Notre Dame Football: Defensive position grades against Louisville

Notre Dame football had questions on defense ahead of its opening game against Louisville. How did the Irish defense hold up against the Cardinals?

It looked like it was going to be a long night for the defense for the Notre Dame football team. As it turns out, the Irish were able to overcome a slow start on the defensive side of the ball to shut down the Cardinals.

After scoring on the first two drives of the game, the Cardinals were unable to muster enough to score another touchdown for the rest of the game.

Defensive line: B

Usually, one of the best things one can say about a defensive line is that you didn’t necessarily notice them. When you have two of the best defensive ends in college football, that’s not entirely true.

Louisville did what they could to try to protect quarterback Jawon Pass when it came to moving the pocket and keeping the Irish defense off guard with misdirection and option plays.

The Irish defensive line wasn’t great, but it wasn’t bad, either. Certainly, it’s fair to say that the defensive line got better as the game went on, but a lack of production early on is why this grade isn’t better.

Linebacker: C-

This might even be a generous grade for the linebackers, but there was enough improvement throughout the game for me to feel as if there is room for some optimism.

The Irish rotated multiple linebackers through the defense. Early, the position struggled mightily, but as the game wore on, the Irish linebackers settled in much better.  Will the Irish be able to improve on this grade moving forward? I’d hope so.

Defensive secondary: A-

Without a doubt, this group was the most effective group for the Irish this time around. Alohi Gilman delivered a couple hard hits, freshman Kyle Hamilton looked like a seasoned veteran, and Shaun Crawford made some timely tackles… oh, and he stayed healthy (at least for now).

One of the biggest plays of the game was when Gilman stripped Juwan Pass on a third down late in the first half. After a review, it was determined that Gilman clearly recovered the ball after ripping it out before Pass was down. This allowed the Irish to cash in late in second quarter and take momentum into halftime. From there, the Irish never looked back.