5 takeaways from Notre Dame’s win over Duke

Notre Dame beat Duke to start 2020 off right. Here are five quick takeaways from the opening day victory for the Irish.

Clark Lea Does it Again

I know we’ve all been enamored by the fact that defensive coordinator Clark Lea has only allowed an opponent to score more than 30 points on Notre Dame once since taking over as defensive coordinator in 2018.  Let’s expand on that in a moment.

Duke moved the ball well early on in this one but the old “bend but don’t break” defense was at it again.

Trailing 3-0 after each team had a pair of possessions and being outgained 124-0, Notre Dame’s defense allowed the following to Duke to close the half.

Punt
Punt
Punt
Field Goal
Punt

That’s rising to the occasion regardless of the opposition and giving your offense a chance as the defense allowed just 210 total yards the rest of the game after the first two Duke possessions.

About that 30-plus stat mentioned above:

Clark Lea has now been Notre Dame’s defensive coordinator for 27 games.  In those 27 games not only has just one team scored more than 30 points, but only nine have ever put more than 20 on the board and just four have scored 26.

Young Guns