Key Takeaways From The Notre Dame Win Over UNLV

Notre Dame earned a convincing 44-21 victory over UNLV as the Irish bounced back from its loss to Stanford. There were some positive developments from the game and there are still areas where improvement is still needed.

Here are the key takeaways from the Irish victory. We already broke down the offense, now it's time to look at the defense.

KEY TAKEAWAYS - DEFENSE

Foskey Bounces Back - Senior defensive end Isaiah Foskey received a lot of criticism from various IB staff for his performance against Stanford, which was one of the worst games of his career. The veteran showed a lot of resolve this weekend when he bounced back against UNLV with one of the best games of his career.

Foskey finished with three tackles and blocked two punts, quieting any voices that were thinking perhaps he had checked out and was focused on the draft. He certainly showed himself to be a player that appears to still be very much locked in on doing whatever he can to help this Irish team win.

Linebacker Play Makes A Jump - Notre Dame racked up nine tackles for loss for minus 44 yards, which ties for its most tackles for loss of the season and second most lost yards. A key ingredient to that success was the improved play of the linebackers. Notre Dame's linebackers have been struggling all season, but against the Rebels they had their best overall performance.

It wasn't without mistakes, but the unit was impactful and effective. Defensive coordinator Al Golden used his backers to be a bit more aggressive against the run, and for the most part they were much better attacking downhill. We didn't see them slow reacting nearly as much as we did in previous games, and the manner in which they were used played a key role in that.

A case could be made that Marist Liufau (5 tackles, 2 tackles for loss) had his best game of the season. Liufau and Prince Kollie both did a good job reading and blowing up UNLV screens. Mike linebacker JD Bertrand (7 tackles, 1.5 tackles for loss, 0.5 sacks, 1 break up) had arguably his best game of the season as well. Bertrand was still too erratic from an execution standpoint, but he was also his most active, especially against the run.

Third-Down Brilliance - I went all the way back to 2009 before I stopped searching for the last time Notre Dame prevented an opponent from converting a single third down. That, however, is exactly what Notre Dame did against the Rebels. UNLV went 0-12 on third downs against the Irish.

It was a much-needed improvement for a Notre Dame defense that had largely struggled on third down this season, especially third and long situations. Notre Dame ranked 69th nationally in third-down defense prior to the matchup against UNLV.

The only black mark is that UNLV converted two of its three fourth down opportunities.

Second Half Woes Continue - Notre Dame has been a very inconsistent second half defense this season. Notre Dame blew a 10-7 halftime lead against Ohio State, failed to hold onto a 15-12 fourth quarter lead against Marshall, allowed BYU to turn a 25-6 third quarter deficit into a 25-20 game by the early part of the fourth quarter, and Notre Dame couldn't hold onto a 14-13 fourth quarter lead against Stanford.

A 30-7 halftime lead made it almost impossible for UNLV to come back, but both the Irish defense and offense struggled in the second half. Notre Dame's defense lost focus in the second half, didn't play the sound football that worked so well in the first half, wasn't as aggressive and allowed UNLV to put two second half scores on the board.

No, it didn't threaten the outcome, but it did play a role in the Irish failing to put UNLV away in early enough fashion to get some young players on the field. Notre Dame has gone seven games this season and has yet to put a team away enough to get the younger players some snaps.

Red Zone Issues Continue As Well - Notre Dame came into this matchup with the worst red zone defense in college football. Coming into the game the Irish defense had allowed opponents to score on all 14 of their previous red zone trips, and the Irish have still not forced an opponent to not score in the red zone as UNLV scored on all three of its red zone trips.

To make matters worse, 11 of the previous 14 red zone trips ended in touchdowns, which is also one of the nation's worst marks. UNLV not only scored on all three of its red zone trips, they scored touchdowns on each of those trips.

This lack of red zone success certainly plays a role for a team whose three losses are by a combined 16 points. The two home losses were by a combined six points.

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