Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/621849
SHORT-HANDED DEFENSE STRUGGLES Heading into bowl preparations, the injury-riddled Notre Dame defense was finally getting back to health. Despite the loss of senior cornerback KeiVarae Russell — who was out for the season with a broken tibia — the Irish depth chart was looking stron- ger thanks to the return of senior nose guard Jarron Jones, who missed all 12 regular-season games due to a knee injury suffered in fall camp. By game time, the Irish defense found itself even more depleted. Three days before the Fiesta Bowl, Notre Dame announced that starting junior free safety Max Redfield had been sent home due to a violation of team rules. That same day, it was learned that junior cornerback Devin Butler — Russell's replacement — had suffered a broken foot and would miss the game. The morning of the game, freshman nose guard Jerry Tillery was also sus- pended for a violation of team rules. On the second defensive series of the OHIO STATE GAME NOTES NOTRE DAME VS. OHIO STATE QUARTER-BY-QUARTER COMPARISON Ohio State 1st Qtr. 2nd Qtr. 3rd Qtr. 4th Qtr. 1st Half 2nd Half Final Time of Possession 6:12 7:00 8:55 10:41 13:12 19:36 32:48 Third-Down Conversions 2-2 2-4 3-4 3-8 4-6 6-12 10-18 Fourth-Down Conversions 0-0 1-1 0-0 0-0 1-1 0-0 1-1 Average Field Position OSU-27 OSU-31 OSU-31 ND-48 OSU-29 OSU-40 OSU-35 Notre Dame 1st Qtr. 2nd Qtr. 3rd Qtr. 4th Qtr. 1st Half 2nd Half Final Time of Possession 8:48 8:00 6:05 4:19 16:48 10:24 27:12 Third-Down Conversions 0-3 3-5 1-3 1-2 3-8 2-5 5-13 Fourth-Down Conversions 0-0 1-1 0-0 0-0 1-1 0-0 1-1 Average Field Position ND-20 ND-30 ND-24 ND-12 ND-25 ND-17 ND-20 RED ZONE EFFICIENCY (INSIDE 20-YARD LINE) No Poss. TD FG Score Ohio State 7 4 3 0 Notre Dame 3 3 0 0 Junior linebacker Jaylon Smith suffered a sig- nificant knee injury during Ohio State's second offensive possession, further depleting an already struggling defensive unit. PHOTO BY BILL PANZICA BY ANDREW OWENS