Pressuring Mac Jones Is A Must For The Notre Dame Defense
Notre Dame is not going to stop the Alabama offense, not in the manner in which it shut down the North Carolina offense. The goal for Notre Dame is to create enough stops to give its own offense a chance to outscore the Crimson Tide.
The objective is to force enough turnovers, incompletions and run game negatives to keep the Alabama offense in the 30s. This is an offense that has not been held below 35 points since the 2018 national title game.
There is no easy answer to stopping Alabama, and while slowing down the run game is key number one, that must be combined with being able to effectively pressure quarterback Mac Jones. There isn't really a "weakness" in the game of Jones, but when pressured the offense is far more prone to misses and mistakes.
Numbers are from Pro Football Focus
The numbers show that Jones will throw more incompletions when pressured, and that doesn't include the number of sacks in those instances.
The combination of numbers makes two aspects of pressuring Jones important. First, Notre Dame must get hits on Jones and force him to throw without getting his base into throws. As Irish Breakdown football analyst Vince DeDario pointed out in a recent podcast, Jones lacks the big arm needed to throw off his back foot down the field.
If he's able to step into downfield throws he'll make big plays, even when pressured. Notre Dame's pressure must come up the middle and get right into his face, which means finding ways to attack and win in the A Gaps, taking advantage of the fact Alabama is starting Chris Owens at center in place of the injured All-American Landon Dickerson.
That means defensive tackles Myron Tagovailoa-Amosa, Kurt Hinish, Jayson Ademilola and Rylie Mills will need to win a lot of battles and get a push up the middle. If that is combined with the edge players (Daelin Hayes, Adetokunbo Ogundeji, Isaiah Foskey) getting good outside rushes the result will be Jones going down for losses.
Defensive coordinator Clark Lea will need to design and call some well-timed and effective blitzes, but the key is getting pressure from the front four. If Notre Dame is forced to blitz to get pressure, or if the blitzes don't hit him the result, more often than not, will be big plays for the offense.
If Notre Dame can get four or five hits on Jones and two or three sacks it will give the defense a chance to make stops, especially if those sacks are coming on first and second down.
Just getting pressures won't be enough, as the numbers above show. Those pressures need to come with good downfield coverage, and the coverage schemes that Lea employs need to protect against the deep ball.
Getting pressure and taking away the deep throws will result in Jones either having to hold onto the ball longer to allow deep routes to get open (which increases the odds of getting hits and sacks), or it will result in him having to dump the ball off, which allows the Irish linebackers, safeties and corners to use their athleticism to rally to the football, holding Alabama to shorter gains.
It sounds easy to do, but it's very hard to execute and pull off. If Notre Dame can do it, however, the defense will have a chance to do enough to allow its own offense to make enough plays to win the game.
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