Notre Dame Football: Key Defensive Matchups vs. Duke

Notre Dame football is back on the road this week following their narrow victory over Virginia Tech. The Irish are heading down to Durham, North Carolina to take on the Duke Blue Devils. Here are some of the key matchups to look for when Notre Dame is on defense.

The Notre Dame football defense had a solid game against Virginia Tech last week. Although the Hokies had 20 points on the scoreboard, only 13 of those points were surrendered by the Irish defense.

The defense forced eight punts and two turnovers in the game. The most notable of those forced punts was the stop that gave Notre Dame the ball back with a little over three minutes left on the game clock. Also of note were two key stops on possessions following Notre Dame turnovers.

While some players on the Irish defense have not quite lived up to preseason expectations, the defense as a whole has. If their defense plays well, Notre Dame will have a chance to win the game. Here are the key defensive matchups they will need to win this weekend in Durham.

Quentin Harris vs. Notre Dame Defensive Line

Notre Dame’s defensive front did a good job limiting the rushing yards of Quincy Patterson last weekend. The Virginia Tech quarterback had 77 yards rushing on 19 carries in that game. The Irish defense will face another dual-threat quarterback this week in Duke’s Quentin Harris.

Harris enters the game with 1,500 passing yards, 13 passing touchdowns, and seven interceptions. He has also rushed for 488 yards (excluding sack yards) and six touchdowns.

After a solid start to the season, Harris’ performance has taken a bit of a dip. In his last four games, he has only completed 50 percent of his passes and thrown five interceptions.

As I mentioned in last week’s defensive matchups article, this Notre Dame defense has faced their fair share of dual-threat quarterbacks this season. That experience should help them on Saturday.

The lack of sacks from the Irish defensive linemen this season has been surprising. In Notre Dame’s last two games, only two sacks have come from defensive linemen.

The Duke offensive line has surrendered 11 sacks in their last four games — including five against North Carolina. Notre Dame will need their defensive line to come up with at least two sacks this weekend if they want to leave Durham with a victory.

Deon Jackson vs. Notre Dame Linebackers

Aside from his final play, a jump pass from the two yard line that was intercepted, the game against North Carolina was arguably Jackson’s best performance of the season. He had 91 yards rushing on 19 carries and also caught a pass for 19 yards.

Jackson has yet to eclipse 100 yards rushing in a single game this season. That is in part due to the usage of quarterback Quentin Harris in the Duke run game. However, Jackson has had 19 carries or more in four games.

Statistically, Notre Dame’s run defense has been average this season. The Irish are allowing four yards per carry through eight games.

They defended the run much better last weekend, when they held the Hokies to just 2.8 yards per carry. Clark Lea and the Notre Dame defense will need that strong performance carry over into this week when they face a dynamic Duke rushing attack.

Duke Receivers vs. Notre Dame Secondary

If you were to rank the wide receiver groups of Notre Dame’s 2019 opponents, Duke would probably fall in the bottom half of that list.

To be fair, Notre Dame has faced some very talented receiver groups this year. At the same time, the Blue Devils do not have the type of talent at that position that scares opposing defenses.

Duke’s leading receiver through seven games is Jalon Calhoun. The speedy true freshman played quarterback in high school (trick play alert!), but he was recruited by David Cutcliffe to play wide receiver.

Calhoun has 37 catches for 294 yards and three touchdowns through eight games this season. He quickly became one of Quentin Harris’ favorite targets on the Blue Devil offense.

Second on the team in receptions is tight end Noah Grey. The 6′ 4” tight end is a mainstay in the 2019 Duke offense. He has caught 32 passes for 238 yards and two touchdowns.

Another receiver the Notre Dame secondary will have to keep an eye on is Jake Bobo. At 6′ 4” and 200 pounds, he is hard to miss. Bobo has only appeared in three games this season, but he has the potential to play a significant role in this offense. He had four catches for 51 yards in their game against UNC two weeks ago.