Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1509682
12 OCT. 28, 2023 BLUE & GOLD ILLUSTRATED UNDER THE DOME The Notre Dame offense put its defense in tough positions, from quick drives to turnovers to a futile fourth-and-11 attempt in its own territory, in its Week 6 loss at Louisville. That's why, despite allowing 33 points, Irish head coach Marcus Freeman thought his defense wasn't bad against the Cardinals. "I thought our defense battled, for the most part," Freeman said. "[The defensive players were] put in some bad situations late in the game, but for the most part, I thought they did a pretty good job." The exceptions, hence Freeman qualifying his phrase with "for the most part" twice, were two touchdown runs by Louisville redshirt junior running back Jawhar Jordan. Notre Dame defensive coordinator Al Golden said he was proud of the way they worked through those tough situations. Instead of growing resentful toward the offense or just quitting, Golden said, the Irish defense often held firm. But the second- and third-level tackling, Golden and Freeman agreed, needs to be better. "It didn't happen often, but the times that it happened, [the missed tackles] led to a touchdown," Freeman said. "We have to make sure that we continue to enhance the way we're tackling at the second and third level." "We've got to do a better job," Golden said. "We've just got to keep tack- ling, keep fitting it, keep working through it." On the first Louisville touchdown, a first-and-10 play from the Notre Dame 45-yard line with the 5:55 left in the third quarter and the game tied at 10, the Irish were in trouble from the start. Graduate student linebackers Jack Kiser and JD Bertrand blitzed off the left side, but no one beat their blocker and a huge hole opened up. Fellow graduate student linebacker Marist Liufau didn't flow far and/or quickly enough toward the hole, and the explosive Jordan ran right by him. If anything, over-pursuit from Liufau might have been better, because his help (Bertrand, who had been pushed back a couple yards) was on the inside. By the time Jordan got past Liufau, only one player — graduate student safety DJ Brown — had a chance at him. Jordan ran right around Brown and scored. Did Brown really have a shot, given Jordan's speed in the open field? Perhaps, but after watching the tape, it was a more difficult play than some might realize. The former Syracuse back deletes tackling angles quickly. About 10 minutes of game time later, Louisville had the ball at the Notre Dame 21-yard line, up by four points. Again, Jordan ran to the right, and again, a hole parted quickly. A double team moved graduate student de- fensive tackle Howard Cross III to his right, while the right tackle walled off senior vyper Jordan Botelho. Expecting a run, Brown rolled down into the box at the snap, but he rolled too far outside. He tried to adjust and make a diving effort, but Jordan hit the hole hard and blew past him. Deep safety Xavier Watts dove and missed as well, although his situation was similar to Brown's on the first touchdown. This time, as Brown would almost certainly be the first to say, it was a play Brown should have made. Both plays started to go wrong at the line of scrim- mage. Ultimately, they won the game for Louisville. "Obviously we try to get better at it every day in practice, so we have to translate that to the game," Watts said. "Those angles are really important, and staying vertical as much as you can. At the end of the day, it's just shoot- ing your shot, don't be too hesitant with it." Watts has been working on his aggressiveness as a tackler, feeling like he was too hesitant against Louisville. He didn't specifically mention the aforementioned score, but that was one of the plays on which it showed up. "I just need to shoot my shot and show I'm capable of what I've known to do, what I've done before," Watts said. "Just thinking too much out there." While those two touchdowns made the highlight reels, Golden pointed out that Notre Dame's tackling issues went beyond them. A few times earlier in the game, Golden said, the Irish missed tackles on screen passes that turned 2-yard gains into 8-yard gains. Golden won't let his players ignore mistakes that don't result in touch- downs, just as much as he'll call out the ones that do. "Sometimes, you miss a tackle earlier in the game and someone bails you out," Golden said. "You cannot, as a coach or as a standard on defense, say, 'Oh, that's OK, that's OK.' Because it's not OK." — Jack Soble 'It's Not OK': Notre Dame Addresses Tackling Issues Notre Dame defensive coordinator Al Golden — whose unit was averaging 9.4 missed tackles per game through Week 6, per Pro Football Focus — is still teaching the fundamentals and techniques of tackling well into October. PHOTO BY CHAD WEAVER