Manti Te'o had 7 interceptions in his senior campaign, from his middle linebacker spot. He didn't have a lot of tackles for loss because in a 3-4 scheme, your middle linebackers are asked to drop into coverage on pass rushing downs as the underneath players in Cover 2 and Cover 4 looks. The tackles for loss cam from Tuitt, Shembo and KLM, while ND dropped 7 and 8 on most downs and rarely rushed Te'o.
A great comparison is Jones vs the guy who played the same position, Louis Nix. I would say that Nix was the more dominant run defender, but as a guy who demands a double team on every down, something Miami failed to adjust to until half time, Jones is an excellent interior pass rusher. He block destructs well and plants guys as the feet of the quarterback, stopping him from being able to step up in the pocket. I loved ND's adjustment in the 2nd half. When Miami doubled Jones on 3-man rushes with a guard center combination, ND started dropping 7 instead of 8 and sent Morgan on delayed blitzes, through the gaps in the pass protection created by the vacating guard, who was helping his center. Simple adjustment, but an excellent, easy to execute, way of putting Miami in a bind. You either play Jones heads up and pray he doesn't get to your QB, or you double him and leave a serious hole in your protection that can be exploited by a backer or a safety on an inside blitz... If you try to keep a back or a tight end in to protect and give you 6 man protection, you only have 4 players out on routes, and if ND doesn't blitz and they drop 8, ND essentially has each receiving threat in a defensive high low situation, with coverage underneath and over the top. So do you keep your back in to protect against what is going to be a 3-man rush probably 65% of the time, or do you send him out on a route to loosen up the coverage, double Jones in a 5-man protection, and take the chance that ND is an inside blitz on?
That was the trouble teams had in 2012 and while Te'o had some many interceptions. On third down ND dropped 7 and 8 often and let their front 3 and 4 attack. With Nix, Tuitt, KLM and Shembo coming, teams often left their back in to protect and in doing some, Notre Dame had only 4 threats to worry to worry about, with 7 and 8 man drops and ND would be in their nickel package on top of that, with an extra defensive back on the field. Because ND was so deep in their pre snap, off coverage, quarterbacks wouldn't take shots over the top, because it was extremely tough to get on top of ND's coverage. Conventional wisdom said the way to attack would be over top of the linebackers and underneath of the deep defenders. Te'o (like Brian Urlacher with the Bears) was excellent at getting a good, deep drop, and sinking right into the hook / curl zone and underneath slants and crossing patterns. He tightened the window in which quarterbacks could fit the ball into, and caused 7 mistakes that helped take ND to the title game.
Nothing new about that of course. If you can 3 and 4 and get pressure, it's nearly impossible for teams to consistently pass down the field. Especially if they need to keep their back in to keep their quarterback clean.
