The numbers don't lie!
One third of the way through the college football season Notre Dame has one of the BEST defenses in the nation. The Irish have certainly passed the eye test the past two weeks, keeping consecutive ranked opponents out of the endzone! But upon further review, the Irish dominance on defense goes much further than that.
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South Bend Tribune/JAMES BROSHER Notre Dame defensive lineman Louis Nix III (9) and defensive end Stephon Tuitt (7) pressure Michigan quarterback Denard Robinson (16) during a NCAA college football game on Saturday, Sept. 22, 2012, at Notre Dame. Robinson threw an interception on the play.
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- Brian Kelly
Notre Dame's perfect September is largely due to their overwhelming play on defense, and somewhat surprisingly, turnovers have cued the turnaround.
"When you limit Michigan and Michigan State to no touchdowns, the significance is it's not just about one player", says head coach Brian Kelly. "It's 11 players bought into a scheme. It's more than 11 as you know in terms of the depth of guys that we're playing. They have a lot of confidence in each other. They have great confidence in their teammates and their coaches, and we know that we can plug in the next man in and they're going to get the job done. I mean, that's a great feeling to have when you know your defense is playing at that level."
Notre Dame's defense is playing at a level that few other teams in the nation can match.
Notre Dame has forced 13 turnovers through four games...the 2nd highest total in the whole country! The Irish are also 5th in turnover margin,an area where they were among the worst teams in the country a year ago.
In addition: They're 4TH in the country in scoring defense...allowing less than 10 points per game. And ninth in QB sacks!
It all adds up to a unit that look pretty much impenetrable through four games.
"We know how good we can be", Manti Te'o said after the win over Michigan. "The thing is, with performances like these, after last week's performance, we saw so many mistakes, so many things we could fix, and that just goes that gives us energy. That gives us energy knowing that we played a really good game, but yet we made a lot of mistakes. The sky's the limit for not only this defense but for this team. We're going to continue to get better and continue to focus on ourselves"
