Notre Dame Needs Improvement On Defense As Well, But It's A Different Kind Of Fix

Notre Dame has done some decent things on offense through the first two games of the 2022 season, but the unit hasn't played well enough to win, and it hasn't played to its potential.

Although the offense has been a driving force behind the team's season opening losses, the defense has also missed opportunities to help put games away. In our latest show we break down the areas where the defense can and must improve, from a player and coaching level.

Here are a few of the topics we discussed:

*** Stars Not Playing Like Stars - What's impressive about the performance of the defense is that so far the team's best players on that side of the ball have not played well. Defensive end Isaiah Foskey and defensive tackle Jayson Ademilola were standouts last season, especially Foskey, but both have underwhelmed so far in 2022. Cornerback Cam Hart has also struggled, due in part to him coming back from a hamstring injury that he suffered in camp. If Notre Dame is going to play to its potential this fall it needs its stars to get back to playing like stars.

*** Scale Things Back - Notre Dame was able to be sound and effective against Ohio State in part to the extra time for preparation heading into the opener. When it had less time to prepare for Marshall the defense was far less sound, far less assignment correct, and was not disruptive. It seemed on film that the defensive players, for the most part, weren't certain of what to do, and there were far too many assignment mistakes. Defensive coordinator Al Golden is a really sharp guy, but he'll need to scale things back a bit and make sure his players are more certain of their roles, which will allow them to play much faster than we saw late against Ohio State and against Marshall.

*** Linebacker Play Must Get Better .... Quickly - The play of the Irish linebackers has been especially disappointing. The unit simply has not been aggressive enough, effective enough and disruptive enough for this defense to play to its full potential. In the video we discussed a number of reasons why this might be the case, including not doing as much crossover work until the players master one position.

There's much more, and we have a mailbag at the end of the show as well.

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Irish Breakdown Content

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Notre Dame 2023 Class Big Board
Notre Dame 2023 Commits Board - Offense
Notre Dame 2023 Commits Board - Defense

Notre Dame 2023 Scholarship Offers
Notre Dame 2024 Scholarship Offers

Ranking The 2022 Signees - Offense
Ranking The 2022 Signees - Defense

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