Key Takeaways From The Loss To Clemson: Defense
Notre Dame dropped its final game before the College Football Playoff, losing 34-10 to Clemson in the ACC title game. The Irish defense gave up just one more point in this matchup than it did in regulation of the regular season battle, but Clemson controlled the action throughout.
There were a number of key takeaways from the defensive performance.
WHAT HAPPENED TO THE RUN DEFENSE?
For much of the 2020 season the Irish run defense was among the nation’s best. Heading into the regular season ending matchup against Syracuse, the Irish were giving up just 85.3 yards per game on the ground, which ranked the defense fourth in the country. It didn’t come against poor competition either, as the Irish shut down standouts like Javian Hawkins (Louisville), Michael Carter (North Carolina) and Javonte Williams (North Carolina).
After just two games against Syracuse and Clemson, the Irish rush defense is now giving up 110.6 yards per game and has dropped all the way down to 15th. Syracuse racked up 229 yards against the Irish and Clemson went for 219 yards. Clemson scored on runs of 44 and 34 yards. The gap sound and aggressive run defense that we saw for much of the season was nowhere to be found, at least in the first half.
Tackling was also an issue.
Clemson running back Travis Etienne went for 28 yards on 18 carries in the first matchup, but he went for 124 yards on 10 carries in the title game, and he didn’t have a single lost yard in the game. In fact, Notre Dame generated just four lost yards in the run game against the Tigers.
SLOW TO ADJUST
Notre Dame had issues with contain on the edge, it struggled handling the read zones in the opening half and the Tigers success on the perimeter with the pass game opened up more run lanes between the tackles. Clemson also found ways to exploit safety Shaun Crawford in coverage.
The defensive staff was slow to adjust to what Clemson was throwing at it. The staff made some quality adjustments in the second half and the defense played much better in the final 20 minutes, but by then it was a 24-3 game.
THIRD-DOWN FAILURES
For those who said Clemson wouldn’t be better with Trevor Lawrence at quarterback because D.J. Uiagalelei threw for a bunch of yards. It was a weak argument, and we saw last night why there are more important things than just yards. Example number one is third-down success.
Notre Dame has been an outstanding third-down defense all season, and it held Clemson to just 4-15 on third-down in the first matchup … without Lawrence.
Prior to Lawrence going down with Covid-19, the Clemson offense had a 51.6% success rate on third-down. In the four games after he went out the offense went for just 36.2%, including 26.7% against the Irish in the first matchup.
Last night, Clemson went 8-14 on third-down, good for a 57.1% success rate. For Notre Dame, it was just the second time all season the Irish gave up over 40% conversions on third-down and just the first time it gave up over 42% on third-down.
PASS RUSH NEEDS TO FINISH BETTER
Clemson had a good game plan to limit the effectiveness of the pass rush. They threw quick game, they did a lot of seven-man protections and they moved the pocket effectively. Notre Dame still was able to get a good number of pressures, and according to Pro Football Focus they had 24 in the game, including six hits or sacks on Lawrence.
The issue, however, is the defense missed a number of crucial opportunities to bring Lawrence down in situations where it could have had an impact on the outcome.
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