Notre Dame Defensive Line Must Shine Against Miami

Notre Dame has its biggest game of the season on Saturday when it takes on the No. 1 ranked Miami Hurricanes. Miami comes into this game with arguably the best offense in the country, and it's certainly the top scoring offense in all of college football. The Fighting Irish defense will need to be on top of its game, especially the defensive line.

While much of the focus going into this game is on Miami's elite skill, and its matchup against Notre Dame's talented secondary, the ultimate key for this game is the play of the Irish defensive line. If there's a vulnerable area for the Hurricanes it would be up front. Miami's offensive line has been solid, but it hasn't been a dominant group and has been vulnerable to a good pass rush. 

In its last four games, Miami has allowed 66 pressures, 10 sacks and 11 hits on the quarterback, according to Pro Football Focus. It's no coincidence that in the two games where quarterback Darian Mensah was hit the most are the two games where he's had his lowest completion rate and QB rating numbers (Clemson, Florida State). In the matchup against Florida State, Miami had just 28 points at the end of regulation and needed overtime to beat a Seminole team that is currently 3-5. Wake Forest also had some success getting to Mensah, hitting him three times and racking up 14 pressures in a game where he averaged just 6.5 yards per attempt. 

In two of Miami's three competitive games this season (North Carolina, Wake Forest), the Hurricane run game didn't light it up either. Miami averaged just 150 yards on the ground and just 4.48 yards per carry. That's still a solid number, but it's not the strong balance we've seen in some of their other more impressive wins.

Slowing down the run game and pressuring Mensah are how Notre Dame has a shot to slow down the Hurricane offense. The key to making that happen is the Irish defensive line being unleashed, and then that unit playing at a high level. 

We saw some of that early in the year, as the Irish defensive line started off playing at a high level. In the first four games, Notre Dame's defensive line racked 52 total pressures, including 20 sacks/hits on the quarterback (PFF). In the last four games, the Notre Dame defensive line has registered just 23 pressures and 7 sacks/hits on the QB. 

There are reasons why the production has fallen off a cliff, but there is no need to pile onto the subpar job that Chris Ash has done in recent weeks, including the defense giving up at least 20 points to two of the last three P4 teams they played. The focus isn't on what changed to stamp out the aggressiveness and production from the front four. The focus is that it needs to be adjusted against the Hurricanes.

Ash needs to design a game plan and call a game that allows Charlie Partridge's talented unit to thrive. Early in the season that unit was unleashed, and we saw ends Boubacar Traore and Bryce Young dominate. That duo combined for 26 pressures, 5.5 sacks and five more hits on the quarterback. In the last four games that pair has just 11 pressures, one sack and just three hits on the quarterback. That duo looking like the one we saw against Purdue, when they combined for 12 pressures, 2.5 sacks and two QB hits, would go a long way towards Notre Dame being able to harass Mensah enough to slow down the Miami offense.

There is no doubt that Notre Dame has the talent up front, the depth and the position coaching for this unit to dominate this game. Now we need to see a game plan that relies on them and the players to execute that game plan, and lead the Irish to a victory over the No. 1 team.

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