Marcus Freeman Discusses Notre Dame's Defense Following Purdue Game

The good news for Notre Dame on Saturday was that it finally found the win column, routing Purdue 56-30. The bad news is that the Fighting Irish defense still had massive lapses and allowed 30 points to a Purdue squad that figures to finish near the very bottom of the Big Ten.

Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman spoke to the media following Saturday's marathon affair in South Bend and was asked fairly quickly about his defense. Below is how Freeman responded.

As you look at the first half it's more so the explosive plays we got continue to try to decrease. You know, I watched them burn the brake. Again, I can't remember every single one, but it was just -- it was actually -- here is what I remember: It was a marriage of the front end coverage. There is times in coverage if you're playing man or zone, if the quarterback can step up and scramble and extend plays somebody will be open.

When we do pressure and we bring five, we can't allow the quarterback to sit back there, especially in man coverage, or somebody will be coming open. We have to do a better job marrying up or coverage and our front and make sure if we're going to play coverage. We're going to play with seven guys in in coverage, then four guys are going to have to get some type of pressure on the quarterback, but also we got to understand, okay, we might have to cover a little bit longer.

If we're going bring five guys in pressure then we shouldn't have to cover that long because we have to get pressure. And so as you look at the first half, I think that was the thing -- second half the defense I thought after the two-minute drive which that's the one that really hurt me.
Us, not me.

That drive, I don't think there was anything that we could -- we tried cover one, cover two, cover three, cover four. What happens is you start to panic. Okay, this coverage isn't working. Let's try this. This isn't working. Let's try this.

Then you're doing nothing. You're doing nothing. They're going to make plays. They're going to make some plays. You got to trust, hey, this is our game plan, this is what we
can do, and execute. You got to trust your players to go out there and get it done. I thought after that they did a really good job to that last drive.

And I felt awful. You know, it's like the decision, do you go for it on fourth down and just try to extend the game, run out the clock, or do you punt the ball and give your defense a better chance. I should have been smart and said, you know what, let's pin them back and make them go the whole length of the field. What I'm not upset about, I know I'm rambling, fourth and one and fourth and two and I said, no, I want to kick.

Schmidty needs that. We got a freshman that hasn't kicked live. I know he didn't make it, but he's going to be better because of it, because he failed in this situation, because of that experience. And so I don't regret that.

Nick Shepkowski's Quick Takeaway:

The good news for Notre Dame has been that after halftime; it has done a great job of adjusting to slow opposing offenses. The bad news is that it has been dreadful before the half, and Saturday was no different despite the decrease in opponent difficulty.

Notre Dame has given up 97 points in three games this year. A year ago, it took until its eighth game to give up 97. This isn't to say it can't get fixed, but unless it does very quickly, a team with less talent than Notre Dame is going to sneak up and put an end to its dreams of running the table and reaching the College Football Playoff.