Key Takeaways From The Notre Dame Victory Over Georgia Tech: Defense

You know your defense is really good when you can not play up to your normal standard and still completely dominate your opponent, which is exactly what happened with Notre Dame during its 31-13 victory over Georgia Tech.

Don’t get me wrong, the defense was still quite good, but there were some mistakes and miscues we aren’t used to seeing from the group. In spite of those mistakes, the defense controlled the action throughout the game. It was a combination of talent, good scheme and the fact the mistakes compared to the standard are still relatively few.

Notre Dame’s defense held the Yellow Jackets to their lowest offensive point total of the season, its second lowest yardage total, second lowest yards per play average, lowest rushing yards production and lowest yards per rush attempt of the season.

Here are my key takeaways from the Irish defense.

Safety Play Was Very, Very Good

Sophomore safety Kyle Hamilton was my co-defensive player of the week for his outstanding performance against the Yellow Jackets, but he wasn’t alone. The safety group as a whole played very good football in the win. They were impactful against the run, their coverage was top-notch and they made game-winning plays.

Hamilton made plays all over the field, coming up with big plays behind the line of scrimmage and breaking up plays down the field. He racked up a career-high two tackles for loss, and his second stop behind the line came on a crucial 4th-and-2 snap when the game was still competitive.

Sixth-year senior Shawn Crawford also had himself quite a day, although the ball wasn’t around him as much as it was Crawford. When the ball did come his way, or when he was used to attack downhill, Crawford made plays. He had a sack, multiple plays in the alley and he had a crucial tackle in space that would have resulted in a huge play for Georgia Tech if he doesn’t make it.

Junior safety Houston Griffith got more snaps in the second half, and he also graded out quite well in the victory.

Run Defense Continues To Shine

It seemed watching the game live that Georgia Tech ran the ball better than they did, and it just speaks to how well the run defense was in this game, and has been all season. The line is so good at resetting the line of scrimmage that even when running backs are getting through the line their gains aren’t as good as you’d think.

Even if you take out the five sacks for -34 yards, the Yellow Jackets had just 129 yards and averaged 4.6 yards per attempt, which includes scrambles from the quarterback. Georgia Tech isn’t a very good team, but as we discussed prior to the game, its talented freshmen backfield duo is extremely talented.

The reasons for the success were multiple. The interior of the defensive line, led by senior Myron Tagovailoa-Amosa, played very well against the run. Another key factor was how well the backups played. One of the bigger early stops in the game was a 3rd-and-2 stop in the second quarter in which backup end Justin Ademilola stacked and shed a tackle and made a stop short of the sticks. On that same play backup defensive tackle Jacob Lacey played a role in Georgia Tech having no room to work.

Freshman running back Jahmyr Gibbs is going to be a star in the ACC, and he showed his potential in the game against the Irish. According to Pro Football Focus, Gibbs forced 11 missed tackles against Clemson and 11 against Syracuse, but he had just three against Notre Dame. The Irish defense did a great job rallying to the football, keeping contain (for the most part) and wrapping up in space against a pair of athletes that are not easy to tackle.

Notre Dame has now held four of its six opponents this season to under 100 rushing yards.

Pass Rush Was Up And Down

The numbers for the pass rush were good, as the Irish had a season-high five sacks in the win. Even more important, there were big-play sacks in the game. Third-down sacks that end drives are nice, but they aren’t necessarily game-changers. Notre Dame’s early sacks were far bigger moments than that.

Notre Dame held a 17-7 lead in the third quarter and Georgia Tech had just hit a 39-yard post route to get into Irish territory. Points there and this game looks a lot different, but that didn’t happen because Daelin Hayes sacked quarterback Jeff Sims, knocked the ball out and it was recovered by Myron Tagovailoa-Amosa.

The Irish offense responded with a touchdown drive that put the game away. Now that is a game-changing sack.

Isaiah Foskey had a crucial second down sack that all but ended a drive, Hayes had another sack that resulted in a fumble that put Georgia Tech way behind schedule on first down, and Crawford ended that drive with a sack of his own.

The concern, however, is there were also too many snaps where the pass rush did very little damage. Sims had more time than you’d look for on too many snaps. Remember, the first sack of the game didn’t come until the third quarter, and while the defense did well to turn up the heat late, the inability to get consistent pressure early in the game was a bit concerning.

Shayne Simon Shows Improvement

I have been extremely hard on junior linebacker Shayne Simon, whose plays during the first half of the season has been well below average. Against Georgia Tech, however, Simon started to show flashes of turning the corner.

Simon was more fluid moving around, and he didn’t look nearly as robotic as he has in previous games. He stepped into the hole on multiple occasions, seemed to be gap sound and he did a much better job beating blockers to spots.

There is still a lot of room for improvement, but this game was certainly a positive sign, and it came against team with a lot of talent to run the ball.

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