Frank Commentary
There’s no question that Saturday’s game with Navy is an important game. To use “the Godfather” reference I used at the beginning of the year, Navy is part of “settling all family business.” The Irish have done an excellent job so far in “Family Business” with big wins over Boston College, Michigan State and USC thus far, and have Navy and Stanford yet to go.
The Midshipmen have been a thorn in Notre Dame’s side for quite some time, and it’s time for the Irish to set the universe straight again.
Notre Dame might be catching Navy at the right time, fortunately. With both quarterbacks who have played meaningful minutes currently banged up in Zach Abey and Malcom Perry, the Midshipmen find themselves in a difficult situation.
The third QB, Garrett Lewis, hasn’t played a lot of minutes. He has rushed just 16 times for 46 total yards and just 2.9 yards per carry. You cannot win in this offense with those kind of rushing stats from your QB. Lewis has completed 9-of-18 passes for 166 yards and 2 TDs, so he can throw it a bit.
Why this matters is the option game is a game of timing. You have to have great timing with the rest of your teammates for this offense to work efficiently. With a player like Malcon Perry, who is listed at a very generous185 pounds, having a bad ankle sprain, I don’t think his body can take the pounding he will take in a game like this, and I think his timing will be off even if he does play due to the injury. His game is speed to the perimeter, and he won’t have that with a banged up ankle. He doesn’t have the body to take a physical pounding running inside the tackles for four quarters. I’d be surprised if he plays.
With Zach Abey, his left shoulder appears to be the injury. Even if it’s not his throwing shoulder, an option QB takes a tremendous amount of hits during the game, and it would only take one solid one and he’s out of the game.
Knowing that about Abey and Perry, does it make sense for Navy head coach, Ken Niumatalolo, to rep banged up QBs this week knowing they’re one play away from getting hurt and your backup is in the game with little reps and timing with the offense? Abey didn’t take a single team rep last week, so his shoulder was obviously significantly injured.
My guess is we’ll see Lewis play for Navy on Saturday unless some miraculous recovery is made by Abey or Perry this week. ND fans definitely want to face Lewis. There is a reason they moved Perry from slotback to QB just last week after playing slotback all fall. They obviously didn’t have a lot of faith in Lewis.
Abey is a solid QB, but he’s not very effective with the Navy perimeter game, and Lewis has the speed to get outside and be a danger on the perimeter. With Abey having done most of his damage between the tackles, that’s where the hits are going to come, and I’m just not sure you want to subject your QB to more punishment, especially if they expect Perry to be sidelined for awhile and the Army game left on the schedule.
Niumatalolo will have a difficult decision to make. If he reps Abey this week, that will take away reps from Lewis in the critical “timing” part of this offense. If Abey goes down early, he will have no chance to win, and further hurt his chances of having Abey for Army later this month.
One thing will be important on Saturday for Notre Dame’s defense, no matter who is playing QB for Navy, the Irish need to prepare an aggressive style of defense. If it’s Lewis, making him make decisions quicker than he wants will neutralize him. If it’s Abey or Perry, being aggressive heightens the chance they’ll be out of the game quickly.
The flip side to this is Notre Dame’s offense. What will they do? What should they do?
For years Irish fans have obsessed about how Notre Dame defends the option, and for good reason as we've seen some awful attempts at doing that. But, the real problem for Notre Dame in this game in recent years has been their offense and their inability to score enough points and touchdowns against Navy's defense. That.....has been the real problem.
There will be a real temptation here for ND offensive coordinator, Chip Long, to get Brandon Wimbush back on track in the passing game. Wimbush clearly needs some confidence, and he’ll need it against Stanford and the bowl opponent for certain.
However, Notre Dame usually loses this game because they forget one thing—they’re bigger, stronger, and faster than Navy’s defense. They need to push them off the ball—take all fight out of their defense. It’s when ND tries to throw the ball all over Navy that they struggle with this team. Pound the football. Use your physical advantages and take all the fight out of this very suspect defense. Notre Dame’s inability to score touchdowns in the red zone against Navy has been a problem, and establishing the run and dominating the line of scrimmage will assure that you’re scoring seven instead of three on the limited possessions you get.
Notre Dame needs to score a touchdown every time on offense. If they do that, it won’t matter what Navy does on offense, or who is playing QB. Notre Dame’s best chance to do that is running the football.
I understand that Wimbush needs help, reps and some confidence in the pass game, but once you’ve established that dominance running the football, some wide open plays in the passing game should be there to do just that.
Run the football…penetration and attack on defense. It’s always been the best formula to beat Navy, and any option team.