Hey Horka: How would you evaluate Marcus Freeman’s Notre Dame defense?
Notre Dame is playing its best defense of the season in the final month of the season.
The Fighting Irish's two best games in terms of total yards allowed have come in the last two weeks. The Irish held Navy to less than 200 total yards and Virginia to less than 300. Notre Dame hadn't held an opponent under 300 all year until it played Navy.
Obviously, the circumstances were unique in each of those games. Navy's triple option offense isn't what it once was; the talent isn't there this year, and the Midshipmen are enduring one of their worst seasons of the last couple decades. Virginia played without junior quarterback Brennan Armstrong, who has thrown for 395.2 yards per game this season.
Those facts don't change this one: Notre Dame has been stout defensively of late. So let's spend this week's Hey Horka message board mailbag breaking down defensive coordinator Marcus Freeman’s first 10 games on the job in South Bend.
What do you think of Marcus Freeman’s schemes and coaching so far? It’s hard to argue with results but it’s hard to tell how legit they are due to quality of opponent. — RyanB28
Let's start with the most recent game and move backward.
Notre Dame played Virginia brilliantly considering the circumstances. The Irish gave the Cavaliers a 4-3 look for most of the night. True freshman quarterback on the other side of the line of scrimmage? Load the line, apply pressure and dominate up front. That's what Notre Dame did, and the result was seven sacks, a 2.7 yards per carry average and a completion percentage below 60.
There's no better test of understanding assignments and executing a scheme than going against Navy. Notre Dame aced it. Again, it wasn't the most talented Navy team Notre Dame has faced. But the Irish made it look all the more inferior by completely shutting the Midshipmen down. That reflects well on Freeman's preparation and teachings.
The North Carolina game was Notre Dame's worst of the year defensively. Not even close. The Irish looked like deer in headlights trying to tackle Tar Heels quarterback Sam Howell. Howell has been good this season, but not as good as the Irish made him look that night. Freeman also called some questionable drives schematically. It wasn't a banner game.
Inviting USC to run made more sense than inviting North Carolina to do it. Notre Dame was gashed on the ground at times against the Trojans and wide receiver Drake London tore up the Irish secondary, but it didn't amount to many points. Good defenses aren't always about how many yards they allow. They're about managing the flow of games and understanding what's acceptable to allow and when it's time to tighten up and clamp down.
"Bend don't break" might be cliche and a scary way to play for fans, but it's a pretty appropriate way to describe Freeman's style. Notre Dame was aggressive to the point of being susceptible to allowing big plays. That's what we saw in the first half of the season. Freeman has dialed that back a tad and been more calculated, and that's why we've seen less turnovers forced but an overall more consistent stacking of performances.
I'm not going to dissect every game from the first half of the season with it's own paragraph. But I will add this: Freeman's defense was better in the first half of the season than many gave him credit for. Or didn't give him credit for.
Notre Dame held a Purdue passing offense that produced 536 yards against Michigan State and 386 yards against Ohio State to 291. Notre Dame dominated a Wisconsin team that prides itself on running the ball. Virginia Tech was only in a position to win that game because of a pick-six and a Notre Dame offense that had to magically come alive in the final four minutes. The Irish played well defensively in Blacksburg outside of losing contain on mobile quarterbacks a few times.
Notre Dame's defense isn't a must-watch unit. It has made mistakes. Freeman has too. But the early returns are promising. Freeman is only 10 games into this thing. Notre Dame is recruiting really well defensively. There are reasons to believe the Notre Dame defense will get better in the coming years under Freeman.
Why isn’t our offense explosive? Scheme or talent? — bsmitty08
Flipping to the other side of the ball, let's look at the Notre Dame offense. Not from as much of an in-depth perspective but from a more subjective one. I'd say it's a mixture of both scheme and talent.
From a personnel point of view, graduate student Jack Coan doesn't exactly fit the description of a prolific quarterback. The season opener at Florida State was fool's gold. Notre Dame chucked the ball down the field because it had to. It couldn't run the ball. Now Notre Dame can run the ball, so why not do it?
The best player on Notre Dame's offense is junior running back Kyren Williams. The offense has revolved around him ever since the offensive line has allowed it to be that way. As awesome as Williams is, an offense predicated on running the ball is seldom going to be sexy and flashy.
Williams makes it look that way sometimes. Rewatch the 22-yard touchdown run against Virginia. The 20-yard score against Navy. The 91-yard highlight reel of a lifetime against North Carolina. Go all the way back to the 51-yard touchdown dash against Purdue. Those are explosive plays, but they're only going to happen once a game at best.
Let's also answer this question based on Notre Dame's last game alone. Sophomore tight end Michael Mayer caught the most passes (seven) for the Irish. No Notre Dame wide receiver had more than three catches. Notre Dame is thin at the receiver position. When a tight end — again, as good as Mayer is — is the go-to guy, that's not sexy. That's not flashy.
All that said, the Notre Dame offense has still been efficient. It's been effective. Coan has thrown 16 touchdowns and five interceptions. He has completed 66.2% of his passes. Has Notre Dame been incredibly explosive with him at the helm? No, not quite. But Notre Dame has been pretty good recently. And that's got the team at 9-1 with a chance to sneak into the College Football Playoff.
Maybe the offense gets more explosive with Tyler Buchner running the show as a sophomore. If he can get the ball downfield accurately and consistently, he has already shown he can be a playmaker as a ball carrier. For what this Notre Dame offense has right now, though, offensive coordinator Tommy Rees hasn't been able to open it up. And that's fine. Notre Dame is playing well anyway.
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