Key Takeaways From Notre Dame's Win Over Duke: Defense

Notre Dame beat Duke by a 27-13 score to kick off the 2020 season. The Irish defense did what it needed to do to shut down the Duke offense, and there were plenty of positives to take away from the game. There were also some areas where the staff will need to make some corrections and the players will need to improve moving forward.

Here are my key takeaways from the Irish defense:

MORE AGGRESSIVE BLITZ PACKAGE

We won't know yet if this was specific for Duke or if its something that will become a regular staple of the defense, but defensive coordinator Clark Lea used a far more aggressive blitz package against the Blue Devils.

There was also variety to the blitzes. We saw overload blitzes, edge fires and zone pressures in the game. On one particular snap in the first quarter, Lea brought both inside linebackers on a blitz and then dropped both defensive tackles into coverage. The result was hesitation by the Duke left tackle, which allowed sophomore end Isaiah Foskey to come free and deliver a hit on the quarterback.

That pressure came just three plays before another zone pressure failed to hit home, resulting in a 55-yard catch and run by the Duke offense. Lea's blitzes were spotty early on, but the deeper we got into the game the more consistently effective they became.

We saw him use Kyle Hamilton on blitzes, we saw him bring Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah off the edge more than normal and overall he was more aggressive using his linebackers to blitz than we saw in past seasons. With how athletic his linebackers are, and how effective Hamilton proved to be as a blitzer, this could be an effective tool for Lea moving forward, as long as they can clean up the coverages behind them.

CORNERBACK PLAY WAS BETTER THAN EXPECTED

Cornerback was arguably my biggest concern coming into the season. The unit still has quite a bit to prove, but in this game I felt they played better than expected.

Grad transfer Nick McCloud gave up an 11-yard completion the first time he was targeted (on a drag route after the quarterback scrambled) and a 10-yard completion on a back shoulder for 10 yards later in the first quarter. He buckled down after that and played quite well in my view. McCloud was physical at the point of attack, and Lea used him to press quite a bit, especially when they blitzed. Duke tried to go back to the back shoulder throw, but this time McCloud either broke it up or forced an incompletion.

It was a quality first game in an Irish uniform for McCloud.

We didn't hear much about junior TaRiq Bracy during fall camp, and when Notre Dame released its depth chart he was listed as an "or" starter along with freshman Clarence Lewis. With so much expected, and needed, from Bracy this season, that was certainly troubling.

Against Duke, however, Bracy looked like the player I always hoped he could be. We need to see if he can repeat performances like this, but for this game he was outstanding. Bracy was extremely tight in coverage, and Duke tested him downfield three times. There was no room to work on any of those attempts, with Bracy either playing hip-to-hip with the receivers on vertical routes or perfectly playing over the top on deeper routes.

Duke failed to complete a single ball on the Irish junior corner, but not for lack of effort.

RED ZONE DEFENSE WAS IMPROVED

Notre Dame didn't stop Duke from scoring once it reached the red zone, so there is still room for improvement, but the Irish defense did keep Duke out of the end zone on two of its three trips inside the 20-yard line. The goal line defense was especially effective, and the Irish were able to come away with big plays in the red zone when needed.

The Irish red zone defense ranked 66th in the country last year in touchdown percentage allowed, giving up a touchdown on 60% of its opportunities, so holding Duke to a 33% touchdown rate is quite impressive.

On Duke's first trip, a key tackle for loss by defensive tackle Kurt Hinish pushed Duke back, and the drive ended with Foskey's hit. On Duke's next trip inside the 5-yard line, it was end Adetokunbo Ogundeji that made the big play against the run to stop the offense short of the goal line. That forced a third down, and once again it was Foskey that came away with the big third down play, this time coming up with a sack to force another field goal attempt.

BUCK LINEBACKERS ARE A WORK IN PROGRESS

Notre Dame started sophomore Marist Liufau at Buck linebacker, and we also saw plenty of junior Shayne Simon at the position. The duo certainly will need to get a lot better in a hurry moving forward.

Liufau was aggressive, something the staff praises him for, but he lacked discipline in this matchup. From what I could tell, he struggled closing off run lanes, he overran plays and he looked to be out of position more than he should. I'm not incredibly surprised by this when you consider it was his first significant linebacker action of his young career. If you'll recall, Asmar Bilal struggled mightily at the position in his first start of the 2019 season before settling in and playing really good football the rest of the way.

Bilal, however, was a fifth-year senior while Liufau is just a sophomore. His athleticism was obvious, but he'll have to mature as a player in a hurry, because teams are going to see this film and attack him more and more. Being more physical taking on blocks is also something he'll need to improve.

I thought Simon played hard, and he came downhill effectively, but like Liufau he needs to be more assignment effective, especially on runs away from him. He did have one really good rep where he came downhill, knocked back the blocker and clogged up the run lane. We need to see more of that, and then he needs to do a better job getting off those blocks.

THE DIME PACKAGE NEEDS A LOT OF WORK

Notre Dame used a unique personnel package for its dime look, which is Notre Dame's third-down package. Junior Jack Lamb, who shined in this role last season, was removed from the defense and the Irish went with a three-down look instead of the four-man look it used in the past.

The dime package was more of a three down lineman, three linebacker, three safety alignment with two cornerbacks. Notre Dame was able to keep Duke's third-down percentage low (4 of 15), but Duke had one of the nation's worst third-down conversion rates last season. The Irish also inserted Bo Bauer into the third-down package, which was an interesting decision to say the least. Bauer's pass rushes were largely ineffective.

There were a few too many big plays allowed against the dime, including a 55-yard catch and run early in the game that set up a field goal. I've seen people complaining that a pick should have been called, or offensive pass interference, but the reality is safety DJ Brown did such a poor job playing the route that he didn't do enough to draw that penalty.

Notre Dame is going to need to shore up this part of its defense when the schedule gets tougher. The Irish were forced to blitz a lot more out of this look, and while that worked against Duke, better offenses with more dynamic skill players are going to do a lot more damage.

After the performance Foskey had, it would make a lot of sense for the staff to get one of the three linebackers off the field and insert Foskey into the dime if the goal is to create more pressure without having to blitz Owusu-Koramoah or Hamilton.

TACKLING NEEDS TO BE SHORED UP

Notre Dame's missed tackle numbers reached double digits, and sixth-year senior Shaun Crawford was especially bad in this area. There were simply too many missed tackles in this game.

This is one area where I'm honestly not surprised or concerned yet. Sloppy tackling was actually one thing I expected from this game. First games often have sloppy tackling, and after the strange offseason Notre Dame and other programs just went through, I expected to see a lot of it against Duke, and we did.

Now that they've played a game and faced an opponent other than their own offense, I expect the Irish defense to clean this up relatively quickly. It will be needed.

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