Notre Dame Football: 5 takeaways from the 2021 Blue-Gold Game
Notre Dame Football: 5 takeaways from the 2021 Blue-Gold Game
Our First Look at the Marcus Freeman-Led Defense
Kyle Hamilton and Drew White didn’t even play, but the Irish still looked absolutely dominant on defense. This is where it’s important to think of the game as a whole as a positive for the defense and not a negative for the offense. We even got to see what it meant to play with a wide-open defense that lets players make plays.
It means letting players play in one-on-one matchups. We saw this throughout the Blue-Gold Game. The secondary was put in man coverage and allowed to use their skills to disrupt the timing on offense. Even when the offense’s timing was fine, they still had to win those one-on-one matchups, which they typically didn’t.
Expect this to be the way Notre Dame plays all season long, with some variation to fit for the scheme.
The defense showed extreme depth on the defensive line. That’s very important in the modern game. After all, offenses move at much quicker speeds than ever before, which means they run more plays in a game. This makes a defense more tired throughout the game, particularly on the line. By the fourth quarter, teams are gassed. Having a rotation you can trust allows you to keep your defensive line fresh all game long.
Jack Kiser led the way defensively with eight tackles, as his prominence on the defense continues to rise. All in all, the defense is ahead of the offense from the Spring Game. You just hope they don’t have to carry the team’s weight all season long.