The Notre Dame Fighting Irish looked completely overmatched in a 44-28 Fiesta Bowl loss to Ohio State, as the attrition of a season full of injuries and a couple last-minute suspensions took its toll on the ND squad. The offense played okay, scoring 28 points, but definitely did not bring its A-game. Unfortunately, that is what the Irish needed to compete against the overwhelmingly talented Buckeyes, as the ND defense simply got demolished by Urban Meyer’s offense.
Let’s take a look at how each individual unit of the defense performed in that embarrassing demolition of what originally (at the beginning of the season) looked to be a strong, experienced defensive unit under the tutelage of coordinator Brian VanGorder, and let’s dole out some grades to the individual parts of said defense.