Midseason Report: Breaking Down The Notre Dame Defense

Picking the top five players for the Notre Dame was no easy task. The Fighting Irish are one of the nation's top defensive football teams, and you don't get to that point because you only have one or two players.

The good news for Notre Dame, potentially, is that its defense still has plenty of room for improvement based on its performance through the first half of the season.

Let's begin by looking at the national rankings.

Notre Dame ranks in the Top 25 nationally in scoring defense, tackles for loss, sacks, rushing touchdowns allowed, yards allowed per pass attempt, yards allowed per completion, passing touchdowns allowed and turnovers gained.

The Irish rank fifth in tackles for loss and seventh in turnovers gained, with the defense ranking fifth in fumbles gained.

This success has come against a challenging schedule, with three Notre Dame opponents ranking in the Top 30 offensively according to the Fremeau Efficiency Index. Those three same opponents - Georgia, USC and Louisville - rank in the Top 20 in offensive efficiency according to the ESPN Football Power Index.

Notre Dame held Louisville to a season-low 17 points, 383 yards and 5.1 yards per play. Since that matchup the Cardinals have averaged 41.4 points per game, 510.2 yards per game and 7.3 yards per play.

The Irish defense has also held Georgia to its lowest total yards this season, New Mexico to its lowest yards per play, and all six of its opponents to below its season average in scoring and total offense.

POSITIVES

1. Great Team Defense - Coming into the season I expected the Irish defensive ends and safeties to be among the very best in the entire nation, and I anticipated those two units would carry the defense. Both have been good, but neither has been as dominant as they were last fall (see below).

Despite that, and despite the loss of Jerry Tillery, Drue Tranquill, Julian Love and Te’von Coney, Notre Dame is giving up fewer points and fewer yards per game this season than it did a season ago. The ability to play great team defense is the reason for the success. Notre Dame has not relied on one or two positions groups to thrive, it has relied on all three levels of the defense to make plays.

Not all three have played at a high level at the same time, and that adds to the strength of this unit. When certain parts of the defense struggle the others have been able pick up the slack and make winning plays.

2. Highly Disruptive - For all of its strengths last season, the Notre Dame defense was not overly disruptive for an elite defense. Notre Dame ranked 32nd in the country in sacks but ranked just 45th in turnovers forced and 60th in tackles for loss.

Through six games this fall, Notre Dame ranks fifth in tackles for loss, seventh in turnovers forced and 24th in sacks. The sack totals are especially surprising considering the fact the Irish ends have yet to really take off this season.

Defensive coordinator Clark Lea has been far more aggressive this season, using his athletic linebackers to attack opponents. Last season, the starting linebackers combined for 22.5 tackles for loss in 13 games. Notre Dame’s current group of linebackers have already racked up 22 tackles for loss and are on pace for 48 for the entire season, including the bowl game.

3. Better Than Expected Up The Middle - That leads to the third positive of the first half of the season, the impressive performance of the middle of the Irish front seven. It took a couple games for this group to get going, but their performance the last four games has been a pleasant surprise.

I expected the defensive tackles to be better than people expected, and I predicted in the winter that Notre Dame would be more disruptive inside. Through six games the Irish already have 9.5 tackles for loss from the interior linemen, which puts them on pace for 20.5 stops behind the line, a number that far surpasses the 14.5 tackles for loss from last season.

Notre Dame’s linebackers and defensive tackles have racked up 84 run stops through six games, which puts it on pace to surpass the totals from last year’s up-the-middle defenders (182 to 170).

4. Fast Starters - No, this doesn’t refer to Notre Dame’s team speed on defense, which is certainly a positive. Instead it refers to how good Notre Dame has been in the first two quarters, which has allowed the offense to eventually get going.

Notre Dame gave up 14 points in the first two quarters of the season opener and 17 points in the first half against Louisville, but it held New Mexico and Georgia to just seven points, USC to three points and it shut down Bowling Green.

SECOND HALF ADJUSTMENTS

1. Defensive Ends And Safeties Must Play Better - Notre Dame’s ends and safeties have been good this season, but neither group has been as good as it could be, or should be. Both have certainly been good enough for Notre Dame to have one of the 15-20 best defenses in the country, but for Notre Dame to be elite on that side of the ball it needs its veteran ends and safeties to start dominating the way they are capable of dominating.

Senior end Julian Okwara is far below his pass rushing and run stopping rates from last season, although Khalid Kareem is on pace for improved numbers as a pass rusher. But like Okwara, Kareem’s run stopping numbers are substantially down compared to last season.

At safety, the Irish veterans have made more mistakes and missed far more tackles than they did a season ago. According to PFF, Jalen Elliott and Alohi Gilman combined for just 14 missed tackles last season. Through just six games, the pair has already matched that total, with Gilman leading the defense with 10 missed tackles.

They haven’t been as disruptive against the pass either.

Notre Dame needs its ends to get back to being the all-around difference makers they were a season ago. At safety, the veterans needs to play within the system more effectively, stop trying to force the action and be more disciplined, which will result in greater production.

2. Run Defense Is Still A Work In Progress - The run defense was a mess through the first two games, giving up a combined 461 yards. It held Georgia 85 yards below its season average on the ground and 21 yards below its next worst rushing performance, which came this past weekend during its loss to South Carolina.

Notre Dame was dominant with its ground defense against Virginia and Bowling Green, holding the two offenses to just 122 yards, but USC was able to pound out 171 yards and its backs averaged 6.4 yards per attempt.

While the Irish defense has improved since the first two games, there is still much-needed room for improvement from a production and consistency standpoint. Tackling more effectively will be a key ingredient to making that happen.

3. Red Zone Defense Needs Improvement - Simply put, Notre Dame needs to come up with more red zone stops. Notre Dame ranks 121st in the nation in red zone stop rate, with opponents getting points on all but one of their 14 red zone trips.

The good news is the touchdown success rate has been better, with Notre Dame ranking 48th in touchdown percentage in the red zone. The other good news for Notre Dame is that it ranks 11th nationally in fewest red zone trips allowed. If that trend continues and the defense can force a few more stops the unit will jump up even higher in the rankings and the Irish will be difficult to beat.

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