Instant Reaction | Notre Dame 42 Navy 3

Camp can be brutal. There’s ups and downs, bumps and bruises, and days where players might question just how good they really are.

There had to be some of those days for Notre Dame’s offense during a fall camp where the defense didn’t just get the better of them, but often dominated.

It was a bit of a mystery as to how Notre Dame would look in week zero against Navy. While people were confident that the Irish had upgraded significantly at quarterback, there was the unknown of how two new guards would do in their first real snaps or how the receivers would do when they had a tougher time against the Irish corners for most of August or how Gerad Parker, the inexperienced offensive coordinator, would do against a defense that frankly embarrassed the Notre Dame offense in the second half of their matchup in 2022. 

I guess that can be put to rest now. It was a stellar showing all around.

Sam Hartman was fantastic. He looked every bit the mature leader who had won games and put up numbers at Wake Forest. A new system didn’t hurt him one bit.

Parker was on point from the start. Everything from the running game using pin and pull to get downhill to the timing of his play-action calls and the decision to run against a light box on the very first 3rd down opportunity seemed to hit the right note. The use of tempo kept Navy’s defense off balance and the pressure that overwhelmed the Irish last year was nowhere to be found.

The depth in the backfield shined. The receivers made plays after the catch. The offensive line and the tight ends bullied Navy in the running game.

The first five drives ended up in touchdowns for Notre Dame. Sure, it’s Navy and not Ohio State, but that didn’t stop what happened last season. The Irish offense needed to make a statement that they were prepared to handle everything the Navy could throw at them and they did that and then some.

42 points on 57 plays. That’ll work.

- The defense did their part as well. Navy came out with a good opening script to start the game with multiple formations and had the Irish on their heels for a moment.

It was just for a moment, though.

As soon as Navy got off schedule with Dabo Fofana getting stuffed by Jordan Botelho for no gain, that essentially ended a promising opening drive.

They averaged 5.4 yards per play on that drive. They averaged 2.7 YPP from that drive on.

Navy’s offense could never find a rhythm and they couldn’t buy an explosive play in the running game. They had zero carries for over 20 yards and it took them until eight minutes left in the fourth quarter to complete a big play in the passing game.

Any time a defense holds Navy to 126 yards rushing, it’s an A+.

- Last season Navy’s defense was 26th in EPA per rush, 9th in opportunity rate (the percentage of carries (when four yards are available) that gain at least four yards), and 7th in stuff rate (runs against that went for zero yards or less).

Teams attempted the least amount of first down rushes against them of any defense over the entire season because they only gave up 2.55 yards per carry on first down. The Irish averaged 9.0 yards per play and 6.7 yards per carry on first down against them today.

A lot of that had to do with the blocking up front and both Pat Coogan and Rocco Spindler handled themselves very well. Notre Dame’s backs did a great job running through contact and as well with Audric Estime and Gi’Bran Payne in particular running with authority.

- Navy had five sacks in the second half last season and had a Havoc rate of 38.9% after halftime.

They had zero sacks today and the Havoc rate was 8.8%.

- Notre Dame had five passing plays of 20 yards or more in this game on only 23 passing attempts from Hartman. They didn’t push the ball down the field a ton, but they didn’t need to because they were making plays after the catch.

Navy’s pass defense is bad. I don’t want to overhype what Notre Dame or Hartman did by any means. But 10.9 yards per attempt, completing 83% of your passes, and doing thing like making that third down check to Estime out of the backfield for 21 yards and avoiding the rush to find Jaden Greathouse for a touchdown in the second half were some of the great added on to the just plain good.

- What a moment for JD Price to have his first career carry be a house call. What a moment for Jaden Greathouse to have his first career catch be a deep ball touchdown.

I was raving about Notre Dame’s young talent after camp and it’s great to see big things already happening for them early in the season.

- Jeremiyah Love looked really, really good showing he’s a lot more than a track guy. He has great feet and showed great vision as well.

- Parker definitely knew that Navy safety Rayaun Lane was a liability in coverage and treated him as such. He got cooked by Tobias Merriweather on what was called and should have stayed a pass interference call (the ball as under thrown), he got beat by Greathouse for his touchdown, and he committed another big penalty on Tyree down the middle of the field to set Notre Dame up in the red zone.

- This wasn’t a huge Havoc rate game for Notre Dame’s defense (12.7%), but it typically isn’t against a team who is trying to grind out positive plays.

The key was getting timely havoc plays from Javontae Jean-Baptiste in the red zone after Howard Cross destroyed the guard and forced a field goal attempt and then a big Rylie Mills sack on an attempted throwback to the quarterback play that was well covered by Marist Liufau.

Speaking of Liufau, I think most would have picked JD Bertrand as the linebacker who would have shown the most in this game, but Liufau was fantastic. He was violent, fast, and though his forced fumble wasn’t recovered, it showed the kind of player he had looked like in camp.

It’s certainly a good start to the season for someone Notre Dame fans are hoping is the player he was prior to his 2021 ankle injury.

- Navy coach Brian Newberry is someone I have admired because of how he transformed Navy’s defense over the last few years. I think he has a long road ahead of him in turning around the program, though.

They don’t have enough talent on offense and they desperately missed a game wrecker like linebacker/safety John Marshall on defense.

Double woof to that field goal attempt to avoid getting shut out too. That’s not the kind of mentality he has been known for and hopefully not who is as a head coach going forward.

- When you dominate a game like this in every area, there really isn’t much to complain about.

Notre Dame is always supposed to beat Navy, but they don’t always beat them like this. They decisively won on 3rd down and in the red zone. They won both lines of scrimmage by a decisive margin. They outcoached Navy by an even wider margin.

This is where the credit needs to go to Marcus Freeman. There’s a reason why people were buzzing about the team in camp and he demonstrated that he had a handle on how hard to push his players and when to back off.

He and the staff, especially Parker and defensive coordinator Al Golden, showed they learned from last season and were completely prepared for this match up.

It’s one win. Heck, it’s not even week one yet. They won a game in week zero, so no one should get carried away and crown them as contenders quite yet. But he talked about looking at what was right in front of them rather than putting too much focus on the big picture goals of winning a championship. That absolutely worked for them to open the season and it can’t be seen as anything but a good sign of what is possible later on.

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