Navy entered yesterday’s game against Notre Dame ranked for the second time since 1979. They left the game the recipients of a 51-14 beatdown at the hands of the Fighting Irish. Notre Dame led from start to finish with there being hardly any moment in which the outcome felt even a little unsure. Given how so many of Notre Dame’s opponents have underachieved all year, it was an opportunity for the Irish to make a statement against a ranked opponent. They seized that opportunity and then some with an easy afternoon at the office.
Riley Leonard looked in control from start to finish
Notre Dame has been starting slow almost all year, save for the Purdue game. That was not the case on Saturday. In my preview article, I wrote that Notre Dame needed to get the ball first and score on their opening drive to set the tone. Navy helped the Irish in that regard by winning the toss and deferring. Riley Leonard responded with a 9-play, 75-yard touchdown drive that included a critical third-down conversion to Jaden Greathouse.
Leonard started off on fire, connecting on his first seven attempts before an incomplete pass in the corner of the endzone to Jayden Thomas. On the day, he finished with a modest 178 yards on 13 of 21 passing with 2 TDs, but he could have had a lot more if Notre Dame wanted him to. Navy has almost no answers for anything the Irish threw at them all day long. He added another 83 yards rushing and now has 539 yards rushing on the season to go along with 11 rushing TDs after picking up another one yesterday.
PFF graded Leonard a 91.2 – the highest for any offensive player on the day and Leonard’s best single-game rating of his career. He’s had plenty of ups and downs this season,. Still, he continues to grow more comfortable in the offense and has an opportunity to finish strong in November with another bye week upcoming to work.
Navy’s turnovers weren’t all “unforced”
The story of the day defensiwas were the six turnovers the Notre Dame defense produced. Skeptics will say that most of those turnovers were unforced since Navy players kept dropping the ball. Those drops would not have all occurred, however, if Navy wasn’t feeling the pressure that the Notre Dame defense was applying all game long. Notre Dame is technically not credited with a single forced fumble on their five recoveries, although I’m unsure how there wasn’t a registered FF on the fumble in the endzone.
Still, Navy came into this game, losing just two fumbles all season. Those mistakes don’t magically start to happen unless the offense is feeling pressure from the defense. Notre Dame was fortunate that the ball bounced their way as much as it did, but after all the bad fumble luck they’ve had the last two years, the Irish were bound for some good luck for a change.
Jordan Faison looked the healthiest we’ve seen him
Jordan Faison didn’t post eye-popping numbers, but his four catches for 52-yard performance should be encouraging for Notre Dame fans because yesterday was the healthiest we’ve seen him all season long. We got glimpses of Faison being back to full strength in previous weeks, but he doubled his season output in receptions yesterday alone. It was evident earlier this year that while he might have been healthy enough to play, he wasn’t himself. We’re starting to see him get back to the receiver that won the starting field receiver spot in camp when everyone assumed he was just a slot receiver.
Faison at 100% is huge for Notre Dame down the stretch, as the offense still has work to do for the Irish to make any sort of noise in the post-season should they win out in November.
Al Golden knows how to stop Navy
Notre Dame gave up some yards to Navy yesterday, but you are bound to give up yards to them every year. Al Golden, however, showed that he knows how to scheme against the Navy’s triple option even when it has more of a threat to pass than it has in years past. Outside of two long runs allowed—which also should have been expected given the youth of the Irish defense—Notre Dame kept the Midshipmen from stringing together long drives and kept them out of the end zone.
Navy had not been stopped in the redzone all season prior to yesterday’s matchup. The Irish forced two redzone stops alone on Saturday afternoon in Met Life Stadium. Eight games into the season, just one opponent has scored more than 20 points on the Irish defense.
Progress from James Rendell
There have been some rough spots during the James Rendell experiment this year, but the Aussie transfer had a pretty good outing in limited action. He was only needed twice, but he averaged 45 yards per punt with a long of 49 while having one punt land inside the 20. Rendell’s only punt against Stanford went for 24 yards, and he averaged just 37.5 yards a kick against Georgia Tech, so signs of progress would have been positive, and he responded well.
Notre Dame really needs Mitch Jeter back
Without Mitch Jeter again this week, the kicking game was an adventure. Walkon Zac Yoakam has filled in admirably, but the Irish missed another very makeable field goal from 32 yards out when they had a chance to make the score 17-0 early. Yoakam is 2 of 4 over the last two games which isn’t terrible, but there could very well be a game in November or December where a missed chip shot field goal could haunt them.
Third down was finally a money down
Notre Dame has not been great on third down this season, but they were on Saturday. The Irish converted on 8 of 13 (61.5%) third downs on the afternoon. Notre Dame was 29 of 77 on third down (37%) before Saturday. If Notre Dame can convert anywhere close to that 61.5% over the month of November, they’ll be in the playoffs.
Kyngstonn Viliamu-Asa’s roughing the passer penalty was a joke
While Notre Dame didn’t have an official forced fumble on the day, they should have. Freshman Kyngstonn Villiamu-Asa forced one on what should have been a sack that was ridiculously flagged for roughing the passer.
Villiamu-Asa makes a heck of a play here and should have been credited with a sack and a forced fumble on this play, as I struggle to understand in what world that is roughing the passer. It didn’t matter for the outcome of the game, but it’s unfortunate for the youngster that a great play like that was wiped out by a ref inserting themselves into the game. But that is what ACC officials do every week throughout the country.
