Notre Dame Rush Defense Has Improved But Must Keep Surging
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Notre Dame has played very good defense over the last five seasons, and the unit has continued that in 2022. There have been some bad spots in the first month of the season, but by and large the defense has certainly given the Irish a chance to win each game they have played.
Notre Dame currently ranks 16th in defensive efficiency according to the Fremeau Efficiency Index. The Irish ranked 11th a season ago, 24th in 2020, 6th in 2019, 20th in 2018 and 15th in 2017 on the same ratings system.
As good as the defense has been since 2017, one area that has been problematic at times has been the run defense. That continued early in the 2022 season, as the Fighting Irish gave up 172 yards in the opener against Ohio State and 219 yards in a week two loss to Marshall.
Over the next two games the rush defense got much better, with Notre Dame holding California to just 112 yards on the ground and North Carolina to 66 rushing yards. Much of the success in both games came from quarterback scrambles.
Notre Dame has held all four of its opponents below their season rushing average and below their yards per carry average.
The Irish held Ohio State 67.8 yards below what it racked up in its other four games and held the Buckeyes to 4.9 yards per carry, far below the 6.5 it racked up in its other four games.
Notre Dame held California 44 yards below its average against its other four opponents, and its 3.6 yards allowed per carry is below the average of 4.9 against other opponents.
North Carolina was held 152 yards below its average against the four other opponents, and it held the Tar Heels to 2.4 yards per carry, compared to 5.8 against its other four opponents.
If Notre Dame is going to run the table coming out of the break the run defense will need to replicate what it has done in the two games leading into the bye week, and not like the unit we saw in the first two weeks. Of course, cleaning up the quarterback scrambles would be a part of this improvement, but the Irish showed a strong run defense in those two wins.
Notre Dame has already played the three best rushing attacks it will face all season, at least based on where the teams currently rank. Ohio State ranks 11th in rushing yards per game and 5th in yards per carry, Marshall ranks 12th in rushing yards per game and North Carolina ranks 37th. Take out its matchup against Notre Dame and the Tar Heels would rank 18th in rushing yards. North Carolina ranks 21st in yards per carry even with the Notre Dame loss.
Syracuse is the highest ranked ground attack on Notre Dame's remaining scheduling, checking in at 35th nationally at 190.4 yards per game. USC is next at 42nd in the land with an 183.8 per game average, although the Trojans rank 15th in yards per carry at 5.4.
Despite the lower rankings, the yard per game averages of Notre Dame's upcoming opponents are good. Clemson, Navy, USC and Syracuse are all averaging at least 175.8 rushing yards per game, with UNLV just under that mark at 168.6 yards per game. Seven of the final eight opponents average at least 150.8 yards per game on the ground, with Boston College being the exception.
Notre Dame has three opponents on its schedule that are currently undefeated, and all three of those teams average at least 175.8 yards per game. That's not a coincidence.
Even BYU, who is only averaging 152.6 rushing yards per game, is at its best when they can run the ball. We saw BYU work hard to assert its ground attack in the second half of its win over Utah State, and that is when the Cougars took control of that game. It rushed for 314 yards against South Florida, which helped lead to BYU's highest scoring output of the season at 50 points.
In the two games it has been held to less than 100 yards the BYU offense scored just 26 (vs. Baylor) and 20 (vs. Oregon) points, and it needed overtime to get to 26 against the Bears.
Notre Dame will need to make BYU one dimensional, which would then put more pressure on quarterback Jaren Hall and the BYU wideouts. If the Irish can shut down the BYU ground attack it will give the defense a chance to keep the Cougars in check.
Beating BYU is incredibly important, and playing well and continuing the momentum it had going into the break is vitally important. The schedule sets up nicely after that game. Syracuse and Stanford potentially presenting challenging matchups, but they are games the Irish should win. Slowing down the ground attack will be key to stopping Syracuse. Just like it will be important against Clemson and USC.
That means the Irish rush defense will need to not only be as good as it was in the most recent games, it needs to be even better.
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