Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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least 20 yards, resulting in a total of 167 yards. On Temple's remaining 56 plays, it accumulated just 128 yards. It was that shutdown performance that ultimately allowed the Irish to come out victorious, at least from a defensive standpoint. The Irish were able to largely con- trol the Temple ground game, hold- ing the Owls to just 107 yards on 32 carries. Temple junior quarterback P.J. Walker was also inefficient throwing the football, completing a season-low 43.3-percent of his passes. The strong play of the Irish defen- sive line fueled that success. From the outset, it was apparent that Notre Dame's goal was to unleash its defen- sive line on the Temple backfield, and the Irish front seven responded with a dominating performance. "Coach [Keith] Gilmore told us ear- lier in the week that it's time to let it go," senior defensive tackle Sheldon Day said of the decision to allow the line to attack early and often. "Each day we came to practice, we focused on letting it go and just flying around. "It builds up momentum and builds up our self-esteem. As a defensive line, we are trying to control them up front and if we do a good job we are going to celebrate." The Irish line did plenty of cel- ebrating, often after bringing down a Temple running back or Walker in the backfield. Notre Dame's linemen finished the night with a combined 21 tackles, seven tackles for loss, two sacks, a forced fumble and a pair of passes broken up. The line pressured Walker on Tem- ple's final play, forcing the junior quar- terback to make an off-balance throw that was picked off by senior corner- back KeiVarae Russell. "I think we're getting better each week, and we want to be the most dominant defensive line in the coun- try," Day said. "We're working our way towards that." SHELDON DAY SHINES BRIGHTEST Senior defensive end Romeo Ok- wara had the best statistical night for the Irish, finishing with career highs of three tackles for loss and two sacks. His counterpart, junior defensive end Isaac Rochell, also racked up six tack- les and controlled the edge of the line to his side. As good as the two ends played, the performance of senior captain Shel- don Day truly drove the Irish defense. There were a number of snaps early in the game where Day was used to drop into coverage, and the defensive tackle actually came up with a pass broken MISCELLANEOUS NOTES • Senior safety Elijah Shumate was ejected in the second half of Notre Dame's victory over Temple, which means he will have to sit out the first half of the matchup against Pittsburgh Nov. 7. • With sophomore quarterback DeShone Kizer's 143-yard rushing performance, Notre Dame has registered a 100-yard rusher in six of its eight games in 2015. • The Irish became the first team to score on its opening possession against Temple this season. • Outside of limiting Texas to just three points in the season opener, Temple's 20 points were the fewest by an Irish opponent.