The defensive line had a bit of an up-and-down performance, like the rest of the defense. There were impactful plays, but there were too many gap mistakes, and the second string DL wasn't as effective as it had been in past games.
JERRY TILLERY
Tillery had a very interesting game. He wasn't overly productive from a number standpoint, but his play resulted in production for other players. Tillery got a good push and did a good job cutting off the back side for the most part. He had multiple plays in which he was able to get a push and force a quicker cutback than Northwestern wanted, which resulted in short runs. He had two hurries in the game and also had a run stuff.
Here's an example of Tillery not making a play that shows up on the stat sheet, but in reality this play is made by Tillery.
Tillery made plays like this in the run game and pass game. Hayes was given credit for the sack officially and Okwara was also right there, but this play happens because of Tillery. It's how top players can make plays even when opponents are gearing their game plan and double teams to try to keep him from taking over.
Tillery Grade: B+
JULIAN OKWARA
Okwara lost contain on the backside a couple of times, but overall he played a strong game against Northwestern. He was solid against the run, finished with 8 tackles and four run stops/stuffs. His 18.2 run stop rate is elite. Okwara played strong at the point of attack and his block destruction was quite good.
His pass rushing didn't really take off until the second half, but when it did he was outstanding. Okwara was credited with just one sack in the game, but I had him and Daelin Hayes combining for both sacks that Hayes was given credit for. So I gave a half sack to each player, and then Okwara had a crucial third-down sack to stall an early third-quarter Northwestern drive.
Okwara's 29.2 pass rush rate is speciaal. Getting 7 pressures on 24 pass rushes is a truly outstanding level of production.
Okwara Grade: A-
DAELIN HAYES
After being limited in the last two games, Daelin Hayes got his normal level of reps against the Wildcats. He had some noticeable mistakes on the backside, and when he has to tackle it seems as though he's still not quite back to full strength with his shoulder, because he's just not closing off backside as well as he did early in the year.
Despite those issues, Hayes still played an all-around strong game. His 11.8 percent run stop rate is very good and his 6 tackles on 41 snaps was very good as well. He was strong at the point of attack, he did a good job with block destruction and outside of the backside issues he had a good run defense grade b/c of plays like this.
Okwara also had one of his better pass rushing games of the season. I credited him with two hurries and a sack, but the sack came from two different pass rushes in which he got half a sack along with Okwara. His 15.8 percent pass rush rate was outstanding. He had 3 pressures on just 19 pass rushes (he dropped into coverage 5 times).
Hayes Grade: B
KHALID KAREEM
This was definitely not one of Kareem's best games. He wasn't bad by any means, but he just wasn't overly impact. He didn't have any pressures and had just one run stuff in the game, but he did have a good pass break up on a snap in which he got no rush, but showed good awareness and got his hands up to knock down the pass.
Kareem held up on the edge well, but overall he needs to play better than what we saw from him against Northwestern.
Kareem Grade: C+
Other DL Notes:
* I thought Jonathan Bonner played a really solid game for Notre Dame. He had a few snaps where he got knocked back, but overall he got a good push inside and did a good job at times with block destruction.
* Sophomore NT Kurt Hinish was more up-and-down. He got really good penetration at times and had a really strong penetration that resulted in DE Ade Ogundeji getting a run stuff, but he also got knocked back a few too many times. DT Micah Dew-Treadway was solid in the game. He got knocked off the ball a few times but also had several snaps where he squeezed hard backside and/or got a push. He needs to be more gap sound that what I saw from against NW.
* DE Ade Ogundeji has slowed down a bit in recent games. He's not getting the push off the edge we saw earlier in the year and he seems to have hit a bit of a wall. DE Jamir Jones played with a good motor, held up well at the point of attack and did a solid job on the edge.
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