Straight from the mouth of Notre Dame head coach Brian Kelly (and I couldn’t have said it any better myself), “We can’t go on the road and be tentative defensively to start a game.” Amen brother. Just think about how different Saturday night’s game might have ended had we started it the way we started the four previous games, with a three-and-out possession. But, sadly, that was not the case. How did Notre Dame’s defense perform against the Clemson Tigers on Saturday? Let’s take a look!

Clemson’s Hunter Renfrow (13) makes a catch over Notre Dame’s KeiVarae Russell (6). SBT Photo/ROBERT FRANKLIN

For the first time this season, the Notre Dame defense did not open up the game with a three-and-out series. In fact, the Notre Dame defense gave up two touchdowns in the first seven minutes of the game. Overall, though, the Fighting Irish defense did their job when it came to stopping the Clemson offense. (Coming into this game, Clemson and Notre Dame were ranked first and fifth, respectively nationally in forcing three-and-outs on defense. The Irish forced six three-and-outs on Saturday night while Clemson forced just two.) After permitting 104 yards on 11 plays during the first two drives of the game, the Notre Dame defense came alive and held the Tigers to 48 yards on 17 plays for the duration of the half, forcing four punts.

The Notre Dame defense held Clemson’s offense to 15 first downs, allowed 199 net yards of rushing and 97 net yard of passing, for a total of 296 yards. (In comparison, Clemson’s defense let Notre Dame’s offense get 116 net yards of rushing and 321 net yards of passing, for a total of 437 yards. Yes, over 400 yards of offensive production.) Clemson was only able to convert on third down 5-0f-15 times, and never once converted on fourth down. Cornerback Cole Luke made his second interception of the year on Saturday night, which is the sixth of his career. Luke has both of Notre Dame’s interceptions so far this season. Even though our defense had a slow start, when you compare the productivity of the Clemson offense to the productivity of the Notre Dame offense, ND’s offense was much more productive. But unfortunately, the turnovers by the Notre Dame offense undid everything the Fighting Irish defense was trying to do. One step forward and two steps back.

Notre Dame’s Jerry Tillery (99), left, and Jaylon Smith (9) bring down Clemson’s Deshaun Watson(4). SBT Photo/ROBERT FRANKLIN

Who were our top performers on defense? Max Redfield was on fire with 11 solo tackles and 3 assists, which ties his career high set against LSU in the 2014 Music City Bowl. Jaylon Smith had seven solo tackles and two assists, Isaac Rochell had four solo tackles and three assists, Romero Okwara had two solo tackles and three assists, freshman Jerry Tillery had four solo tackles, James Onwualu had four solo tackles, Elijah Shumate had three solo tackles and one assist, and KeiVarae Russell had three solo tackles. All-in-all, the defense had a pretty good day. But some things (mainly turnovers) just can’t be overcome.

Here are some of Brian Kelly’s thoughts on the defense (from his post game interview):

Q. Max Redfield had 14 tackles last night, looked pretty feisty at times. I wondered if you could talk about maybe the trials he’s been through and how you feel like he’s evolving this season?

Brian Kelly: “Had a great camp, outstanding camp. Really thought that at Texas he played well. Then obviously the broken hand set him back against Virginia. When we tried to play him, it was a major setback certainly, and then we get into Georgia Tech where we didn’t feel like we could play him. And then we’re trying to round him back into play, and then this past weekend probably played his best game since he’s been here at Notre Dame. So, you know, there’s a standard for him now on film for how he can play this game and hopefully we can continue on this track. Now we’ve got the film to show it against a very good competition against very good athletes, we can show him the kind of play that he’s capable of.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IRU3on9K6Io

I’m never happy about a loss, but the rebound that both our defense and offense made on Saturday night was quite impressive. If our defense can prevent any further flat starts going forward, I think we are in pretty good shape. They just can’t come out in with the lackluster attitude that they seemed to have at the beginning of the game last Saturday, and the offense has got to do its part and take care of the ball. Lets bring on Navy, add another win to our schedule, and secure our confidence heading into USC week!

Cheers & GO IRISH!

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Lisa

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Lisa Kelly is a multidimensional marketing professional. She has over two decades of marketing experience and earned a bachelor of business administration and marketing from the University of Notre Dame (Class of 1993 ... Siegfried Hall!). She is a Digital Publishing Manager by day and by night is writing her third book, a continuation of "Echoes From the End Zone: The Men We Became" and its sequel "The Men We Became: MORE Echoes From the End Zone." In 2012, Lisa was crowned the "Biggest Fan of the Big East" in a blogging and social media contest, representing Notre Dame.



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