Game Observations: Notre Dame Defense Falters In Fiesta Bowl Loss

Notre Dame dominated Oklahoma State in the first half but the second half was a different story. Here are my observations from the defensive side of the ball

This was a tough one to swallow for sure. No way to sugar coat this loss by Notre Dame. I will go through my observations here on defense and by position group.

Defensive Line

*** I thought the defensive line played a solid first half. They disrupted what Oklahoma State wanted to do and harassed Spence Sanders the entire half. There were very few throws where was not at least pressured if not outright hit.

*** Isaiah Foskey played a great game in my opinion. I thought he got after the passer well and ended the game with five solo tackles, a sack, and a forced fumble. 

*** Myron Tagovailoa-Amosa had some really solid pressures in this game and ended the night with five tackles as well.

*** The standout up the middle was Jaysen Ademilola. I thought he got really good pressure up the middle, especially in the first half. They had to double team him most of the second half and that is when OK State started having success on the ground.

Linebackers

*** The linebacker play was hit or miss most of the night. Drew White had a few really nice stuffs in the middle of the defense while JD Bertrand racked up 9 tackles including two of the five tackles for loss by Notre Dame. He was not infallible though as he missed a few open field tackles as well as some well timed blitzes. He just has to do a better job of wrapping up when he is coming in full speed.

*** I thought this was not one of Jack Kiser's best games. Too many times he missed open field tackles that a linebacker has to make. 

Safeties

*** Safety play as a whole was about average. Ramon Henderson made a nice play breaking on a deep ball in the first half. While watching the game live nothing about Houston Griffith's game stood out to me either positively or negatively.

*** Xavier Watts was beat in coverage at least one time but that is to be expected to a degree considering how green he is back there. DJ Brown had a rough game in the tackling category. I wrote down "2 missed tackle" way too many times for my liking.

*** I do not think the Oklahoma State offensive game plan was to test the safeties too much or if it was it quickly changed because of what I am about to write about the corner position.

Corners

*** Once again a Notre Dame opponent did not really test Cam Hart in this game. He was very lonely on his side of the field and even Ryan Barnes got a little first half playing time at that spot since nothing was really happening over there.

*** Tariq Bracy did a decent job at nickel today. They did not stress him a whole lot because again, they did not need to. He ended the day with two solo tackles.

*** The good news for Clarence Lewis is he led the team in tackles with 10. The bad news is that he led the team in tackles with 10. Lewis was getting absolutely worked in this game and it did not matter if it was stretching the field, crossing patters, man, or zone. Bottom line is it was not Lewis's day out in the desert. Oklahoma State recognized this and continued to stress the sophomore all day long. Oklahoma State ended the night with just shy of 400 yards passing and Lewis was involved in a lot of that. I am curious as to why a switch wasn't made during the game and hopefully we will get an answer to that at some point in the future.

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