Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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UNDER THE DOME major statistical categories. The Irish are 11th in passing efficiency and total defense, ninth in rushing defense and second in scoring defense. The most impressive part of those numbers is that Bob Diaco's defense Notre Dame's defense ranks among the top 11 teams in the country in four CHARTING THE IRISH isn't padding its numbers against weaker competition. Notre Dame has played four teams that were ranked in the Associated Press top 25 at the time of the game — that's more than any other team in the country. In those games, the Irish have equaled or bettered most of their defensive stat aver- ages for the season. AGAINST TOP 25 TEAMS Top 25 Category Overall 9.9 197.75 Passing Yards 201.5 0 Passing TD 5 93.25 Rushing Yards 95.25 1 Rushing TD 1 Points 8.8 4.3 Yards Per Play 4.5 those came from Oklahoma quarterback Landry Jones' 356 yards. Jones was one of the few top individual performers to beat his season average against the Irish. Of all opposing players that ended October in the top 25 nation- ally of a statistical category, only Jones and a pair of kick returners helped themselves against Notre Dame. The only stat that sees a slight increase is passing yards. Nearly half of Player (Blue — Against ND; Green — Average) 14. Denard Robinson 15. Le'Veon Bell 19. Stepfan Taylor Player (Blue — Against ND; Green — Average) 15. Landry Jones 0 AGAINST TOP 25 PLAYERS RUSHING YARDS 77 PASSING YARDS 287.7 Player (Blue — Against ND; Green — Average) 2. Justin Brown 11. Drew Terrell PUNT RETURN YARDS 24 27.1 Player (Blue — Against ND; Green — Average) 10. Dennis Norfleet 24. Akeem Hunt KICK RETURN YARDS 61.6 64 73.6 87 43.4 356 90 102 113.0 118.5 117.9