As Notre Dame prepares for Saturday night’s game against Purdue, the Irish are focused on fixing a run game that still isn’t producing the way they want. Beyond that, it’s all about fine-tuning. For the Boilermakers, plenty remains to be done, especially for head coach Barry Odom’s defense.
Odom said as much after his team lost to UCLA this past weekend, 52-38. The Boilermakers’ offense has been plenty good. It hasn’t scored fewer than 36 points in any game. It also hasn’t allowed fewer than 38 points in two games against FBS opponents.
Odom is coming under a bit of fire after bringing back defensive coordinator Kevin Kane. So far, that decision looks disastrous. The kind of disaster Notre Dame would love to add on to.
Last week, Purdue’s defense was especially lit up. It gave up 645 yards, allowed 20 explosive plays, and perhaps the item that has CJ Carr and company licking their chops: an 11-for-14 failure rate on preventing third-down conversions.
Purdue's defensive collapse creates ideal opening for Notre Dame football's rushing attack
“Any way you slice and dice it, if we don’t get that fixed, we have no chance defensively to be able to play winning football,” Odom said after the game.
Where Purdue struggled most on Saturday is where the Irish are hoping to fix things of their own. The Bruins ran for 386 yards and averaged 0.51 EPA on the ground. Considering an average EPA of 30 is considered elite, it’s clear that UCLA’s success on the ground was crushing, and that’s before looking at nearly 400 yards.
UCLA didn’t abandon the passing game to get those 386 yards. With 278 yards through the air, the Bruins posted a 0.61 EPA/Play. When the smoke cleared on Saturday’s game, UCLA’s offense ran a successful play 58% of the time. Purdue’s offense, also very good, was still successful less than half the time (48%).
That has, unfortunately, become the norm for Odom’s defense. The week before the high-scoring affair with UCLA, the Boilermakers’ defense didn’t do much better against Wake Forest. While the Demon Deacons didn’t run for nearly as many yards, nearly 60% of their offensive plays were successful. Rushing for 216 yards, they managed 0.33 EPA/Play, once again reaching “elite” status.
Compare that to Notre Dame’s running-game output so far this season. At 0.09 EPA/Play on the ground, the Irish haven’t been bad, but they also haven’t been great. Certainly not the elite level that both of Purdue’s FBS opponents hit.
Barry Odom has talked a lot about his staff needing to fix the defense. He’s certainly not wrong. The chances of that happening against Notre Dame are slim.
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