Bryce Young’s Pressure Mattered More Than His Stats for Notre Dame Football

Bryce Young’s line from Sunday night reads four tackles and a tackle for loss. No sacks. Marcus Freeman spent part of his Tuesday news conference explaining why that line doesn’t measure the impact that Young had on the game.

“Those aren’t things that are going to be in the stat line, but Sunday for us, when we grade him, was a reflection of his preparation and how he’s been practicing,” Freeman said.

The grade came out of the tape. Freeman went back through all 30 Wisconsin pass attempts and sorted them. Twelve were screens or quick game, throws designed to be gone before a defensive lineman matters.

“You’re not going to have any pressure,” Freeman said.

That left 12 he counted as true dropbacks, the snaps where a pass rush either wins or it doesn’t. Notre Dame won seven.

“And 12 of them were true dropback passes, and I think seven of the 12 we had pressure,” Freeman said. “We had two sacks, and then three of them we didn’t have pressure.”

Young was a big part of that.

“And Bryce got a lot of that pressure,” Freeman said.

The Production Is Catching Up to the Talent

Young is in his third season and hasn’t put up eye-popping stats just yet. Twenty-three tackles, three for loss, and 1.5 sacks as a freshman. Twenty tackles, two for loss, two sacks, and three passes defended last year. Freeman says the version that showed up Sunday was built in the months nobody watched.

“It’s the best fall camp he’s had. It’s the best offseason, and Sunday is a reflection of that,” Freeman said. “This is the best I’ve seen him, and I think his best is still moving forward.”

Given the pass rush success Young had, even if he didn’t get home, the stats might not be too far behind him.

Rice Will Stress the Defense Differently

Saturday asks Young to do the opposite of what he just graded well for. Freeman called Rice “almost, for offense, it’s a version of a triple option offense out of gun,” run by a quarterback big and fast enough to hurt a defense once he pulls it down. The Owls ran for 465 yards in their opener. Holding an edge, squeezing a mesh point, playing a quarterback instead of chasing one.

Young has seen the triple option plenty now with Notre Dame playing Navy yearly so he and the rest of the defense should be prepared for it. The interior of the line did lose one of its most experienced defenders against the option with Jason Onye out a couple of weeks so there will be a little more pressure on Young and the rest of the line who have seen the option more.

Given Rice’s offense, the sack totals might not come this weekend either. In fact, they probably won’t. If Young keeps playing the way he’s been practicing and how he played in the opener though, those stats should catch up to his potential sooner rather than later.