Notre Dame Defense Must Improve In Year Two Under Al Golden

Notre Dame had a quality defense in 2022, but the Irish need to be a lot better in 2023

There was plenty of angst about the performance of the Notre Dame defense last season, the first under coordinator Al Golden. What is overlooked is that Notre Dame was actually a quality defense in Golden's first year, and it was the team's best unit throughout the season, but it wasn't good enough.

Golden's task in year two is to build on the strengths of last season's squad and improve the areas where his defense wasn't up to par for a team trying to compete for a championship. He has a year under his belt when it comes to learning the strengths of his players, and obviously the Irish players have a much better grasp of his defense, and what he wants on a daily basis.

If Golden can do this the Irish have the tools to have a defense that can make a big jump, and is capable of being a central fixture in a team that can do a lot of damage this season.

Here are three areas where Notre Dame must make big strides in order to become that kind of defense.

1. Tackle Better - I could talk about statistics that must improve, including the run defense, but we've discussed that before. That's an easy one, "be a better run defense." Yes, very true, but how? The first two points here are geared towards that, but it goes much deeper than just "stop the run."

One of the biggest issues for the Notre Dame defense last season, and really for the last three or four seasons, has been inconsistent from a tackling standpoint. This has been true on all three levels of the defense. The defensive line not being able to bring down USC quarterback Caleb Williams on multiple plays was an obvious example, but this happened far to often up front.

The linebackers and secondary also had plenty of issues from a tackling standpoint. 

Of course, what I'm talking about here isn't just what happens at the point of contact. Tackling issues in this context include that aspect, but it also includes poor execution in situations that prevent a defender from even getting to the point of impact. Early last season the defensive line was especially inconsistent, if not bad, with gap containment on pressures and over-running quarterbacks, which allowed far too many quarterback runs. They cleaned that up to a degree as the season went on, but more improvement is needed.

Linebackers had that issue as well, but they also had too many misses at the point of contact. It was actually improved from the season before, and hopefully it. gets even better in 2023. According to Pro Football Focus, Notre Dame's starting linebackers accounted for 30 missed tackles in 2021, but that number dropped to 19 in 2022.

Notre Dame's missed tackles at safety took a big jump in 2022, and that was a trouble spot for the Irish. Notre Dame's safeties were responsible for 15 missed tackles in 2021, but that number jumped all the way up to 30 last season. That position group needs to make the biggest strides from a tackling standpoint.

Being more assignment correct, taking better angles to the football and better technique at the contact point are all keys to improving in this area.

If the only improvement Notre Dame makes in 2023 is that they improve significantly as a tackling team the Irish defense will make big strides in terms of keeping yards and points down.

2. Be More Disruptive - Notre Dame needs to become a far, far more disruptive defense in 2023. There were some positives, with Notre Dame ranking 16th in sacks per game a season ago. The issue there is that the pass rush was inconsistent, it wasn't clutch and the disruption primarily ended there.

Notre Dame ranked just 38th in tackles for loss per game, which is a big drop from where a team with their sack numbers should rank. There was just a difference of 47 between Notre Dame's tackles for loss numbers and sack numbers. That's quite low. 

Look at Clemson, for example. Clemson finished last season with 44 sacks in 14 games (compared to 38 in 13 games for Notre Dame). Their sack per game number was 3.1 while Notre Dame's was 2.9. That's a very similar number. Clemson, however, had 111 tackles for loss, compared to just 85 for Notre Dame. Clemson had a gap of 67 between its tackles for loss and sack numbers.

That means Notre Dame had far fewer disruptive players against the run game. If Notre Dame wants to be a dominant defense it must become far more disruptive in the run game and create a wider gap between the TFL and sack numbers.

It's not just about tackles for loss. Notre Dame lacked disruptive ability in every department. Freshman cornerback Benjamin Morrison was the exception from an individual standpoint, but as a team the Irish were just not disruptive enough on defense.

Notre Dame ranked 68th nationally in interceptions (10), 129th in pass break ups (24) and just 125th in passes defensed (34). Notre Dame finished the season with just 15 turnovers, which ranked 98th nationally.

The Irish defense ranked 81st in forced fumbles (8), 106th in fumble recoveries (5) and 99th in fumble recovery rate. That means not only was Notre Dame not good at forcing fumbles, when the ball did get on the ground they were even worse at recovering those fumbles.

All of this adds up to explain why Notre Dame was so bad at forcing turnovers last season. Notre Dame finished the season with just 15 turnovers, which ranked 98th nationally. Not making enough run game stops, not being consistent with the pass rush and not being disruptive on the football are all areas that explain why Notre Dame had one of the nation's worst red zone defenses. 

3. Better Big Moment Play - In some ways the Notre Dame defense was pretty good. The Irish held opponents to just 329.3 yards of offense per game. That was the team's best performance since 2019 and was better than both the 2020 and 2018 playoff teams. The 5.2 yards per play average was mediocre and more telling about how the defense performed.

The issue at the heart of the defensive woes, whether you look at the lack of disruption, run game numbers, red zone defense and every other statistic, is that the 2022 defense was not clutch. They didn't make the plays in the game defining moments nearly enough.

That is something that made the 2018 defense so good. Whether it was Alohi Gilman making a huge stop, Julian Love making a clutch play, Drue Tranquill or Te'von Coney making big tackles in key moments or Khalid Kareem making a huge fourth quarter sack, that defense was great at making key plays in big moments.

Offense was Notre Dame's biggest problem last season, no one argues that, but the defense had its fair share of huge missed opportunities in game winning moments.

We saw Ohio State run all over the defense in the second half last season. 

Leading 15-12 with nine minutes left in the game, Notre Dame had Marshall backed up to their own 7-yard line, facing a 3rd-and-9. Make a stop there and the offense takes over in position to put the game away. Instead, an assignment mistake allowed Marshall's tight end to leak free for a catch-and-run that gained 11 yards. Marshall then went to Miller again on a 3rd-and-goal to score a touchdown, giving Marshall a fourth quarter lead it never lost.

Notre Dame couldn't put North Carolina and BYU away because of second half defensive miscues.

Despite major struggles, the Irish offense gave the team a 14-13 fourth quarter lead over Stanford. The defense allowed Stanford to immediately go 51 yards for a go-ahead field goal that ended up being the game-winner. Notre Dame only forced one third down on that series.

The defense couldn't make stops to put Navy away in the second half, and in the loss to USC they were unable to make stops in the sudden change situations that could have kept the team in the game. 

Did Notre Dame lose those games because of the defense? Of course not, football is a team spot. The offense certainly must improve, but the Irish defense must become a more clutch defense in 2023 if it's going to be a unit capable of playing a big role in Notre Dame getting back to the College Football Playoff.

The tools are all in place to make it happen. Golden is a smart coach, his staff is more experienced working together, the players know the defense, and Notre Dame returns a very deep and athletic defensive squad. Don't be surprised if the latest version of the Irish defense is really, really good.

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