Notre Dame Defense Is Good But Must Be Better
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00:00 [BLANK_AUDIO]
00:04 When I look at the defense and you say, hey, look, there's gonna have to be some
00:08 maybe some personnel changes, there's gonna have to be some philosophical changes.
00:13 In order to take that next step because when you look at this defense and
00:18 again, the response to the defense has been wild.
00:21 Notre Dame has a defensive coordinator who frustrates me at times.
00:28 But Notre Dame also has a defensive coordinator that called a game that
00:34 allowed his team to hold Ohio State to its lowest point total since,
00:39 I believe, 2017 when they lost to a playoff team in Oklahoma.
00:46 That held Ohio State to a pretty low point total,
00:51 I mean, yards total.
00:54 I mean, Ohio State had 366 yards of offense against Notre Dame.
00:59 It's their lowest of the season so far.
01:03 It's their lowest since the Northwestern game from last year, Iowa last year,
01:07 who had an elite defense held them to only six more yards.
01:11 Notre Dame held them to 5.6 yards per play.
01:13 They had 5.8 against Iowa last year.
01:16 They had 6.4 and 492 yards against Michigan last year, had a really good defense.
01:21 In 2021 when they lost to Michigan, they had 27 points and 458 yards and
01:26 5.8 yards per play against a really good Michigan defense.
01:31 And so when you look at what Ohio State did, I mean, look again,
01:36 Michigan, I'll give you all their totals against Michigan in the last however many
01:40 years, last year 23 points, 492 yards, 6.4 yards per play.
01:45 2021, 27 points, 458 yards, 5.8 yards per play.
01:49 2019, 56 points, 577 yards, 7.5 yards per play.
01:55 2018, 62 points, 567 yards, 8.5 yards per play.
02:01 2017, 31 points, 350 yards, 5.6 yards per play.
02:06 2016, 30 points, 330 yards, 4.0 yards per play.
02:11 So even in games where they held them to fewer yards,
02:15 Michigan still had a good defense, 42 points, 482 yards, 7.0 yards per play.
02:22 And I go on and on, on 42 points in 2014 against Michigan, 42 points in 2013 against
02:27 Michigan, 26 points against Michigan in 2012.
02:30 And then you go back to the 2011 year where the last time the Michigan beat Ohio State
02:34 prior to the most recent streak and still scored 34 points in that game.
02:39 And yet people are calling for this guy to be fired.
02:43 And it's a frustrating reaction to see that.
02:47 But at the same time, Notre Dame's defense and
02:52 Al Golden can't look in the mirror and say, we did our job.
02:55 We held Ohio State 17 points.
02:59 We held Ohio State to 366 yards.
03:01 We held Ohio State way under, season low in totals.
03:04 We held Ohio State to fewer points than they'd scored since 2017.
03:08 Can't do that.
03:09 Because at the end of the day, for all the good things that Al Golden and
03:13 that defense did, when the game was on the line and
03:17 they needed one more stop, they couldn't do it.
03:20 [BLANK_AUDIO]