Game Observations: Notre Dame Defense vs. Florida State
Notre Dame earned a 42-26 victory over Florida State to improve to 3-0 on the season, and 2-0 in ACC play. It would appear the Notre Dame defense suffered more from the long layoff than did the offense.
The Irish gave up 405 yards and 26 points against the Noles, and the Florida State offense converted all four of its fourth-down opportunities.
Here's my analysis of the Notre Dame defense from the win over Florida State.
*** Florida State really only played two quarters with the offense that we saw tonight, and there were plenty of wrinkles for athletic quarterback Jordan Travis. Notre Dame had trouble containing Travis for much of the night, and overall the defense missed a number of big sack opportunities.
*** The Irish defense had a hard time handling contain all night, especially in the boundary. It didn't seem like Notre Dame made any adjustments, and the adjustments they did make didn't seem to work. Tackling also also an issue for the Irish for much of the night.
*** Notre Dame went with a different secondary look, as Shaun Crawford got the start at cornerback and Houston Griffith got the start at safety. Kyle Hamilton was also back in the lineup after missing the South Florida game.
*** A positive for the Notre Dame defense was that it held Florida State to a field goal after the Irish offense fumbled on their first offensive series. When the special teams turned it over later in the game, however, the Irish defense could not hold and gave up a touchdown.
DEFENSIVE LINE
*** Overall the play of the defensive line was erratic and disappointing, at least based on my initial assessment. I'll break down the game again tomorrow, but I was surprised at how often the line struggled to win with their pass rush, and their inability to finish the quarterback off when they did get into the backfield was disappointing.
*** Senior end Daelin Hayes started the night off well, getting a strong pressure early in the game that allowed a teammate to get a sack, which helped stall the first Florida State drive. Hayes flashed during the game, but his execution was far too inconsistent, and he didn't show burst off the edge, although I was told by a source that Hayes had a procedure done during the down time, so he might not have been full speed.
*** The biggest issue I saw from Hayes was how often he got sealed inside and lost contain. Perhaps I'm mistaken and he was supposed to take the inside gap so often, but it was hard for me to recognize who else would be the contain player in most of those instances. Hayes also missed a huge sack opportunity on a 2nd-and-9 in the fourth quarter that could have put FSU in a challenging 3rd-and-long situation.
*** Senior end Adetokunbo Ogundeji was also a bit up-and-down, at least when it comes to finishing. Ogundeji won on a number of power rushes in the game, and he did finish with two sacks in the game. The problem, however, is that he also missed a number of opportunities to finish off other pass rushes and tackle for loss attempts in the run game.
*** Senior defensive tackle Kurt Hinish had an erratic game as well. It started off quite well for Hinish, who registered a sack on the opening defensive drive of the game. There were plenty of snaps where Hinish won off the ball and got very good penetration. There were far too many snaps, however, where Hinish got either knocked back off the ball or pushed outside too much on the outside zones, which allowed the quarterback to isolate the other defensive tackle too easily.
*** Hinish also jumped offsides to allow FSU to convert a 3rd-and-5, which is the kind of mistake a veteran like him cannot make.
*** I will need to break the film down more to truly evaluate the other defensive tackles. I saw a few positive snaps from Jayson Ademilola, Howard Cross III and Jacob Lacey, but I'm going to hold off on further judgments on them until after I've watched the film more. Lacey did have two very good inside pass rushes, including clogging up the inside rush lane on Ogundeji's first sack, which prevented the quarterback from stepping into the pocket.
LINEBACKER
*** Overall I felt that rover Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah played a strong game, and he finished with five tackles and two tackles for loss. Owusu-Koramoah was impactful on the edge, and Florida State had a very hard time containing him when they tried to run to his side of the field. Most of their run game success was running between the tackles or to the boundary which is away from Owusu-Koramoah.
*** His read and fill on an early tackle for loss showed off his explosiveness and playmaking ability. The one mistake he made was on Florida State's first touchdown run. It appeared based on his initial movement and how the rest of the defense reacted that he was supposed to take the quarterback, but Owusu-Koramoah fell for the quarterback's fake, and instead of just keying on his man he tried to play the ball.
*** The rest of the linebackers were not nearly as effective.
*** I'll have a better feel for his performance after breaking down film, but senior Mike linebacker Drew White was far too inconsistent. White played hard and had a number of good fills and pressures, but he also had several misfits and missed tackles.
*** I thought junior Buck linebacker Shayne Simon played more aggressive tonight than he did against Duke, but he has to clean up his assignments. Simon showed good backside pursuit, and when he commits to attacking he can be really good. He blew up an early Florida State run with a well-timed run stunt. Simon also had issues getting over the top on perimeter runs at him, and he had some missed fits on inside runs away. Simon also still needs work getting off blocks.
*** Simon also got beat down the field by FSU's best receiver on the first play of the third quarter, but he should have received safety help on the play, but it was late.
*** Junior Bo Bauer finished the game on a high note, including racking up a late sack, but he was inconsistent from an execution standpoint. He turned a running back loose up the seam, and he got sucked inside on a counter run that would have been a huge play if not for a safety bailing him out (see below). Bauer played hard, but he needs to clean some things up, just like Simon.
*** Bauer had two big plays on the late drive that ended with a Crawford interception. The first was a third-down sack, but the bigger play came the play before the interception. Bauer had a great flow on second-and-goal, which prevented a FSU touchdown. A play later, Crawford all but ended the game with a pick.
SECONDARY
*** Star sophomore Kyle Hamilton was silent in the first half, but he made some big-time plays in the second half. Hamilton was active coming downhill, and he made one of the biggest defensive plays of the game. On Florida State's second drive of the second half, a counter run busted wide open and it looked like the back was about to rip off a huge run, but Hamilton came out of nowhere and blew him up in space. If Hamilton doesn't make such a good read and close so quickly on the ball that run could have been a game-changer.
*** Hamilton was far more active in the second half and it appeared he was able to shake off the rust in the final 30 minutes.
*** There were some positives from Houston Griffith in his first start, but he also needs to clean up a lot of things from this performance. He got beat for a 32-yard gain in the first half, and it was all about poor footwork. Griffith was flat-footed as the running back got to him, and then he lunged in an attempt to re-route. Those two mistakes allowed the back to smoke him downfield for the big gain.
*** Griffith had a bad missed tackle in space when playing contain, and he was also late getting over the top on the corner route I mentioned earlier with Simon. He had some good fills in the game as well, but he needs to play better, and he's capable of playing better.
*** I didn't notice much of DJ Brown, so I'll need to see more of him when I break down film. He did have one huge play early in the third quarter. The snap before Hamilton made his huge third quarter play, Brown jumped a running back seam route and knocked the ball loose. The back was uncovered up the seam on a mistake by Bauer, but Brown read it, closed quickly and delivered a physical hit to knock the ball out.
*** Junior corner TaRiq Bracy played a strong game against Florida State, just like he did two years ago. His downfield coverage was strong, he came up well in the run game and he had two big break ups in the game. Bracy broke on a third-down throw in the second quarter and broke it up. He also had great coverage in the end zone on Terry, forcing an incompletion, and also had a pick in the game.
*** The play of the other corners was more erratic.
*** Veteran Shaun Crawford had two huge plays in the game. The first was a great read on an in cut on third-down that allowed him to break up the pass. The second was making a great read on a quick out cut on a late fourth down play, which allowed Crawford to step in front of the route and pick it off, sealing the game.
*** Crawford also struggled in coverage at times. He bit and got beat by Terry for a 48-yard touchdown. I was a bit surprised Florida State didn't try to go back to this matchup. Crawford was beat again later in the game for what would have been a touchdown but Travis missed a wide open receiver.
*** Crawford's tackling was solid in the game for the most part, but he was a bit inconsistent getting off blocks.
*** Senior Nick McCloud had a great break up on a post route. On that snap he read the route perfectly and stayed over top of the wideout, but McCloud needs to go up and play the ball better and come down with the interception. He got beat for a 25-yard gain on a 4th-and-8 late in the game, and also got beat across the field on a drag that converted a 4th-and-8. McCloud was inconsistent with his tackling.
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