This season did not start out the way many believed it would for the Fighting Irish, especially their defense. After Al Golden departed for the NFL, Notre Dame and head coach Marcus Freeman hired Chris Ash to replace Golden as the defensive coordinator in South Bend. After the first three games, there was a bitterness around the defensive performance, and rightfully so. That being said, we've watched this defense grow over the course of the season. This unit is now playing their best football heading into the final three-game stretch in the regular season.
Over the last five games, Notre Dame's defense has playing at an exceptionally high level. I dove into the numbers in their games against Boise State, NC State, USC, Boston College and Navy and the statistics were extremely telling. Here's what Notre Dame's defense has done from a production standpoint in their last five games:
Since Purdue, two games before Boise State, Notre Dame hasn't allowed a single opponent to score over 24 points per game. Some of these team names might not jump off the page for some, but these were some extremely productive offenses. For reference, Boise State was averaging 38.5 points per game, 520.0 total yards of offense, 299.0 passing yards per game and 221 rushing yards per game.
NC State traveled to South Bend with an offense averaging 33.8 points per game, 447.7 total yards of offense, 282.3 passing yards and 165.3 rushing yards. USC was averaging 45.5 points per game, 552.3 total yards per game, 325.8 passing yards per game 226.5 rushing yards per game heading into their matchup with the Irish. Boston College was averaging 26.8 points per game, 371.0 total yards per game, 268.9 passing yards and 102.1 rushing yards per game. Are you seeing a pattern here?
The one opponent that's hard to evaluate amongst these teams in Navy due to their style of offense. Yes, Notre Dame's defense allowed 206 rushing yards to the Midshipmen last Saturday. Navy also entered their matchup averaging 317.3 rushing yards per game. Quarterback Blake Horvath unfortunately missed Saturday night's game, a big reason for their lull in passing number. However, the Irish defense still held this team to 22 total passing yards.
After looking at how Notre Dame's defense has played the last five games, I wanted to look at how they compared to some of the other top defenses in the country, or perceived top defenses in the country. I looked at Ohio State, Iowa, Indiana, Oregon and Texas and look at their defensive numbers over the last five games compared to Notre Dame. Here's what I found:
Let me start off by saying this is not me stating my case as to why I think Notre Dame's defense is better or worse than any of these defenses. These are some of the top units in the country; I'm simply stating that Notre Dame's defense has been playing like a top unit in the nation these last five games.
To add some context to these overall numbers, there's some things I'd like to point out. All schedules are not created equally, I'm sure we can all agree on that. In this stretch of five games, Notre Dame has played one ranked opponent (USC), Ohio State played one ranked opponent (Illinois), Indiana played one ranked opponent (Oregon), Iowa played two ranked opponents (Indiana and Oregon), Oregon played two ranked opponents (Indiana and Iowa, and no I'm not including Penn State) and Texas played two ranked opponents (Vanderbilt and Oklahoma).
Like we discussed earlier, Notre Dame's pass defense average is helped out by them playing Navy who threw for 22 yards last Saturday. Let's say, for argument sake, the Midshipmen passed for their average on the season last weekend and finished the game with 149 passing yards. Notre Dame's passing yards allowed average would still be 228.6, almost 75 yards below Texas' five-game average.
Notre Dame's rush defense is one of the best in the country. They allowed their first 100-yard rusher this past weekend and that was to be expected when playing the Navy triple-option. Oregon and Ohio State are the only teams on this list who haven't allowed a single 100-yard rusher in a game this season up to this point. But despite Notre Dame's defense allowing 206 rushing yards to Navy, they still only allow and average of 87.4 yards allowed. Coming into Navy, the Irish allowed an average of 57.8 rushing yards per game in their previous four games.
This defense needed a drastic turnaround if Notre Dame wished to turn their season around. In their seven-game winning streak, the Fighting Irish have beaten opponents by 21, 29, 10, 15 and 39 points. In that seven-game stretch, Purdue was the last opponent to score over 24 points and that was game number one in this win streak. This defense deserved the scrutiny it was under after the first three games; they also deserve a lot of praise for their spectacular turnaround over the last two months. This unit is running hot and at the right time of the season.
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