Defensively, it was nice to see Notre Dame finally cause a turnover, short fields and extra possessions will be Pyne and the offenses’ best friend the rest of the year. North Carolina was only able to muster 67 rushing yards on the day averaging a meager 2.4 yards per carrying. We asked for improved play from the LB core and we got it with the 2 leading tacklers of the day coming from this group, Kiser with 9 and Liafau with 6. Solid progress from this group indeed. While the linebackers seem to have taken a step forward, it’d be fair to say the secondary took a bit of a step back allowing some head-scratching pass successes due to busted coverages, bad communication, lack of execution or all of the above. There are certainly some needed improvements defensively, but most including myself believe that this unit is much closer to being nationally competitive than the offense is and with some small tweaks in the bye we can shore things up on the back end.
Overall, this was the kind of output and result Notre Dame needed entering their bye. Confidence matters and is real in college football, given an 0-2 start, Notre Dame has about as much confidence as possible entering the bye, and that is quite encouraging as there is much work to do before Notre Dame’s next high-profile affair vs BYU in fabulous Las Vegas.
To see my full expanded video breakdown of the game feel free to visit Always Irish on YouTube and on Twitter @alwaysirishINC.
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