With Notre Dame football and takeaways, players know it's only 'a matter of time'
SOUTH BEND — The mind of Ohio State football coach Ryan Day went directly to Notre Dame’s larcenous defense and the figurative silver platter it lugs to game day each week.
“This is a team here that we're about to play against that has been unbelievable about creating turnovers and creating scores after their turnovers,” Day said in the runup to the College Football Playoff national championship on Jan. 20 in Atlanta. “Efficiency is going to be something that we've got to do a much better job of in this game if we're going to win it.”
Christian Gray’s diving interception at the Penn State 42-yard-line with 33 seconds left in the Orange Bowl semifinal was merely the latest game-swinging takeaway for Notre Dame (14-1). Throughout that seesaw night in South Florida, capped by Mitch Jeter’s 41-yard field goal, Irish defenders were determined to impact the game with an interception or a fumble recovery.
“We always end up getting something like that,” sixth-year nose tackle Howard Cross III said after the 27-24 win. “It was more like a matter of time. Not really if. It was just more a matter of when.”
Just one opponent all year has made it through a game against Notre Dame without committing a turnover. That was upstart Northern Illinois in the Huskies’ 16-14 stunner way back in Week 2 at Notre Dame Stadium.
Veteran coordinator Al Golden’s group – call it the Golden Dome defense — sets a weekly goal of finishing plus-2 in turnover margin. Should the offense stub its toe, as has happened with three Riley Leonard interceptions in the CFP thus far, the defense ratchets up the turnover intensity.
“It’s something we talk about before every drive: takeaway,” sophomore linebacker Drayk Bowen said. “Go for the ball, just think about the ball. We finally got one (against Penn State). They threw it up to us, and Christian made a great play.”
Easing the burden for Notre Dame's offense
In this showdown of the top two scoring defenses at the FBS level, the raw numbers still don’t do justice to their dominance.
Ohio State leads the nation, allowing just 12.2 points per game. Notre Dame is second with a 14.3 scoring average allowed on defense.
Factor in each’s groups defensive scores – four for the Buckeyes, six for the Irish – and the offset figure would be even more impressive: 10.3 net points allowed for Ohio State, 11.5 for Notre Dame.
Both teams have produced one special teams score: Ohio State safety Caleb Downs’ 79-yard punt return touchdown against Indiana and Jayden Harrison’s 98-yard kickoff return for Notre Dame to open the second half in the Sugar Bowl quarterfinal win over Georgia.
In that same 23-10 win, RJ Oben’s strip sack and Junior Tuihalamaka’s fumble recovery set the Irish up at the Bulldogs’ 13 with 33 seconds left in the first half. Notre Dame’s only offensive touchdown of a 90-yard passing night came on the very next play.
“It certainly makes life a lot easier for sure,” Notre Dame offensive coordinator Mike Denbrock said. “I thought what our defense did (against Georgia) in particular was incredible, from Al all the way down through the staff to the players. It certainly put us in a position offensively.”
That marked the eighth time this season a Notre Dame scoring drive started at the plus-25 or better. Six other touchdowns have come after taking possession between the opponents’ 26- and 41-yard-lines.
And eight more touchdown drives have ranged between 50 and 58 yards.
Of Notre Dame’s 73 total touchdowns, tied for first with Miami, just 44 of those drives (60.3%) have covered 60 or more yards. A quarter of those, however, have come in the past four games, including three apiece against Penn State and Indiana.
Adjusted for non-offensive scores, Notre Dame’s scoring average drops from 37.0 (sixth in FBS) to 33.7, which would rank 21st.
“Your mindset shifts a little bit,” Denbrock said of the Georgia game in particular, “towards not necessarily protecting the lead but not putting yourself in position either where you can do a lot of damage when your defense is playing as dominant as they did.”
Generating takeaways is in Notre Dame's defensive DNA
Notre Dame created just 15 takeaways in 2022, Golden’s first year in South Bend. That was tied for 98th nationally.
Last season the number jumped to 24 takeaways, tied for 13th, with two-thirds of those coming via interception.
This season, through 15 games, Notre Dame is generating more than two takeaways per outing. Of the 32 turnovers the Irish have forced in all phases, 19 have been interceptions and 13 have been fumble recoveries.
Notre Dame’s plus-17 net turnover margin ranks third in FBS. Ohio State (plus-4) is tied for 44th, including 19 takeaways.
Sixth-year nickelback Jordan Clark vowed that the Irish defense would tighten the screws after waiting until the game’s final minute against Penn State to take the ball away.
“The one is awesome, but ultimately when we get back in the film room, that’s something we know we need to do,” Clark said. “That game didn’t need to be that close, and it was because we didn’t execute. We have to make sure going into next week that we fix those things.”
From starting every practice session with a punchout drill — two defenders running alongside a ball carrier and trying to dislodge the football — to emphasizing ball disruption in film study and gameday banter, the Irish have made takeaways part of their defensive DNA.
“Those are the skills we’re trying to teach them,” Golden said. “It’s stimulus response. It happens so quickly on the field; they have to know how to respond when they see that stimulus. They have to know how to apply it to the game. A lot of guys can do a punchout in practice, but they can’t see it in a game to do it, and you need to have confidence to do it.”
The same terminology is used, Golden said, in every meeting room for the Irish defense and special teams, regardless of position.
“Repetition, consistency, quality control, application to the game, and then what’s the standard?” Golden said. “What’s the standard we’re chasing in each of those skills? Once you do those five things, it’s rinse and repeat, rinse and repeat, until you get really good at it.”
Golden’s third edition has been elite.
“If it ignites," Golden said, "and the players buy into it and they want to do it and they love it, then you have results.”
Mike Berardino covers Notre Dame football for the South Bend Tribune and NDInsider.com. Follow him on social media @MikeBerardino.