Perry is Scary Good
No one is picking Notre Dame to lose this game, which always is dangerous. When everyone expects you to win, it’s easy to let your guard down.
There is no room for any of that against Navy and their offense, though. If one defensive player isn’t doing his job on a defensive play, it can end badly for the Irish. That’s the beauty of the triple option offense. Great execution can lead to absolute disfunction on the other side of the ball. If that is happening, then it’s incredibly tough to get that kind of offense off the field.
What makes this version of the Navy offense even more difficult to defend has to do with their personnel as much as it is their system. Specifically, it is one player who emerged at quarterback last week that could be the biggest reason why this game can closer the experts think.
Perry is explosive
Navy went into the game against Southern Methodist last week in a funk. After a 5-0 start, they had lost their last three and the most recent game was the most frustrating to date. Close losses to Memphis and UCF were one thing, but getting shut down for only 136 yards rushing against Temple? Something had to change for them to get back on track.
An injury to quarterback Zach Abey might have been the catalyst for it, but a switch to quarterback for slot back Malcolm Perry sparked them to 559 yards on the ground against SMU. 282 of those came from Perry.
Perry was already productive as a runner, receiver, and returner before the move. Putting the ball in his hands more changed the dynamic of their offense, though. Abey is a good runner and really excels in short yardage, but he is not a threat to break a big play on every run like Perry is. On only 77 carries, Perry has broken 10 for them for over 20 yards. That includes this 92 yard score he had last week.
Every Notre Dame fan probably still has nightmares of Keenan Reynolds and his long runs against the Irish, but even Reynolds didn’t have this kind of speed. In addition to that flat out straight line speed, Perry also has terrific vision and ability to cut on a dime. If the pursuit is flowing too fast against him, he can do this sort of thing.
I’m way more scared of him doing what does here, though. The end looks like he is primed to make the play on him, but a slight hesitation is all it takes on this counter option for Perry to explode up the field for another big chunk run.
Notre Dame may have Navy in a bad spot behind the sticks on some drives and Perry can change that in a split second by doing what he did there.
So how do they stop Perry? They may not have to. He sprained his ankle in the second half of SMU game and there is speculation that he won’t be available this week against the Irish. If that’s the case, then Notre Dame just caught a massive break.
Regardless of if he does or doesn’t, I’m sure they’ve been preparing to play against Perry all week. And I’d guess that they are planning to play super aggressive if he is in the game by forcing the pitch just about every time. That puts pressure on the Irish corners and safeties to get in position to make tackles on the pitch man, but I think that’s a better alternative than having Perry run the ball often when he gets to the perimeter.
Anyone will tell you that the key to stopping any option team is to shut down the dive first. I think that goes without saying. The next part of the equation is the quarterback. And if Perry is playing quarterback for them, then stopping him becomes the main objective. He is a dangerous runner and even if he is unavailable to play in this game, Notre Dame will still have to deal with him for another two years when they play the Midshipmen.