Three observations of the New Mexico defense after breaking down film, two matchups to watch for the Irish offense against the Lobos defense and a key to victory for the Notre Dame.
New Mexico also has a new defensive coordinator, with former safeties coach Jordan Peterson taking over as the play-caller.
It was a rough start for Peterson and the Lobo defense, which gave up 31 points and 558 yards of offense in the season-opening victory over Sam Houston State. After breaking down film, I have some thoughts on the New Mexico defense and what the Irish might face.
THREE OBSERVATIONS
1. New Mexico is going to throw a lot at the Irish offense – There are two reasons that I feel confident that we’ll see New Mexico be very aggressive and very multiple with its method of attack against Notre Dame.
One is that this is what New Mexico wants to be, and that was evident on film. The Lobos used multiple fronts, an array of blitz packages and their linebackers moved around quite a bit. Two, New Mexico’s coaches are smart enough to know they cannot matchup with the Irish offense.
The only chance New Mexico has at keeping this game competitive is by forcing Notre Dame to make mistakes. Obviously that includes turnovers, but it also means forcing incompletions on early downs, creating negatives in the run game on early downs and repeating what Louisville accomplished on third-and-short situations.
For Notre Dame, picking up the various pressures is imperative. That means the line must be mentally and technically on top of its game, quarterback Ian Book must make good pre and post-snap decisions, and offensive coordinator Chip Long needs to find ways to exploit the Lobo defense.
New Mexico had an impressive 30 quarterback pressures against Sam Houston State and it racked up 33 run stops. Notre Dame had just 21 pressures and 27 stops against Louisville. The rub, however, is that being aggressive makes the defense prone to giving up more big plays, which also happened in the victory over Sam Houston State.
