Skip navigation
Favorites
Sign up to follow your favorites on all your devices.
Sign up
All Scores
Odds by

Things To Learn: Notre Dame’s seeming failure to get to the QB partly by design, likely this weekend

COLLEGE FOOTBALL: SEP 09 Notre Dame at NC State

RALEIGH, NC - SEPTEMBER 09: North Carolina State Wolfpack offensive lineman Anthony Belton (74) blocks against Notre Dame Fighting Irish defensive lineman Jordan Botelho (12) during a college football game on September 09, 2023 at Carter-Finley Stadium in Raleigh, North Carolina. (Photo by Joe Robbins/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

Icon Sportswire via Getty Images

Marcus Freeman can insist No. 9 Notre Dame will not overlook Central Michigan at all this weekend, but if the second-year Irish head coach actually succeeds in keeping any and all focus on the Chippewas (1-1) rather than next week’s opponent, No. 6 Ohio State, he may have gone into the wrong field. Being the world’s best psychologist assuredly has less stress than being a college football coach, and that is what it would take for Freeman to convince his entire roster of 18- to 23-year-olds, and Sam Hartman, to ignore basic human nature.

Freeman knows that much, too.

“It’s human nature to drift,” he said Thursday. “Your mind drifts, you naturally drift away from what’s important and that’s right now.

“It usually tends to drift to things that don’t deserve your attention and shouldn’t deserve your attention. It can be wins, losses, it can be the past, it can be the future.”

Notre Dame has three wins in the past, none of which were so glamorous as to distract, and no losses yet. The psychological magnet ahead is the Buckeyes and that primetime matchup.

But first, Central Michigan awaits at 2:30 ET on Saturday exclusively on Peacock.

That human nature may allow Chippewas mobile quarterback Bert Emanuel Jr. to escape for a touchdown and it may lead to a few missed tackles, but it would be a shock beyond much description if it led to an actual upset. No Power Five team has lost as a 34-point favorite (or more) in 16 years.

What then, to learn from a game that will largely serve as a light appetizer before next week’s entrée, the first of three primary courses this season?

Frankly, the lesson that needs to be honed in on is not all that applicable against Emanuel. He has thrown for just 280 yards in two games, completing exactly half his passes and matching his three touchdowns with three interceptions. Add the six sacks he has suffered and Central Michigan has dropped back Emanuel 42 times this season while he has rushed 32 times.

Even if Notre Dame surges to an early lead, Emanuel is simply not a good enough passer to abandon the run. So, the Irish are unlikely to tally a pile of sacks. That will continue a season-long trend, one that perhaps the Notre Dame defense is frustrated by but Freeman is okay with for now.

Last week, the Irish sacked North Carolina State quarterback Brennan Armstrong just once, a seven-yard loss courtesy of sophomore tackle Donovan Hinish on the last genuine drive of the game. Armstrong is a mobile quarterback who presents a threat when plays break down. Notre Dame focused more on minimizing that damage than on creating havoc, six other quarterback hurries sometimes hemmed in a bit by precaution rather than reckless abandon.

“We could not be out of control and just free rush [Armstrong],” Freeman said Monday. “We wanted to create pass-rush games that forced him to do certain things. I’m really pleased with the execution and the outcome of what happened.

“I know the sacks, the numbers weren’t all what we aspired to have, but the outcome in terms of the interceptions, in terms of the pass efficiency, was exactly what we needed.”

Armstrong ran for only 26 yards on 12 carries while completing just 46.8 percent of his passes. The Irish defense succeeded in containing him in all facets, backfield takedowns or not.

A similar thought will apply to Emanuel, a quarterback that can turn a broken pocket into a big gain. And that will still not be reason to doubt Notre Dame’s pass rush.

The Irish have faced a triple-option offense — notching two sacks and two quarterback hurries; an overmatched FCS opponent — one sack with 10, count them, 10 quarterback hurries; and the mobile Armstrong — one sack with six quarterback hurries. None of those were moments ripe for racking up sack numbers. That, more than the matriculation of Notre Dame all-time leader in career sacks Isaiah Foskey, has limited the impact of the Irish defensive line.

With four sacks in 22 pressures, Notre Dame is taking down the quarterback 18.2 percent of the time on its successful pass rushes. Last year, the national average for pressures turned into sacks was a bit north of 30 percent. Some quarterbacks evade that pressure better than others. In theory, the Irish should have three more sacks to this point, one most likely landing in fifth-year linebacker JD Bertrand’s stat line simply because he leads Notre Dame with three quarterback hurries.

Those will come, if not this weekend, then perhaps next against Ohio State junior Kyle McCord. And if not then, that may again be a reflection of Freeman’s and Irish defensive coordinator Al Golden’s greater plan.

“Let’s look at how many times we hit the quarterback, we affected him with our coverages and really look at the interceptions that are a result of the pressure you got on him,” Freeman said. “We were very strategic in how we wanted to rush the quarterback.”

That was another reference to defending Armstrong, but the logic will carry forward. Watch for it against Emanuel. If the Irish keep him hemmed in, then Central Michigan’s offense will sputter. If he breaks contain, the Chippewas may string together a drive.

Notre Dame defenders with a sack this season: DE Joshua Burnham, DT Rylie Mills, DE Jordan Botelho, DT Donovan Hinish.
With quarterback hurries: LB JD Bertrand (3), LB Marist Liufau (2), LB Jack Kiser (2), DT Rylie Mills (2), LB Jaylen Sneed (2), DE Joshua Burnham (2), DT Howard Cross (1), DE Javontae Jean-Baptiste (1), DE Nana Osafo-Mensah (1), DE Jordan Botelho (1), LB Preston Zinter (1).

None of this should be considered as downplaying the effect of a sack, but its impact comes as much from knocking the opponent off-schedule as it does in its loss of yardage. In the NFL, from 2017 to 2021, only 7.8 percent of drives with a sack resulted in touchdowns. For context, 25.8 percent of drives without sacks resulted in touchdowns. A significant portion of that impact, though, came from the loss of down.

In that regard, an incompletion fulfills a bulk of the benefits of a sack, even if it is far less dramatic. Forcing Armstrong to miss his target more often than not was effective, and it may boldly be expected against Emanuel.

It may also be expected sophomore linebacker Jaylen Sneed records at least one quarterback hurry. He has impressed with downhill speed this season, best when not needing to diagnose a play before he can charge forward. With Bertrand sidelined this weekend by a concussion, Sneed’s role should be the first to see an uptick in action, followed by freshmen Drayk Bowen and Jaiden Ausberry.

Not that concussions follow any form of typical timing, but typical timing would have Bertrand back in the lineup next weekend against the Buckeyes, making this brief linebacker thought again less a note to carry forward and more an attempt to talk up the appetizer plate.

follow @d_farmer