Irish Anchor Down the Midshipmen, Continue Win Streak

Bruce Straughan
Nov 9
3 min read

Coming into this game, there were a lot of questions and concerns about the Irish after a lackluster performance against Boston College last week. Coming off a bye week, it was expected that Notre Dame would make easy work of Boston College, but that wasn't the case, which left many wondering: What the heck happened during that bye week, and did the Irish even prepare at all? What I saw was a team that overlooked a bad 1-7, which ultimately led to a poor performance.

Photo via Notre Dame Athletics

Coming into this week's game, fans wondered how Notre Dame would respond against a 7-1 Navy team at home. I was alerted by a source close to the Navy program early on in the day that it was a possibility that Navy's starting QB, Blake Horvath, would be ruled out due to a lingering injury suffered the week prior against North Texas. I announced this possibility on social media, and it was confirmed to be true 5 hours later, right before kickoff, that Horvath was indeed out for the game.

The Notre Dame defense came out on fire in their first series, holding Navy to 5 plays for only 17 yards on a drive that lasted just over 3 minutes and resulted in a punt. The Notre Dame offense staggered a bit out of the gate, with two runs to Jeremiyah Love resulting in no yards gained. The offensive line struggled all game in run blocking, but it didn't help that Navy stacked the box the entire night to try and take away the running game, the same tactic employed by Boston College last week. The offensive line, however, did a fantastic job in pass protection, allowing CJ Carr a lot of time in the pocket for the majority of the night.

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The Irish offense struggled in its second offensive series, which ended in a quick three-and-out on 3 plays for an abysmal 5 yards, but went on to score a total of 3 touchdowns in the first half while the defense gave up a total of 10 points. Poor tackling continues to rear its ugly head at times with this defense and has been a problem the entire season for the Irish. The Notre Dame defense gave up a total of 206 yards on the ground, which would have been a lot less had they been able to effectively tackle. They have to find a way to clean this up if they want to continue this win streak and make a run in the playoffs, especially in the first half.

The second half of this game was a completely dominant effort from the Irish, both on the offensive and defensive sides of the ball. The Notre Dame defense locked in and pitched a shutout in the second half against the midshipmen offense, allowing 0 points in the final two quarters. The Notre Dame offense, led by CJ Carr, put 28 points on the board in the second half, starting with one of the greatest 48-yard runs you'll ever see by Jeremiyah Love. In my mind, he's the best overall player in college football and deserves to be in consideration for the Heisman Trophy.

All in all, not much to complain about when it comes to the performance that the Irish displayed last night, but the job is not done, and it continues next week against Pittsburgh. And don't let anyone fool you into believing that game is an easy one. This Pittsburgh game is a big test for the Irish next Saturday, and the only one I'm worried about for the remainder of the regular season. The great news here is that Marcus Freeman is 5-1 in noon kickoff games, with his only loss coming at the hands of Clemson in 2023. The Irish once again control their own destiny as it relates to their playoff hopes. Win out and they're in; it really is that simple, but it's up to them to finish the job.

Onward to the next game....

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