Keys To Victory For Notre Dame vs. Alabama: Defense
The Notre Dame defense has been outstanding all season, and it carried the Irish for much of the 2020 campaign. Against the vaunted Alabama offense the Fighting Irish defense will have to be at its very best.
In the latest Irish Breakdown episode, football analyst Vince DeDario and I dive into the keys for the Notre Dame defense to play at the level needed to win the game.
There are several keys to victory for the Notre Dame defense.
1. Win Up Front - Notre Dame must win in the trenches if it wants to beat Alabama. On defense, that will show itself in a number of areas. It means being disruptive and shutting down the run game, which will manifest itself with tackles for loss and forcing the backs into early cuts. Notre Dame can't win without slowing down the ground attack. It means pressuring quarterback Mac Jones, and now letting him get comfortable in the pocket, which is when he and the offense are at their best.
2. Mix Up The Looks - Creating confusion with the Alabama line, and especially Jones, are musts for the Fighting Irish defense. That means breaking down their own tendencies and showing Alabama different looks than they might expect. That also means mixing up pre-snap looks, and getting Jones to guess more than normal. That is how you create tackles for loss, incompletions on early downs and how you get Alabama to punt, kick field goals or force some turnovers.
3. Limit Big Plays - Alabama will rip off some big plays in this game, but Notre Dame needs to keep those big plays to a minimum, and they need to make sure those big plays don't go for touchdowns.
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