through the air.
Boston College was able to convert a 3rd-8, 3rd-10 and 3rd-15 with throws. The Eagles converted just four third downs, but it tied of the second most of the season, and its 36.4% conversion rate was also the second best of the season against the Irish defense.
BC had eight downs in third-and-long, and it picked up a first down in four of those instances. The success for the Irish was in third-and-short and third-and-medium. In those instances the Irish allowed just one conversion in four attempts, and BC came up short on a fourth-and-short as well
Giving up first downs on half of your third-and-longs is obviously not ideal.
With North Carolina, Wake Forest and likely Clemson remaining on the schedule the Irish defense needs to use the bye week to figure out ways to limit the big plays it has shown a tendency of giving up in the pass game.
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