Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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www.BLUEANDGOLD.com OCT. 30, 2021 7 UNDER THE DOME corner, hopeful either Houston Griffith or DJ Brown would be a senior-year bloomer at safety and wanted someone else to push his way into the rotation. That represented the ideal scenario. What has transpired over six games is a lot closer to best case than worst. Hamilton remains omnipresent. Hart has been a standout. Lewis hasn't been bump free, but has still kept the starting job he filched last year. Bracy has re- bounded from his second-half struggles last year. He is the primary slot corner and has played on the outside as well. Griffith and Brown rotate at strong safety. Brown has put a benching versus Toledo behind him and rated as Notre Dame's highest-graded defensive player at the midseason mark, per Pro Football Focus. Sophomore cornerback Ramon Henderson has been quiet in his 57 de- fensive snaps, but he built enough eq- uity to earn the dime back job. No one will confuse the Irish's sec- ondary with a lights-out unit. It's good enough and deep enough, though, to give Notre Dame more flexibility with third-down packages. Furthermore, the Irish's pass-efficiency defense has jumped from 34th nationally a year ago to 18th this season. They are allowing 6.5 yards per pass attempt (33rd), down from 7.1 last year. "Marcus is getting his players to de- velop and we're adding some layers to that defense," Kelly said after the 41-13 win over Wisconsin Sept. 25. The "dollar" package with three de- fensive linemen, meanwhile, has al- lowed three first downs on 11 third- down rush attempts, with three stuffs. Through the air, Notre Dame opponents have completed 10 of 29 passes for two touchdowns and three interceptions when facing the Irish's dollar package on third down. No matter the defensive scheme, Notre Dame has been disruptive on third down. The Irish rank 20th nation- ally in third-down quarterback pres- sures (31). That bodes well for an uptick in third-down sacks (5.0, 78th). Their five third-down interceptions are tied for second most in the FBS. Finally, Notre Dame's short-yardage defense borders on impenetrable. The Irish have allowed just nine first downs on 21 third-down plays where the offense needed three or fewer yards to convert. The Irish's defense also ranks 16th in opponent power success rate (54.6 percent), which measures an offense's ability to convert on third- and fourth-and-short run plays. None of this is stopping Kelly from pushing the defense for even more on third down — by cutting the mistakes from minimal to nonexistent. "It's really about situational aware- ness," Kelly said. "We had a scramble against Virginia Tech where we were plastering on receivers when the quar- terback is across the line of scrim- mage. We have to be so much better than that. Even if you're in those third- down dime, dollar and nickel packages, there has to be better awareness where the sticks are, getting the ball on the ground, making tackles. "If we can get smarter there, we can be better." ✦ Shop NDBookstore.com, FREE Pick Up In Store. SCAN TO SHOP