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Notre Dame Takes Out Miami (OH) Postgame - Defensive Reactions

Vince, Trevor, Shaun and Ryan break down the 28-3 win over Miami (OH). The IB crew breaks down the defensive side of the ball. Shop for Irish Breakdown gear at our online store: https://ibstore.irishbreakdown.com/  Join the Irish Breakdown premium message board: https://boards.irishbreakdown.com  Stay locked into Irish Breakdown for all the latest news and analysis about Notre Dame: https://www.irishbreakdown.com​ Subscribe to the Irish Breakdown podcast on iTunes: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/irish-breakdown/id1485286986 Like and follow Irish Breakdown on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/irishbreakdown Sign up for the FREE Irish Breakdown daily newsletter: https://www.subscribepage.com/irish-breakdown-newsletter Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Broadcast on:
22 Sep 2024
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Vince, Trevor, Shaun and Ryan break down the 28-3 win over Miami (OH). The IB crew breaks down the defensive side of the ball.

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[MUSIC] >> This episode is brought to you by Microsoft Azure. Turn your ideas into reality with an Azure free account. Get everything you need to develop apps across Cloud and hybrid environments, scale workloads, create Cloud-connected mobile experiences, and so much more. Discover what you can create with popular services free for 12 months. Learn more at azure.com. That's azure.com and sign up for a free account to start building in the Cloud today. [MUSIC] >> All right, boys, let's go ahead and jump into the defense. And your thoughts on the defense obviously gave up three points. And that is what most people care about at the end of the day. And at the end of the day, they're not wrong. Only giving up three points, that's fantastic. Total yards, they gave up 229 yards of total offense. 110 yards on the ground, 119 through the air. So Miami ended up being extremely balanced. They held Brett Gabbert to 40% completion on 14 of 35 passing. He had two interceptions, obviously not a great day for the younger Gabbert. And I think the most disturbing part of that entire thing, look, again, held into three points, that's fantastic. I think they did very, very well in the passing game. But 110 yards on the ground is not great based on who Miami was coming into this game. That was a little bit disturbing for me, but as a whole, happy with the defense. Give me your thoughts, we'll start with Trevor, give me your thoughts on the defense as a whole. And then we'll kind of break it down, position by position. Yeah, I feel very similar to how I feel about the offense. They did some really good things today. And there's a lot of areas for improvement for the defense. Passing game was really good. Notre Dame's secondary held Gabbert to, I think, four completions in the entire second half. And they were down. I mean, you can't ask your defensive secondary to do more than that. Ed Drescher's, I thought, played really well today. Boobakar is a dude, and I mean, he, I think at halftime he had four total tackles, two sacks, a force fumble, a QB hurry, and that was in two quarters. I mean, Boobakar is a real deal. We said at last show, like, you know, in previous years, Notre Dame loses a starting defensive end. And the guy coming in behind him is there's a lapse in production. You can make the argument that the production grew today with what Boobakar did in the first half. So, you know, it was cool to see. I know during the week in the press conference, they were kind of given their, they were kind of giving their praise to Jordan Batello and what he had done. And they were like, "Hey, man, we're going to finish this season out for you, and we're going to play well." And I thought the Ed Drescher's played really well today. Biggest issues for me is the interior of the defensive line today was rough. I mean, I mean, Vince, you brought it up. I mean, in the first half, you give up 75 rushing yards to a team that through two games had 64 total, which is tough. And second half, it got a little better because I think they only gave up 35 rushing yards in the second half. So I guess in comparison to where you were at in the first half, it got better. But, you know, defensively as a whole, I thought they played decent. I mean, they were flying around to the ball a little bit more than what they were in comparison to Northern Illinois. Drake Bowen had some awesome plays back-to-back, which was awesome to see he was getting fired up out there, which I think needs to be spread out across the board. And I needed to see it from him too, you know what I mean? I needed to see him kind of break out a little bit, and he kind of had a great series there where, you know, I think he defended that pass and then obviously made the sack on the very next play. I think that's big for him. Hopefully he can build on that as well. Didn't mean to cut you off. No, you're totally fine. I agree. It was awesome to see. And I hope that that energy starts to trickle back up to the captains and the fifth and six year seniors that, you know what I mean? I mean, this is a little nitpicky, but, I mean, Howard Cross gets a sack today and he stands up like he just gave up a five yard run and got trucked. You know, get excited. I get it. It's Miami of Ohio, but you just got a sack. That's good. That is a good thing. So, yeah, I mean, that was a little frustrating to see today. The interior of the defensive line has been, I mean, very, very inconsistent and underwhelming considering the hype that was coming in around these two defensive tackles that were coming back, right? The last thing that I'll say about the defense here and look, I've seen a lot of things on Twitter and in the chat about, well, yeah, Riley Leonard had a good game against Miami of Ohio, but what happens when he plays a power five opponent? But then on the flip side, it's like, guys, we only gave up three points today. I think we have to look at it through the same lens, right? I mean, yes, the defense only gave up three points to Miami of Ohio, like what our job is is to sit down and look and break down the areas that they need to get better for when they do play those really good power five level opponents, like who's coming to South Bend in seven days, right? So I think it has to be both on the same side. Yes, it's fantastic. The defense has only given up like what four touchdowns in three games. That's great. And I do agree that the defense is the strong point of this team right now and probably will be for the remainder of the season because they're built to do it. Well, we said that going in, right? Yeah, we all thought the offense was going to be better. I'm not even going to go down that road. But we all said the defense is elite, or they have the opportunity or the ability to be elite. Yeah, I don't know if they're reaching elite status, but they're definitely the strength of the team. Yeah, absolutely. And so that's just that's my piece and I guess my little rant for look, if we're going to look at this and well, we can't say Riley Leonard had a good game or the offense had a good game because it was Miami of Ohio and Purdue sucks, but then look at what the defense did against a team that sucks and say, well, the defense is fantastic, right? Its improvements need to be made on both sides. And the fact of the matter is, is Miami of Ohio had the worst ranked rushing offense in FBS. And you gave it 100 yards to them like, yeah, there were times where they were just moving the ball at will. And it was starting to look very similar to what Northern Illinois was doing to Notre Dame, just getting three to four yards of push off the line of scrimmage before anybody was even touching a running back, which we have to look at as an area of concern for the opponents Notre Dame has moving forward. So defense as a whole played well, the passing game played fantastic and I'm never going to gash a defense for only giving up three points. That's great. And ideally, they do the same thing next week, but I'm here to tell you, if the interior of the defensive line continues to get pushed back the way that they did today against Miami of Ohio, Notre Dame's defense is not only giving up three points next Saturday. That's just the fact of the matter. Prize picks is America's number one daily fantasy sports app with over five million active members. Prize picks is the easiest and most exciting way to play daily fantasy sports. 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The defensive backfield is probably going to be able to still stand up and make plays, but you have to put them in third and long and take advantage of their quarterback who's very inconsistent in those situations, right? If you allow them to come in and run the ball and go to play action, hey, they were running option last year. What a quarterback that's about as slow as any quarterback I've ever seen. But once again, that was him scouting Notre Dame. They're crashing from the backside, we can run this and get to the outside with Jordan and Gerendo and they did it successfully. Now this year, I'm sure he's going to look at the film and have something in store for that offense, right? So I think the defense, the defensive line, definitely. I want to point to a Don Schuler and that big mistake, but that goes to the youngsters playing with excitement and swag that, dude, they're the swag. Why are our sophomores the swag for this defense? Why? It's just, you know, it's befuddling. Like you said, how across he gets a sack and the next thing you know, it's like, oh, ho, ho, right? I love Donny behind us, love the kid, love the effort, but look, hey, you get pushed consistently. You got pushed back today when you were in the game. Riley Mills, I'm like, I'm sorry, when are we going to get a signature, Riley? Yeah, man. When? Four games in. When did we get one? And you're seeing here? Just one. We're also five or five years in, then it's not, uh, well, no, that's fair. It's like a search party for 99, like who, like, where are you, man? Like, I just, it's just like you're taking up space. So I don't know if the return, I don't know how many snaps gave her a Rubio is next week if he in returns next week, maybe 15 to 20. And I'm sure they could be impactful. He could be in the run game. Very impactful if he can come back and, you know, and be ready to go. Like I don't want, I don't want an 80% Rubio, just because he's a bigger body and all that. Like, yeah, if you're ready, if he's ready to go, he's 100%, even 95 or whatever, you know, those percentages are so silly when you ask somebody what they are. But like, if, if he's ready to go, I think he could be extremely impactful and they can very much use him up the middle on run downs, no doubt about it. And I think double art, you can take it from here. I think what we see consistently from the interior, the defensive line, which goes to the coaching, they don't get off blocks, man. They don't get off blocks, especially against, you know, the zone concept. They just, they push back, move sideways, don't penetrate, don't use their quickness to get cross face, like Miami, Ohio is doing to our offensive line. They just sit there and do the walks with the offensive lineman. And that's not your thing, because you're not a big defensive front. You have to play to your strength, and it just seems like they're not able to shed blocks and make plays. And then that puts the young line backwards in a position to have to make plays three, four, five yards down the field. Yeah. Well, I would say it's twofold defensively for me. I think every game that I'm kind of watched now, I'm just, I kind of come away with two takeaways. One is that I think that the secondary is an elite group, like, why would you ever throw the ball at Xavier Watts or Benjamin Morrison? Like, why would you honestly do that? But like, then my answer is, because Christian Gray is a budding superstar at the other corner, man, like he could be a, he is on a, on course to being a just fantastic football player, Christian Gray. Don Schuller obviously had some big time moments. He makes the one mental mistake on the sideline that I characterized as youth, but I was happy actually to see Marcus Freeman kind of be outward with like his displeasure with that moment. Because like, there's just a lot of times where I'm just like, go trim and like, I want to see more emotion. And like, I just want to see a little bit more emotion on the sideline sometimes. So I think the secondary is fantastic. I mean, it truly is like, at some point, we're going to have to have the conversation of like, we're not throwing it 20. We can't throw it 29. Who are we going to throw at anymore? Because even like Jordan Clark's played very solidly in the nickel for the most part too, right? So like, at some point, you're just going to become like, I don't know where to throw at anymore defensively. The interior guys have just kind of, I mean, like Howard Cross had a sack in this game, right? But he was just like, hit or miss Riley Mills has just kind of been MIA most of the season so far. I wrote an article at AZ Sports early this week. And guys, I'm at this point with this interior defensive line that I think is just under performed as a whole. Jason Onye is playing very good football. He is. So I'm not here to say, start 47 over one of those two, but I am here to say if the production doesn't pick up, 47 needs to play more. He needs to start eating into some of those reps and he needs to be on the field a whole lot more. You know, maybe Armel Mucum starts getting some reps. Maybe obviously he's called my Gabriel coming back. Maybe Sean Savilano is a guy that can help down the stretch at some point. I don't know what the answer is, but interior defensive line does need to pick up a little bit, right? So if 47 is ready to go and it's ready to eat into more reps, I welcome that. The defensive line, I think on the edges has been very good on the interior. It's been pretty underwhelming a lot of the time. And I think the linebackers. Again, I just think the linebackers are suffering from a little bit of being young, you know, for the most part, but I think it was great to see Drake Bowen have a couple of big plays. I think it was great to see just kind of Kingston over the last couple of weeks have some plays as well. So it's a youth movement outside of Jack Kaiser. It's going to take some time, but just overall, just like the quick hitters are secondary elite, interior defensive line, linebacker plate needs to get better because you cannot give up 75 yards in the first half to a team that was averaging 30 yards a game rushing and less than two yards a carry and give up five yards a pop. That's how you want to translate to the next games. Louisville is going to run the football. They're going to run the football a lot. So if you had trouble like that against Miami, Ohio, if we're doing like the transitive property of like, Hey, how's that going to look like against Louisville? I think it'll look different, but you have to get ready to stop the run because Jeff Brom and that Louisville attack is going to come to run the football and I don't think they're going to test 20 and zero very much. So you need to be ready to play up front to win that football game. Yeah, there's no doubt about it. Look, it bothers me a little bit when I hear Al Golden kind of make mention of the fact that, you know, run defense is kind of not an afterthought, but like that's not what he's like super concerned about and it kind of takes care of itself. You know, things like that that bothers me because, you know, we're going to be in or Notre Dame is going to be in trouble at some point when a team is just going to run it down their throat and work the clock. And I mean, look, it's what happened at the end of the game for NIU, right? They didn't throw the ball to, you know, move the ball to 30 yards if they needed to move it. They ran the ball and took five and a half minutes off the clock. They controlled it. They controlled the game and they controlled the defense in that moment. And that's just what worries me about the future. Look, the defense overall played played well. They did. They played well. They did. They did all of that. I totally understand it. I get it. Especially in the second half, the first half gave way too many yards on the ground and a better team that's not Miami, Ohio. It could take advantage of that. So that's what worries me about the future to be perfectly honest with you. Again, we're nitpicking a good defense. There's no doubt about it. But if you want to be an elite defense, you've got to shore up the run game. Yeah. I agree with you a hundred percent. I Notre Dame, obviously the strength of their defense is their secondary, but you need to put your defense in a position to where offenses start playing into the hands of the strength of your defense. And if a team is able to just gouge you for four or five yards at a time, it's very easy to not go to the passing game, right? Like if I'm an offensive coordinator game-planning against Al Golden in that squad, I'm not throwing the ball unless I absolutely have to. Because what Notre Dame's defense has shown in the last, you know, really the last three out of four games is they can move the ball on you if you run. Especially if you throw in a pre-snap motion behind it, that those are a lot of issues that need cleaned up. So overall, I will say, I think that this is a good spot to be in if we're nitpicking something of a defense that just gave up three points, right? But there are a lot of holes. You can't just look at it in a vacuum and say, well, they gave up three points. The defense played perfect today because I just don't think that's fair. It's not fair. And when you analyze a game, it's not just all sunshine and lollipops like there. I have yet, look, Trevor, Ryan, you know, Sean, everybody, I don't think a perfect game has ever been played. I'll just say that. The perfect game has never been played in football, but there's always something that you can do better. There's always something that you can nitpick. And it just so happens that right now Notre Dame needs to do a better job of defending the run that they need to get better at it. They just absolutely need to get better at it. So it's something that they can get better at. I think the, like you said, you know, the return of Gabriel Rubio can definitely help with that. We'll see if he's available against Louisville because I can guarantee you that coach Brom at Louisville is a very, very good offensive mind. He will watch Notre Dame's film and he will figure out a way to move the ball on this defense. So you have to then Al Golden counter with, okay, this is what he sees. So now we need to counter and be better and stop them. You know what I mean? So that's kind of where I'm at with the defense. Look, this defense is really, really good. They're really good. And especially when a team tries to throw the football, they're really good. And as long as that's the case, Notre Dame's going to be in every single game. They're going to be in every game. I just want them to be a little bit better. I'm sorry. Light it. Hey, Irish breakdown listeners, it's Urban Meyer. This fall, the game changes. Join me. Heisman Trophy winner Mark Ingram and broadcaster Rob Stone as we bring you a new perspective on football and culture every week. We'll be joined by the biggest name in sports and talk about everything inside and outside of the lines. Let us guide you through a new era of college football. Watch triple option on YouTube or listen on Apple podcast, Spotify or wherever you get podcasts. Hey, Irish breakdown listeners, it's Matt Liner. I've got a podcast called Throwbacks with actor J for R. Well, we'll be talking all things sports, but also so much more. We'll give you the behind the scenes stories from my days as the quarterback on an iconic college football team to Jerry's days as a star on an iconic TV series. So subscribe to throwbacks on YouTube, Apple podcast, Spotify or wherever you get podcasts. Many of the comments about the defense fellas, I mean, again, like just kind of some quick characterization. I think that we have found two young superstars, if we're kind of like being positive for a second. We know who Benjamin Morrison is. We know who Xavier Watts is. Those are the two best players on your defense right now, in my opinion. But we have found the two next studs that we're going to be talking about all next offseason. Like four or five interceptions this year, if you can catch the football, but like either way, a lot of past breakups so far, he had his first interception on the deep ball today, which is a fantastic play. And guys, we have it has been too long since we had a true difference maker on the edge in the sense of being able to win an outside shoulder with speed, flexibility and explosiveness. And that is Boobacar Treyori. He is going to be great. I mean, I'm not trying to get too hyperbolic with him, but he's got three sacks in the last two years. And I think that that kid is going to be a stud like a kid that we look back on in a couple of years and say like, wow, flipping him from BC, who was he originally committed to like that was a major W for this Notre Dame football team. Because he is the Viper that I think Notre Dame has been missing for several years. And that's not even including what Bryce Young are going to bring. That's not even including what guys like Logan Thomas are going to be long term. Notre Dame has found their Viper of the future. And there, I don't want to ever say there's a silver lining to a player getting hurt because Jordan, but Telho was playing good football, man. But it's not a bad thing that we get to see number five play on the edge right now for Notre Dame. He is playing at a high level. He's going to make some mistakes, but then he's going to make offensive tackles look silly in a lot of reps. So we have found two young superstars, Christian Gray, Boobacar Treyori. That is the massive victory. That's not even including a Don Schuller, who's been very good. It's not even, that's not even counting. King Stivelli Amalasa, who has had some incredible highs. It's not even counting Drake Bowen, who had a couple incredible flash plays today. But we have two guys that I think all next offseason, when we're talking about all Americans, we're probably going to be talking from the NFL draft perspective as well. Christian Gray, Boobacar Treyori, great to see them play in big, big plays today. Yeah, Ryan, I think you hit the nail on the head, man. It's easy to talk about Ben Morrison and Xavier Watts, but my biggest thing going into this season was who was going to join them, right? Who was going to be the next guy, the next man in essentially. And it's really exciting to look at guys like Boobacar and look at guys like Kingston Villiamalasa, guys that are coming onto the scene at a very young age who have a lot of ball left to be played in South Bend. So that's when I mean like we're nitpicking the things, like it's because Notre Dame has the talent to nip a lot of those things in the butt, right? Which is a really good spot to be in. And if they can clean up those things with how young they are across the board, because the talent shows, right? The talent, the athleticism, the speed and the length all show, and it's really exciting. So not going to beat it too much to death, but Ryan, I agree with you 100%. I love the young guys, some of these veterans need to step up, like that's at the bottom line for me as far as what this defense is for this year, not even in just in this game, but I think throughout the four games that we've had a chance to see, defense has been good. Defense has been good. They could be a heck of a lot better if some of the captains, some of the fifth years, some of the guys that have been doing this for a while, right? We were all excited when two particular defensive linemen decided to come back this year. We were very, very excited. I don't know if that excitement level is right there right now because of the play of these guys right now, right? I mean, Cross and Mills have been, Mills, obviously, he flashed today. I don't know, again, I want to go back and watch the film. He flashed. I don't know if he was good the entire game. Mills is absent. The good news, the all 22 for Notre Dame is already out, baby. I just checked a few minutes ago. It's already out. He's not messing around. I like that. I like that, not messing around. So we're going to have to go back and look, but at the end of the day, some of these older guys are going to have to step up and play, especially on the front. I mean, that's really what it comes down to. If they do that, then this defense is going to be even better and we should be good to go defensively. So anybody specific, you guys have kind of touched on it, but like anybody that you would give like a game ball to or whatever on the defensive side of the ball. Christian Gray, for me, man, I mean, because it's hard because I think Boobakar had a great game, obviously, and he was super just impressive, but like for me, I really came out of this game, like I'm almost ready to tell the national landscape for a second. And I'm actually kind of going to probably write an article about this. Benjamin Morrison's great, but Christian Gray is heading towards elite very quickly, man. He has been stellar through four games. He made obviously that big pass breakup at the end against Texas A&M. He should have had another interception last week against Purdue where he broke on a pass. He should have had two tonight. Christian Gray is I think he's going to be a superstar. I truly do. I think Boobakar is another guy that could be in that status as well. But for me, Christian Gray, I thought was tremendous today, just a fantastic football player. Trevor? You got anybody? Yeah, mine's going to go to Boobakar for the sole purpose of it. I feel like it's just been so long since Notre Dame has had that game changer on the edge. I mean, Isaiah Foski, probably from a pass rushing standpoint, Shivante Jean Baptiste played really well last year for what we thought he was going to be when he came to South Bend. But Boobakar played a heck of a game today, man. And I think Notre Dame as a whole, I think they finished with four sacks on the game today. If I'm not mistaken, and Boobakar had two of them in the first half. So let the big doggy, let him pin his ears back and get after the quarterback, man. I'm excited to see where he goes, but like I said before, sometimes when you have a player like Jordan Batella, who's playing really, really good football, a guy like him gets hurt. Obviously every head coach preaches next man in, but I think Notre Dame's defense is at a spot where they found something in Boobakar, and it's going to be really exciting to watch him. I'll take a different route, and I'll go with an actual veteran. I'll go with Xavier Watts just to be different than you guys, because you guys are spot on. But you know what? Xavier Watts had two pass breakups. He had a force fumble. I think he had, you know, three tackles that were all solos, you know, why would you ever throw at him? I just 100% they were literally it was, it was like a third down, I think in the second half. And it was, it was, I think everyone was, I think it was a single high look, and I think shoulder was at single high, or maybe it was, it was Rod Heard. I can't remember who it was, but it was Xavier Watts on the slots about like eight yards off or something. And they threw it, and I think it was just, I think it was an errand throw, but like, I'm just watching him just like Watts blanketed the dude on my mind, I'm just like, if, if it's a big third down play, because it was still within strikeiness, I think it was like 21 to three at that point, or something like that, maybe 14 to three, I'm just like, why would you throw it zero? Like that just doesn't make sense, it's just not smart. It's not. Yeah. No, completely agree. And you know what? He's come to play every single game. Like he has come to play every single game. So when I say that certain, you know, veterans aren't playing like they should be, I am not talking about zero, that is for sure, because Xavier Watts comes to play every single week. Another guy that's kind of flown under the radar that I just wanted to give a quick shout out to real quick. I think Jordan Clark, especially for his size, is a really good tackler man. I mean, he's able to make tackles in space coverage. It's, you know, a little bit of work there, but I mean, he noted him was looking for somebody to kind of fill that Thomas Harper escrow. And I think Jordan Clark for being a guy that's 510, a Buck 82 is a really short tackler. I mean, he had a, he had a really good open field tackle today on a tight end. That was like 6, 4, 6, 5, 2, 15 and I just think that goes under the radar sometimes. I think he's a guy that I don't know if he's ever going to make the big flashy play. I mean, I think it was central Michigan last year where Thomas Harper came out screaming off the edge on a blitz and de-cleated the central Michigan quarterback. I don't know if Jordan Clark's ever going to be that guy, but he is a really short tackler in space. Give him a little shout out. I like it. I like it from him today. I also, I also wanted to chat, say that a Christian graded BB hands. You know what's so frustrating about it though? He makes that sick one handed catch against pits. Yes. That he makes this one down the field kind of over the shoulder like that's not an easy catch. No. He drops the one where he just drives on the football where it's like basically in your chest is a very frustrating defensive back oriented thing that just kind of, oh man, if he had hands, dude, he would be leading the country. He'd have like four or five picks right now if he can catch at least he's not letting up plays though. As long as he's, you know, he's knocking the football down, pants breakups, that's cool or whatever. But like, yeah, man, give me those hands. Like, I'm about to text Sean the Graham be like, Hey, we need to get him a Jug's machine at the, at the house during the off season, man. Like he needs to catch a hundred passes a day, a hundred balls, a hundred balls a day. Doesn't matter. All over the place. Just, he's got to catch them. But the defensive secondary is becoming, you know, the quote unquote no fly zone, right? You can, who are you going to throw at? You're going to throw at Ben Morrison, you're going to throw at Xavier Watts, you're going to throw at Christian Gray, probably going to throw Jordan Clark, I guess, I guess, or Don Schuller, but a Don Schuller played pretty well in past defense too to be a man. That's one. And I highlight the one play, my favorite play of the day for a Don Schuller. So again, I think it was man across the board, it may have been, but at least it looked, it appeared like man, Adon was on the number two receiver to his side. And in Miami, Ohio ran on that side and outside verts, and they ran like an inside post, right? So Adon was playing the post. And what basically gathered was trying to do was make sure he goes with the post and hit the outside vertical brother. He was making this look like man. It may have been man. And he just did his own thing. I'm not a hundred percent sure, but he sold it like he was playing the post. And then he broke back to the sideline on a 45 and he had this huge pass breakup coming over top. I was like, dude, that is a like, yeah, you need range to be able to make that play. But that's football intelligence, man, like Adon Schuller is a sharp cat football wise. It was a tremendous play. Yeah. No, it was awesome. I think it was like, I don't know if it was covered to man or what it was, but it was awesome. I think the corners today were playing a little bit over two. Was that covered two? It might have been. I'm not sure, but I know it was weird. The corners on the outside today were playing a little bit of a trail technique, which I thought was interesting because Christian Gray on his interception was, I mean, they brought it up on the broadcast and they said that he was like beat, but his closing speed was great and he was able to catch up and make a play. But no, I know exactly what play you're talking about because Ben Morrison was covering the vertical route and kind of let him go by. So it looked like he was sitting in his own, but still ran with him and Adon came over and made an awesome play. Yeah. That was awesome. I mean, this secondary is shaping up to be one of the best in the country. Right? It might be the best. I mean, it might be the best. It might be the best. I'm not trying to be too hyperbolic, but like as the teams I've seen, I mean, like Alabama's secondary, I think, is really good with like Zabian Brown and Keon Saab. Obviously Ohio State has probably the most talent from a depth perspective, but I don't know of any that I would just let him say are playing better than Notre Dame's right now. I mean, when you kind of talk about the fact that Christian Gray has taken a step that he has Adon's shoulder has taken a step he has, I think they're at least in the conversation with the Ohio States of the world. I think they're at least in that combo right now. So I will say that it's a darn good thing that the secondary and the defense as a whole is playing as well as they are, right? Overall, you know, points given up and all that stuff, right? Because that's all people want to focus on is, you know, points given up. But with the way this defense is playing, it is allowing the offense to do what they're doing at a snail's pace, frankly, but it's keeping Notre Dame in every single game, right? They are keeping Notre Dame in every single game. And of course, while we all sit with bated breath hoping that the offense, you know, breaks out and does something special at some point, the one constant has been the defense as a whole, right? We can nitpick and we can talk about things that they need to clean up and things that they need to do better, no doubt about it. But at the same time as a whole, this defense, it will keep Notre Dame in every single game that it plays, in my opinion. And I think you guys can all agree with that, that the defense is keeping Notre Dame in every single game and allowing the offense to matriculate at a pace that we're not super enthusiastic about. But they're at least in, they have the opportunity to win every single game. So, you know, I'm happy that Notre Dame has this defense. That's for sure. Yeah, the secondary in four games, they've given up 100 yards, 198 yards against Northern Illinois. And one of those plays was like an 84 yard touchdown. And then 124 against Purdue and 119 today. The secondary is real. Yeah. Yes they are. There's no doubt about it. Real quick, Sean, defense, before we move on to the next part, we just kind of broke down the defense. Just want to get your thoughts on, you know, defense. Yeah, before I jumped out, I'll just talk about the defense. Okay. Yeah. I can remember. So, you know, that was, that was my focal point, the defense line kind of piggybacking with Trevor had pointed out and just working on that as they go into the Louisville game, which, like I said, Jeff Romm is definitely going to challenge schematically their eyes, their discipline. Yes. They're a sign being a Simon sound, standing in lane and he's going to make you play them vertically and horizontal. So, yo, get locked in, get prepped, take your medicine from this game and let's go. Agreed. Agreed. So that's going to do it for our defensive talk for today, make sure you hit that like button, that subscribe button, that notification bell, share with your family and friends. And of course, jump on the boards, boards.isbreakdown.com because that's where all the good stuff is. There's going to be film breakdowns from this game. There's going to be obviously commentary and back and forth. And everybody's going to talk about this as it was, you know, because it was a loss to them apparently. So I'm sure that'll be on the board as well. And then tomorrow night, seven o'clock upon for the review. And that's when Brian will give it opportunity to give his first thoughts on the game. And then we will break down the film as well and we will revisit the keys to keys to victory and all of that as well. So make sure you stay locked in because ours breakdown is always going to bring it. [MUSIC] [MUSIC] [MUSIC] [MUSIC] [MUSIC] [MUSIC] [MUSIC] [MUSIC] When you need meal time inspiration, it's worth shopping king supers for thousands of appetizing ingredients that inspire countless mouthwatering meals. 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Vince, Trevor, Shaun and Ryan break down the 28-3 win over Miami (OH). The IB crew breaks down the defensive side of the ball. Shop for Irish Breakdown gear at our online store: https://ibstore.irishbreakdown.com/  Join the Irish Breakdown premium message board: https://boards.irishbreakdown.com  Stay locked into Irish Breakdown for all the latest news and analysis about Notre Dame: https://www.irishbreakdown.com​ Subscribe to the Irish Breakdown podcast on iTunes: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/irish-breakdown/id1485286986 Like and follow Irish Breakdown on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/irishbreakdown Sign up for the FREE Irish Breakdown daily newsletter: https://www.subscribepage.com/irish-breakdown-newsletter Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices