In part two of the Upon Further Review breakdown, Bryan and Vince go back over the keys to victory for the Notre Dame defense against Purdue and evaluate how the Irish did in each area.
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Just go to indeed.com/bluewire right now and support our show by saying that you heard about Indeed on this podcast, that's indeed.com/bluewire, terms and conditions apply. Indeed to hire, you need Indeed. Let's go over our keys to victory for the defense, Brian, and we've got some good ones here, and we already talked about the defense a little bit, but I love diving into this a little bit more. So your first key to victory must be good up front. And what you wrote was Notre Dame's defensive line was a strength of the team last season, and it was supposed to be a strength in 2024 as well. Through two games, the Irish defensive line has been a disappointment. There have been some flashes, and Jordan Batello has been a bright spot. But overall, this group hasn't lived up to expectations that obviously must change against this veteran Purdue offensive line. It's also a line with a bit more size than Northern Illinois, and that line pushed the Irish around last weekend. Yeah. I mean, bottom line, they got pushed around last weekend, and it was honestly, I can't think of a better word, but it was disturbing. Like watching that over and over and over in that game, harking back to what you just said about this is supposed to be the strength of the defense, and it wasn't. Like they were getting pushed around, and it just wasn't good. And so they had to fix that going into this. Yeah. It didn't start well. Like first series, I was actually, first couple series, I was actually a little bit concerned. Like, I think we're going to see a little bit more of the same. I think it was first or second play of the game, Riley Leonard, Riley Mills gets driven off like six yards off the ball, Howard Kross didn't do a whole lot early. I thought RJ Oban was telegraphing his release a little bit, but I felt like when they got once the game wore on, I thought they started play better and better and better. Yeah. I still didn't think that Riley Mills or Howard Kross played very well. I didn't think either of them really did. They didn't play poorly. Riley had some poor moments. He also had some decent moments. I didn't think Howard Kross didn't have any moments that I saw as bad as Riley Mills bad moments, but like neither of them really did anything. They combined for two pressures in the game. They combined for one total stop. They combined for I think one tackle, although I felt Howard Kross should have been credited with a tackle on a play. He wasn't credited with a tackle on, but still two tackles from your, I mean, I didn't think you're all American stepped up and played better. And that's that's a concern for me. It is a concern. Because they haven't done a whole lot so far this year, neither of them, but I should say a captain and an all American because Riley Mills is an all American. They have to play better. And so that's a concern. And that's why this isn't a plus. The reason that I considered a plus is because the rest of the D line played pretty well. And I felt as the game kind of got a couple series in, they got better. I thought I thought early on, I mean, Jordan, what stinks about Jordan, but the whole getting hurt is because he was playing so well, not just in the first two games. But as I mentioned, I thought he's been a bright spot, but he was playing there. He got, he got hurt at the eight minute mark of the second quarter and he already had four tackles and a sack and another pressure by that point. He was abusing the tackles. I mean, it was, I mean, they couldn't keep up with him. His first step was really, really good on Saturday and he was really starting to make a name for himself because look, up to this point, he's been a little disappointing in his Notre Dame career. And it's like he took that personally this off season and then into this season. And it was very clear what he was trying to do and what he was able to do. And that is just, I mean, if he is indeed out for the season and going off the field on a card is not a great sign, obviously we won't know anything specific until tomorrow. I'll actually have an update on the injuries of something I heard today on the board. Okay. Intel on the board. But that's only going to be for on the board. We won't talk about it here. Right. So if he's out for the season based on what I saw in the game of him getting carted off, right? That that's just a that it's a devastating injury for the defense, obviously, but it's also a devastating injury for him individually. I mean, he was just, he was in the process of having a just a coming out year for him. And it was, he was playing with motor and consistent, he was setting the edge effectively. Yes. I mean, he was playing at a very high level. I thought RJ opened, struggled a little bit based on, you know, just early in the game. I thought, actually it was funny, a buddy just texted me. He's like, who's number nine? I was like, that's RJ, but he goes, he was really active in the third quarter. And I was like, he was like, there was a play in the third quarter where Buba car and him both crashed the edge and Buba car took out the run. It was a read zone. It takes out the running back, the quarterback keeps it and then RJ chases him down and makes the play there much more active getting on the off, you know, you know, getting off the line effectively and things like that. Those were good signs, very good signs from him. Yeah. And we talked about the fact that he needed to kind of start stepping up because he's essentially invisible the first two weeks, right? I mean, and then you had Josh burn him out, you know, and that was important too, because like he's going to have to step up. And you know, but I thought Buba car had a bit of a in everyone with Buba car, they're going to, they're going to focus on the flash plays, you know, the great pressure, the pick six, which I mean, the guy threw the ball right to him. That's not why I was impressed with Buba car yesterday. I was impressed with Buba car because of the little things he did. He was setting the edge effectively and there's a, they ran a counter at him. He just took his inside shoulder bench and rammed it into the guy because he neat. That's, you got a wrong arm. You know what I mean? You're attacking the side shore because you're, you're the force player. And I thought he did really well there. And so you always knew Buba car was going to give you the flash. I think the first career play of his career last, last season, I think he, like, one of the meaningful snap of his career, he literally sacks the reigning Heichmann trophy winner. You know, he's always going to give you that flash play. But for Buba car to really be an impact player, he needs to do the little things well also. Sure. And that was the most complete game he's ever played. You know what? It showed me something, not that he eventually stepped up. Then he was my number one upside player in the 2023 class on defense. Like number one of guy with the highest ceiling. It was, it was more about, you knew it was eventually going to happen, but the fact that he did it when his team needed him the most and played him at two positions. He played Viper and Big End defensive end on Saturday. He was the, you know, we're thinking like, how are they going to replace the snaps from Burnham? They did it with a little bit of Bryce Young, but they also did it with, they put Buba car over there. So not only did this young player who hasn't played a whole lot of football, have a breakout game, but he did it being asked to play two different positions. That's impressive. That says a lot of, Hey, you know what? I can count on you. That's what I told the rest of his D. Hey coaches, count on me, right, and y'all need me to step up because Josh is down, I'm going to step up and do my job and have the best game of my career. That was a great sign. Bryce, you know, has a lot to learn, but he's really, really talented. He's really talented. They did more. I thought they did more with Donovan, letting Donovan shoot gaps a little bit. Yes. I wanted to mention that. Yeah. That was huge. Because they didn't let him do that the week before they were trying to be driven off the ball. Yeah. The only time they asked him to stalemate in this game was in obvious passing downs where it was like, we're trying to keep the quarterback from running, right? And you know, that's okay. That's different than you're asking to do that in the run game. Right. You know, I thought, again, I thought Junior Chuela Maka came in and played hard after Jordan went down. And we saw Logan Thomas come in, he's got a, he's got to fill out, but that kid is twitchy. That kid has some juice and he's clearly going to play more, I think, in my opinion. They're not going to redshirt Logan Thomas. He's literally started on kickoff and kick return and pump block in the first three games. You don't have him starting that many special teams and then after four game, okay, no more playing now. Because we're going to redshirt you, I think they look at him and say, yeah, it'd be nice to give him a year to build up his body. But with how athletic this kid is, the odds of him being a five year player. Slim. Yeah. And that's smart. And my opinion. And now you're going to need it. Now you're going to need it. Now I don't know if him being the guy to replace Jordan is going to happen against Miami. But it's like, okay, you're going to have to ramp the reps up and hopefully at some point in time the light can go on. So they're going to have to find some answers. 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Vincent you had said something to me when we were talking like that's part of the reason that we felt like the linebackers played better is because the D line was more effective and they could just run to the ball exactly that it's a lot harder for speedy athletic second level players you know that these linebackers are especially guys that are learning and kind of learning on the job right I mean they're they're young guys that have not had significant playing time and even the guy that's had significant playing time and Jack Kaiser's in a new position right so you've got a lot of new back there and when the defensive line is getting pushed off the ball into your lap as a linebacker it's very difficult to be coming downhill and playing fast and doing all the things that we know these guys have the ability to do it was completely different yesterday completely different because the defensive line was winning matchups and keeping the defensive line of Purdue off of those linebackers and then those guys were able to just come downhill and make plays and everybody was was talking about how good the linebackers were playing right because they were able to play they were able to not have to worry about block destruction and all of those different things on a regular basis like they had to the week before because the defensive line just didn't play very well right and so it's definitely soft they didn't play hard they didn't mind outside of Burnham and Mattelho and now both of those guys are out exactly which is a different conversation for a different day Burnham and we'll be back it was just a sprained ankle and they gave him a shot in a pre game I think I was what I understood and he just wasn't quite ready and that's fine yeah I have no problem with them having him sit out I would have him sit out this way too but I'm gonna say that strongly might even write an article about it because the last time I said that they need to rest a guy came out and you know play pretty well play pretty well yeah and you know what else I found out when I was breaking down the game did you know that I looked at the the game summary like the score summary okay and every time Riley Leonard Rushford touched on they counted it as six points no way do you know that I thought rushing touch yeah and then like later when Steve threw the passing touchdowns like they counted as six points huh I did not know that I thought passing touchdowns for a quarterback actually counted as more for a rushing quarter than a run for a quarterback but I was confused because that's amazing yeah they must have changed the rules on me I wasn't paying a little bit of sarcasm not at all not at all so I think that the first key to victory that's a plus for me I don't know I mean you get the official yeah but yeah I just was we were talking about the linebackers this I was giving example why I don't listen to pro football focus grades they had Jaylen's needs tackling grade as over 10 points less than the Dylan Thyneman for Purdue's tackling grade okay no one on the plane should have a worse tackling grade than number 31 oh my god but they said Jayden Thomas Jayden's Jaylen seed was in Jaylen seed had one miss tackle so just another reason why I just again data collection at PFF great grading system not great not great and I didn't think Jaylen seed played well but that was one of the worst tackling performances I've ever seen from a football and he was supposed to be the one their guy yes he's really good but he doesn't play very well he's in space right again if this is true be real Jeremiah Love and Jayden Jenarian Price also made Texas A&M's defensive players look pretty stupid in space also and they've been pretty good the next two games this is true like part of this is you've got dudes right a lot of people look stupid yeah so he the kid didn't the kid didn't forget how to play football head of a hundred tackles last year he went against just way better athletes in space that's the key that's the key next defensive key to victory is have a plan for movement Northern Illinois gave Notre Dame some major problems last weekend with its pre snap movement it put the Irish linebackers in some really bad spots and they had the Irish completely outleveraged and in some bad spots at the snap Purdue doesn't do as much as Northern Illinois pre snap but you can bet they're going to ramp it up in hopes of creating some of the same issues the defense had against Northern Illinois I didn't think they did like I did not ramp it up I'm not at all I know Purdue just kind of ran their off I don't see how you watch what happened Notre Dame on Saturday right the week before and look at their depth chart and be like freshman sophomore sophomore sophomore freshman and think hmm let's not let's not do that I mean I understand that's not who you are but as we saw from Notre Dame you can make adjustments from one week to the next especially when you've got a bi-week you're telling me they don't have any motions in their office or playbooks yeah there's a couple things they did where Notre Dame was out leverage to a degree but again their speed took over where if you're playing a better team sure they're gonna make that play like there was a play where Kingston made a came downhill and this it wasn't about motion but he comes downhill and he's taken on a block and the guy bounces it and he tackles them for a stop and I'm thinking you know great play in this game because they're running back slow if you if that would have happened against your running backs or Ohio State's running backs or Texas's running backs I don't know if that's a tackle right you know what I mean so so there's some improvement there but I want to see I don't know that they were tested enough for me to say they improved but they did handle what Purdue did and I give them a check for that and there are some things Purdue did with the running backs out of the back feel like have you noticed Notre Dame's been struggling with like swing and wheel routes from running backs in the first two games they handled those really effectively thought they did a good job there they did use the tight ends a little bit and and their one tight end is their best receiver basically he was on Saturday yeah he was very good on Saturday you know but they didn't do poorly with it they didn't do phenomenal with it because they weren't really tested but with what Purdue did for the most part I thought they handled fine yeah handled fine right I just offensively I don't know how you look at Notre Dame's youth at linebacker and think to yourself hey let's try to do things to get these guys thinking yeah look we've talked about how you put a game playing together right and what you do when you're watching film of another team and you look at their depth chart and you you know all these different things right and you kind of figure out okay where is this team the weakest okay well if I'm scouting Notre Dame and I'm looking at the film right well this team is in theory the weakest at the second level at linebacker because of all the youth right yes they're athletic yes they're fast all of those things yep that's great but that's it I mean if you look at their defensive line and the depth there you look at the secondary and what they got going on there like okay it's linebackers by default they did nothing in my opinion to alter their offense to take advantage of what a perceived weakness in the scouting report and that I mean that's that's just not good coaching in my opinion they just didn't stress the linebackers at all and that you know I mean obviously I give Notre Dame a check here yeah because they did because the times they I mean there was some motion and some movement you know but it wasn't anything extra and I thought they handled it relatively well yeah no I agree with that completely okay 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 will 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 our will 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 number three in keys to success for the defense first down success is key Notre Dame absolutely must have early down success against Purdue this isn't an offense that is great when it gets off schedule the Boilermakers don't have many burners on offense and the offense isn't geared towards playing but I should have changed that I should have said they don't have any if none of them get them in some second and third and long situations that will give the defense plenty of opportunities for stops especially early I thought they were great here yes they had they had the one 20 yard completion on the last drive of the first quarter on first down but before that events I thought they were like a tight end screen yeah like they gave up a second down conversion on their second the first drive on the slanting it's Morrison and then first down it was zero yards three yards on first down holding so you got back minus 20 second and 15 no yards on second and 15 next drive you got a first down on first down then it was two yards one yard on second down go to the second quarter you get one yard on first down three yards on second down it's third and six oh no that's actually Notre Dame you got two yards on on first down four yards on second down third and four you sack the quarterback next drive they come out incomplete on first down sack down second down right you know you got to the next drive it's seven-yard gain first down and then interception and that seven-yard gain that was late and a half when Notre Dame was playing off yeah right they had two runs yeah exactly for seven yards but right it was towards the end of the quarter two minutes left in the half right and by the way they were up by by a D 28 they're up 28 and nothing and they'd right not so they took their foot off the gas I give them a check I mean I don't think they were great like oh my gosh but they were pretty good and I said my idea if I had well what would you give them a plus or check this I give them a check but I kind of you know like it's like a check with like half the plus yeah like that's where I'm at because look last week they were terrible on second down they were real they're pretty good in first down like they had I feel like maybe this is just my memory I haven't gone back and like actually done the stats but I feel like they were pretty good on first down and then they gave up second down plays like over and over and over and then they were giving Northern Illinois a lot of third and shorts right and they weren't good on short yardage downs they just weren't last last week right because they with Northern had their whole package on third and short run and pass Purdue didn't have a whole lot of those situations and it's more often now on third down was third and five or longer and that's just you're not gonna have a lot of success in that way right and so yeah this time around I thought that they they did much much better on second down and then creating third and long opportunities and look there's not going to be a lot of offenses out there they're gonna be able to be successful against Notre Dame on third and long agree I love this comment from Ed is it half a plus a minus now if you go like now if you do the up down it's a check plus mate let's just do that that's a great comment and that was awesome man really good stuff oh it's like a good credit where it's do I'll give it I'll give it where it's do man I would do a check plus it's not a full plus but it's fair you know it's close to it so I go I go check plus that was really good I just I saw them it's and I was like oh that's awesome all right Ed you got me all right fair enough fair enough okay last key to victory for the defense was get the ball quarterback hudson card is a good football player but he'll put the ball in situations where the defense can get it Purdue has also ranked 76th in the country last season in fumbles loss and Notre Dame will need to take advantage of these opportunities and force some turnovers in this game I go plus or check I don't think it was a you know I thought there was a couple other opportunities where maybe they could have gotten the ball they didn't they didn't force the ball to be put on the ground a lot I still think the play that Jaylen's need hit that guy I thought that was a fumble yeah I think they ruled it didn't complete pass that was a fumble they just like Jaylen you're getting up celebrating like look for the ball right you know but uh you know look it is a check you had the big interception if that put the game away if christian gray catches that ball and returns it for six is it a plus um I'm just yeah because it was first half okay yeah because like they got the interception like late in the game but it's like it's so 60 to the right they're like 59 to six at that point time you know what I mean like um which is a really good play by the defense by the way but yeah they did they did well they did their job they forced with two turnovers and and and had a couple other potential almost turnovers but yeah it's a check it's not a plus but it's a check it's a little because like there's a couple times I would have liked to see that the guy come up behind the quarterback and instead of going for a tackle you know grip sack action now yeah yeah stuff like that right stuff like that something can clean up and they can get better at obviously I mean they were around I mean Hudson car is going to be seeing white no interest in his old house in his sleeve good yeah wasn't great yeah yeah give you that but but the but the christian gray one I think probably would have maybe done it but like the pick six was awesome again it was it was 28 nothing at that point time like he I don't know that he makes that throw if they're not down 28 points like I think he probably just takes a smack and punt lots of cards veteran player he don't know if he tries to force that ball and and I went back and watched it Vince and Ryan was correct if if Buba car wasn't there Jayden alsbury is there to pick them right right now so yeah for sure it was getting picked either way by somebody generally when you try to throw with your left hand that that's or whatever he was trying to do in that in that particular scenario not good things happen generally I also want to point out the fact that your wife is coming at me once again I feel I'm starting to feel targeted I'm just saying yes just like the third time at least now she's doing it publicly now she's doing it publicly my wife is throwing shade at you Vince I don't say it is what it is I'll take it like a man all right we'll talk to we'll talk to we'll talk afterwards I'll talk to her I'm like hey listen you gotta be nice to Vince he's sensitive I am very sensitive I there's there's there's tear stains on my pillows all right that's gonna do it for this part of the show make sure you hit that like button did you agree with that did you oh yeah no I'm gonna say neighborhood yeah absolutely I would have liked to see more great because I had a pick six man what do you want I know it's nothing when that you know what I mean like that that's you know Morrison had a ball bounce off his hands in the first quarter and that's right you know there was a one there's just a couple those type of plays where maybe you could have got the ball but you know yeah yeah completely agree so hit that like button the subscribe button the notification bell share with your family and friends jump on the board boards that i was break down calm starting tomorrow there will be some actual film breakdown but you've got to be on the board in order to in order to get that information so boards that i was break down calm is where it is at yeah so so so so so [BLANK_AUDIO]
