Notre Dame Football: Top Storylines vs Virginia Tech

Defensive Improvements

The offense isn’t the only group getting dragged through the mud. After the first five games of the season, the Irish defense was holding strong as the deepest, most talented group on the field.

Holding Georgia to just 23 points and allowing 20 points or fewer to the other four opponents was a promising sign that as long as the offense could be efficient and find the end zone a few times a game, Notre Dame would walk away with a victory.

That defense we were so used to seemed to be continuing with business as usual during the first half of the USC game, holding the Trojans to just 3 points at the break.

Now I’m not sure what happened during that 15-minute break, but we have yet to see the same defense since. USC would score more points in the second half than Notre Dame had given up in a game all season in 24. Then they let Michigan hang almost half of a hundred on the scoreboard two weeks later.

All-in-all, that’s 72 points in the last two games after giving up just 74 in the five contests prior. To add insult to injury, Michigan ran up and down the field on Notre Dame, racking up 303 yards on the ground and averaging a ridiculous 5.3 yards per carry.

Whatever funk the defense is in can’t last much longer. With the questions and inconsistencies on the offensive side of the ball at the moment, poor defensive play added to that equals not good end results.

Guys like Khalid Kareem and Julian Okwara have to step up. The duo has combined for one sack since the Virginia game. Secondary and linebacker play has to be more consistent as well. Tackling and playing assignment football has been an issue recently, and the lack of turnovers forced doesn’t help either, with just one interception in the last three games.

With the veteran leadership and captains on defense, it needs to be personal to them that they’ve grossly under-performed lately. If this group has any pride or strong leadership, they will come out firing on all cylinders Saturday.