Yesterday afternoon, inside of Notre Dame Stadium, the Fighting Irish picked up their first win of the season against in-state rival, the Purdue Boilermakers. The offense took the day, putting up 49 points on the board and added a 100-yard kick return on special teams by stud running back Jadarian Price. The defense took some steps in the right direction but still have things it will have to improve up. Yesterday after the win, head coach Marcus Freeman talked through the ups and downs of their 56-30 victory over Purdue and what they'll have to continue working on as they prepare to take on the Arkansas Razorbacks.
You can watch the full post game press conference here:
Here are some of Freeman's main quotes from last night's post game press conference:
Freeman On The Overall Play Of The Defense
"Again, as you look at the first half, it's the explosive plays we have to continue to try to decrease," Freeman explained. "As I watched them during the break, I can't remember every single one, but it was a marriage of the front and coverage. There's times, in coverage when you're playing man or playing zone, if the quarterback can step up and scramble and extend plays, somebody's going to be open. When we do pressure and bring five, we can't allow the quarterback to sit back there, especially in man coverage, somebody's going to be coming open. We have to do a better job of marrying up our coverage and our front and make sure if we're going to play coverage, four guys are going to have to get some type of pressure on the quarterback."
Freeman On The Offense Putting The Game Away
"Our offensive is explosive man," Freeman said. "They can get big plays if they need to, but they're able to control the clock and control the line of scrimmage; we really did a good job of perimeter blocking today. That's detrimental to a defense. I know the explosive plays are detrimental, you don't want to give up big play. But if a team can just run the ball and gain ten, four, six and twelve that's tough on a defense. For our offense to be able to do that and hand the ball to the official is something that I'm really proud of. They put a lot of work into it and we're going to have to be able to do that if we want to have success this season."
Freeman On Notre Dame's Defensive Identity
"I think we've always been a defense that wants to be attacking and have the ability to stop the run," Freeman stated. "I've always said that we have to be able to play man coverage but know that zone has to be something in our package. That's just who we are and what I believe in. We're going to play with great fundamentals, that's important. Is that still our core identity? Absolutely. We will never stray away from that but we have to continue to work at it and work at it and the outcome will be better. They're getting better. We're getting better. The outcome will be better as long as we're committed to putting the right work in."
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