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Notre Dame Football: Grading the Irish defensive position groups vs. USF

By Connor McJunkin

ATHENS, GEORGIA - SEPTEMBER 21: Drew White #40 of the Notre Dame Fighting Irish reacts in the second half while playing the Georgia Bulldogs at Sanford Stadium on September 21, 2019 in Athens, Georgia. (Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images)
ATHENS, GEORGIA - SEPTEMBER 21: Drew White #40 of the Notre Dame Fighting Irish reacts in the second half while playing the Georgia Bulldogs at Sanford Stadium on September 21, 2019 in Athens, Georgia. (Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images) /
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(Photo by Dylan Buell/Getty Images) /

Defensive Line: B+

Both the offensive and defensive line out-manned and over-powered USF Saturday. Defensively, the front four did their jobs and made it virtually impossible for the Bulls to establish any type of run game.

Isaiah Foskey reminded us that he’s here to stay after turning in another solid performance. He tallied a sack on a 4th down fake punt attempt, tackle for loss, and 2 QB hurries. Freshman Alexander Ehrensberger notched his first career sack in a golden helmet and added another tackle for loss to that as well.

The unit had a combined 4.5 tackles for loss and accounted for the only two sacks of the day.

Outside of completely shutting down the run game, the defensive line did a nice job of collapsing the pocket all afternoon and forcing USF’s two mobile quarterbacks to move around and never get into a true rhythm.

Even though they did their job, it would be nice to see more harassment of the quarterback from this group. Daelin Hayes and Adetokunbo Ogundeji both had quiet days and as a whole, the group only had 3 quarterback hurries.

Mobile quarterbacks always make hurries and sacks more difficult, but even going back to the Duke game, the edge rush has not been noticeably impactful or disruptive.

As Notre Dame faces tougher competition and better offensive lines, the pass rush is going to have to improve as well in order to take the next step as a defense.

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