All week heading into Notre Dame's matchup with Virginia Tech, the players and Head Coach Brian Kelly preached physicality.
"We weren't able to control the line of scrimmage, so it's a physicality that we have to get back and we've had it," Kelly said. "We did not have it [against Michigan], and for us to improve our lot as it relates to winning football games, we have to be able to bring a physicality to our play, and we'll be working on that this week."
After rewatching the defense play on film yesterday, it's safe to say that they found it.
The entire defense, from the ends to the cornerbacks, played much more physical, which helps explain why the Irish held the Hokies to just 13 points on offense.
Originally, these grades were broken down into "Standout," "Room for Improvement" and "Overall Position Group." Due to how poorly Saturday night went, I've decided to look borrow from Clint Eastwood's playbook and go with "The Good," "The Bad and The Ugly" and "Overall Position Group Grade."
The logic behind this is two-fold. One, it can often be hard to pick a "standout" when the team performs poorly (i.e. against Michigan). Two, since the entire team struggled, it often makes more sense to evaluate their play as a position group and not rag on one individual player/college kid.
By looking at the Pro Football Focus grade for each regular defensive rotation player and the number of snaps they played, the defense averaged a 68.9 rating. This seems fair, as the side of the ball was certainly the strength of the team.
Defense Overall PFF Grade: 70.2 - "Above Average"
DEFENSIVE LINE
There's a lot to like about how the defensive line played against Virginia Tech, even if the raw statistics don't show a marked improvement.
Across the board, all of the linemen were more physical and didn't get pushed around as they did the week before.
The Good
At least to me, this play exemplifies an improved physicality more than almost any other. The offensive lineman attempts to cut block Kurt Hinish (41) and take him out of the play. Hinish easily sheds the block, makes the correct read on the handoff and immediately takes the running back down for a loss.
A few times, Notre Dame defensive linemen were also able to make plays while still engaged with a block.
