Much of the outside talk coming into this game was about how the Notre Dame defense could not match up with the Georgia offense, but that proved out to be incredibly inaccurate. The Notre Dame defense played very well against the Bulldogs.

Notre Dame held Georgia to just 339 yards of offense, its third lowest of the last two seasons (LSU, Texas). The Fighting Irish also held the Bulldogs to over 100 yards below their season average on the ground, with Georgia rushing for 152 yards, which was also the Bulldogs third lowest total of the last two seasons.

Defensive coordinator Clark Lea had a top-notch game plan in the contest, using his teams quickness and athleticism to neutralize Georgia’s size and power. The Irish front four was very aggressive and spent a lot of the game forcing the Georgia linemen to stay on them, which allowed the linebackers to attack the ground game.

Lea relied on his secondary to make a lot of plays and limit the Georgia pass game, and for the most part they did just that.

Georgia tried to take several shots against Notre Dame with trick plays or downfield shots, but the Irish defense was well prepared for them, which shows good preparation and execution.

Georgia had just 18 first downs in the game, which tied for its lowest total of the last two seasons.

At the end of the game the defense was put in a situation where it needed to force a three-and-out to get the ball back to its own offense for a chance to win, and the Irish defense rose to the occasion, forcing a punt and giving the offense over two minutes to try and score.

Georgia had four scoring drives in the second half, but only one was a touchdown, which was a win for the defense and kept the game close enough for the Irish offense to do something.

The only thing keeping this grade from being higher was the inability of the defense to force any turnovers in the game. Grade: A-

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Khalid Kareem – Notre Dame’s best defensive end in this game, at least to me, was Kareem. While he didn’t have a great game rushing the passer, he was solid in that department. But I really felt Kareem was at his best against the Georgia ground game. Kareem was physical at the point of attack and set the edge effectively throughout the night.