The Notre Dame Fighting Irish are now 1-2 on the season after picking up their first win in 2025 over in-state rival, the Purdue Boilermakers. All eyes were on the Irish defense yesterday, hoping to see some level of improvement from Chris Ash's unit. Some boxes were checked while others remain a major question mark that will continue to unfold, good or bad, as the season progresses. It was a tail of two halves; Purdue posted 23 offensive points in the first half while only scoring seven points in the second half. This unit will have to find a way to sustain fast starts moving forward as they prepare to talk on Arkansas, Boise State, NC State and USC here over the next month. As always, here are the key takeaways from Notre Dame's defense from yesterday's 56-30 victory over Purdue.
Improved Tackling And Run Game Dominance
One of the few bright spots for Notre Dame's defense this season has been their ability to stop the run. Last night, Purdue rushed for 76 yards on 28 carries as a team. Lead running back Devin Mockobee was held to 16 total rushing yards on 12 carries. Their lead rusher didn't enter the game until late in the second half; back up quarterback Malachi Singleton finished the night with 26 rushing yards on five carries. One of the reason for the uptick in defensive run game efficiency was their ability to tackle better in the box.
Through the first two games of the season, Notre Dame's defense missed a combined 21 tackles. Yesterday, they only missed two as a team. Players tackled well in space and were also able to generate more negative plays with 5.0 tackles for a loss and 2.0 sacks. They will have to continue to improve, but they took a good step in the right direction. Tackling consistency and creating negative plays will have to become the norm for Ash's unit as the season progresses.
A Passive Coverage Structure Remains
One of the more unfortunate aspects of Notre Dame's 56-30 win over Purdue was the structure of the Irish pass defense. Despite major woes in the first two games, philosophically and schematically, the coverage structure remained the same. It's still extremely passive, and this isn't a conversation contrasting man coverage and zone coverage. Regardless of the play call, defensive backs aren't getting hands on receivers in zone to reroute pass catchers and aren't playing aggressive enough when they go man.
This has been the third game in a row we've seen passive safety play from a veteran safety not attacking the football or the man while the ball is in the air. Purdue quarterback Ryan Browne had over 200 passing yards in the first half. Thankfully, the Fighting Irish offense put the game out of reach taking a lot of the pressure off the defense. Moving forward, the back end of the Notre Dame defense will have to figure out it's identity. Their play has been way too passive and if it continues, quarterbacks like Taylen Green, CJ Bailey, Jayden Maiava, Dylan Lonergan and Eli Holstein will put up big numbers and take advantage of this secondary.
Inconsistent Pass Rush Continues
There was slight improvement from the Notre Dame pass rush yesterday afternoon, but it was minimal. They weren't able to generate much pressure on Browne in the first half which led to him throwing for over 200 yards in the first two quarters. At the end of the day, Notre Dame's defense was able to generate 19 pressures and five hits plus sacks on the quarterback. That being said, USC the week before had 31 pressures and 12 hits plus sacks against the same Purdue offensive line. Once again, we waited until the third quarter for Ash to dial up a pressure involving more than four players. Once that happened, Browne looked uncomfortable in the pocket and offensive drives immediately began to stall. Moving forward, Ash will have to be able to find ways to get after opposing quarterbacks.
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