Notre Dame Football: Position report card for Irish in week 3

The Irish defensive line was fairly average over the course of their week three win, doing enough to put themselves in the position to win, but in a less than impressive fashion. The Irish, who recorded two sacks in each of their first two games, struggled to record even one in their game against the Eagles.

Their only sack came by way of a mishap during which Eagles quarterback Anthony Brown tripped over the foot of his right guard. Jerry Tillery was awarded the sack, but was likely frustrated by the manner through which he had to achieve it.

The line also struggled to maintain a strong presence in the run game as Boston College rushed for a total of 185 yards, 122 coming from junior Jon Hilliman. Jerry Tillery, Daelin Hayes, and Julian Okwara all had solid games on the line, but were unable to get much help behind them for much of the game.

Of course, much of the troubles this line experienced could easily be attributed to the inability of the Notre Dame offense to keep them off the field, but excuses are rarely tolerated in college football.

Overall, the Irish took somewhat of a step back after their exceptional performance at home against Georgia, but never seemed to be over their heads at any point in the game. On the flip side, the Irish front will have to tighten things up as competition gets stronger down the stretch.