How Notre Dame put together encouraging performance on defense during Week 0

Notre Dame’s offense is justifiably getting a lot of the attention after the team’s 42-3 win over Navy during Week 0. Even so, On3’s J.D. PicKell showed the Fighting Irish’s defense some love too based on how they handled the triple-option over in Dublin.

PicKell applauded Notre Dame’s defense during his recap of what took place in Aviva Stadium this weekend. It’s a task and an accomplishment that no one should take lightly considering just how much attention to detail is required to do what they did.

“You still had to handle that triple-option offense if you’re the Notre Dame defense. That is much easier said than done,” said PicKell. “This triple option, man? It is, to be 100% honest, for a defense, especially for, like, an edge defender, a linebacker, if you’re playing anywhere in that front seven? It’s kind of monotonous. It’s kind of a head game.”

“You have to consistently read your keys. And a lot of these plays? Whether it’s a pull pitch, whether it’s a dive, whether the quarterback is reversing and doing play action? It’s going to look pretty similar,” PicKell continued. “It takes an enormous amount of discipline from this Notre Dame defense to consistently read their keys, trust their eyes, and then trigger accordingly.”

Over 87% of Navy’s offensive plays were rushes of different varieties within the triple-option. Even so, those attempts only led to 126 yards of offense on the ground. For those doing the math at home, that’s just barely over 2.6 yards per carry. Those great numbers also go along with only a dozen first downs allowed and no touchdowns.

The effort left PicKell pretty impressed with Notre Dame’s defense. That’s especially so considering how much better the unit was as they settled into the game.

“They flew all over the field. I was really encouraged by just the effort and the mentality of this defense flying around, getting to the football. And, also, early on, the final score doesn’t really indicate it, but Navy kind of had some mojo going. Navy kind of had some juice, you had a couple of gashes for this Navy offense,” PicKell noted. “Notre Dame held their water, got a stop on downs, and were rolling. So good for Notre Dame being able handle their business there.”

All eyes are usually going to go to the 42 points considering what Sam Hartman did in his debut. Still, for how they managed their own challenge, PicKell was just as content with the three they allowed on defense plus the other statistical categories from Notre Dame that helped them win across the pond.