ROSE BOWL/CFP: Irish defense looking for flawless performance against Tide

Notre Dame goes through workouts in preparations for Friday’s Rose Bowl against top-ranked Alabama in Arlington Texas. (Notre Dame Media Relations)

By GRAHAM DUNN

It might sound like the Notre Dame defense will attempt to stop a train.

Then again, it might be harder than that.

“Obviously we have our work cut out for us,” stated Notre Dame defensive coordinator Clark Lea. “I mean, you can watch Alabama play, I understand that, but it's a combination of things. I think the first thing that we would look at is, say, where we deviated from our personality just in the execution of our defense and our defensive structure. And I think that came into play in the Syracuse game.

“And then I think a little bit in the Clemson game might have been guys pressing to make plays and not just singularly focused on doing their job. And I know that sounds a little cliché, but I think what I want to point out is just when guys function as 1 of 11, it streamlines their processing in snap. And when you streamline processing within a snap, you're able to play at your physical best, because you're just exerting your strength and power through your technique.”

Notre Dame will face Alabama in the 107th Rose Bowl Game in Arlington, Texas on Friday. Kickoff is 3 p.m.

Before the Atlantic Coast Conference Championship, the strength of the Irish was considered their defense. The unit had allowed just 17 points, 99 yards rushing and 314 yards in total defense per game.

That all went out the window when Clemson shreaded them for 322 yards in the air and 541 yards in total offense.

Now, here comes the top-rated offense in the country in Alabama, led by a three-headed monster in quarterback Mac Jones, running back Najee Harris and Heisman Trophy favorite Devonta Smith at wideout.

Still, the Irish don’t seem fazed by the previous result of what’s ahead.

“All great guys, all great players,” said senior rover Jeremiah Owusu-Koramorah. “Every great player can be contained, every great player can be limited. Their ability -- you just have to find their weakness. That's been our challenge all throughout the week is to find each and every guy that is explosive, which is nearly everybody they have on their offense, man.

“The linemen… you have (Harris), you have (Brian Robinson), (Smith), (Jahleel Billingsley), (John Metchie, III) -- all of them are great players. And our challenge is to find a weakness in each on of them. I don't think I should get into specifics on how we are going to stop them, but we just have to find the weaknesses and make sure we execute on those.”

This season, the best any team has done against Alabama would be considered Missouri, which  held the Tide offense to 38 points and 414 yards in total offense. Since that season opener, no one has held them under 440 yards and 41 points.

“Schematically, we've seen variations of what they do,” Lea said. “I think every opponent we play is in some way unique. Obviously I think the Clemson offense is a highly skilled outfit that has multiple ways to move the ball and multiple ways to find explosive plays. So, from a personnel standpoint, there are similarities there. (Steve) Sarkisian does a great job… He does a very smart job in designing scheme to create matchups and to create problems on defense. And then you combine that with the fact that they have like a really talented group. I think it starts in the O-line. There's a toughness there and a physical approach that we have to match and exceed in our game and our style.

“And then they have skill at every position outside the O line. And it's going to force you to win in coverage, to win your one-on-ones. And they've got a quarterback that can deliver the ball. I think we've seen parts and pieces through the year, but Alabama is unique just like every other team is unique. I wouldn't say it's any different in terms of our preparation.”

The key, according to Kyle Hamilton, might be third down, where Notre Dame would like to keep Alabama’s offense in long situations.

“If we get them in third and seven, third and eight, third-and-long situations, we can go deeper into our third-down playbook and get some pressure going or get some more stuff going in the coverage game,” Hamilton said. “And then the offense is only limited to a certain amount of plays that they can run, too. The run's kind of out of the option. So I think we can focus more on being just pass defensive players and not focused on too many things at once.”

But Alabama is pretty good on third down, as well, converting at a 59 percent clip. That’s tops in the SEC.

“Third down is -- as you know, it's about what's the distance, right?“ stated ND head coach Brian Kelly. “The percentages for success range greatly, you know that, right? So it's certainly about that. It's about first and second down and managing third down to make it so much more of an advantage.

“Certainly we're cognizant of the fact that this is an electric offense and scores bushels and bushels of points. And we want to be able to play complementary football. That is, keep Alabama's offense off the field while we're certainly scoring as well.”