Notre Dame Football: Irish Defense Has Hit Rock Bottom

After being yanked back and forth through a shredder, whittled down to the bone and whipped for 49 points in two-and-a-half quarters, Notre Dame’s defense has officially hit rock bottom.

The Irish surrendered 577 yards of total offense to the Trojans, who steamrolled the Irish, 49-14, on Saturday at the Los Angeles Coliseum in the regular-season finale.

"We have to remember where we are after today’s loss," Irish head coach Brian Kelly said to reporters after the loss. "It’s a red-letter day for our football players, coaches alike. Two years ago we were playing for a national championship. And today we got our butts beat. And it wasn’t as close as the score."

Trojans quarterback Cody Kessler picked apart Notre Dame’s secondary with apparent ease. Kessler finished 32-of-40 for 372 yards and six touchdown passes, the first player to ever toss a half-dozen touchdowns against the Irish.

He lobbed a beautiful 48-yard strike down the sideline to wide receiver George Farmer to get the scoring started, burned the Irish linebacker corps with a simple angle pattern to Adoree’ Jackson for the second score before finding Farmer again on the opposite side of the field.

Mark J. Terrill/Associated Press

Tick. Tack. Toe.

Three touchdowns in a span of six minutes, seven seconds, and Notre Dame finished the first quarter trailing, 21-0.

When the evisceration was finally over and the blood was mopped off the Coliseum grass, Notre Dame’s defense capped off a historically brutal stretch.

The Irish defense has done a complete 180 since the sterling start to the season in which Notre Dame kept the clamps on Rice, Michigan, Purdue, Syracuse and Stanford. But since then, the wheels have come off entirely. What seemed to be maybe anomalies against North Carolina and Navy and a product of turnovers against Arizona State was verified as deeply problematic in recent losses to Northwestern and the Trojans.

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To be fair, the Notre Dame defense’s current status is out of its control, to an extent. Injuries have rocked the Irish through all levels of the defense.

Heading into the game, Notre Dame was already without top defensive lineman Sheldon Day, defensive quarterback Joe Schmidt, defensive lineman Jarron Jones, cornerback Cody Riggs and safety Drue Tranquill.

More bumps and bruises ravaged the Irish on Saturday, as safety Max Redfield (broken rib), safety Austin Collinsworth (separated shoulder), linebacker Greer Martini (quad) and defensive linemen Jay Hayes (ankle) and Jacob Matuska (stinger-like injury) all missed time. 

Say what you want about the program’s depth in the fifth year of the Brian Kelly era or the need for the “next man in” mentality, but how much more can Kelly and defensive coordinator Brian VanGorder be expected to do with a unit so depleted?

Hayes had his redshirt ripped off of him last weekend to serve as a necessary body against Louisville. In a twisted turn of events, Hayes was banged up against the Trojans on Saturday. The Irish had to turn to the likes of senior Chase Hounshell along the interior of the defensive line. Asked earlier in the week about the injury-riddled Hounshell, Kelly said the senior is “just not big enough to play inside.”

But that’s exactly what the injuries have necessitated at this point.

"We knew we were shorthanded," Kelly said to reporters afterward. "We’ve lost a lot of players on defense over the last five weeks. It’s been a very difficult run for us with key players on defense, having to play so many young freshmen on defense. We just haven’t been able to stop anybody. It’s been a difficult run for us.

So all things considered, this is likely rock bottom for the Irish defense. There will be a few weeks off for healing and recovery, not to mention film study and practice, before Notre Dame takes part in its bowl game. The defensive performance will improve.

But, wow, Saturday was ugly.

All quotes obtained firsthand unless otherwise noted.

Mike Monaco is a lead Notre Dame writer for Bleacher Report. Follow @MikeMonaco_ on Twitter.