Notre Dame was unrelenting, and it took a page out of Navy’s book Saturday in a 51-14 romp at MetLife Stadium.
The 12th-ranked Irish (7-1) handed the 24th-ranked Midshipmen (7-1) their first loss of the season in blowout fashion. Navy had won its previous 3 games a combined 126-42 and entered Saturday’s matchup as a true darling in college football. Now, the Middies will undoubtedly serve as a crucial résumé-building bullet for a Notre Dame team that has rebounded quite nicely from its upset earlier in the season.
Marcus Freeman’s bunch can’t grab a first-round bye, but they can play their way into virtual lock status if they keep winning. They’ve won 6 straight since the loss to NIU. And only 1 of those victories was by less than 18 points.
Dread it. Run from it. The Notre Dame playoff push is very much alive and well.
Here are 3 more takeaways from Saturday’s game.
Turnovers sink the Middies
Entering Saturday’s matchup, Navy had the second-best turnover margin in the FBS. They’d only given the ball away twice in their previous 6 games. Both of those came in the opener. Both of them were interceptions.
Since, Navy fumbled the football 3 total times and recovered all of them.
The Midshipmen had 7 fumbles against Notre Dame. They lost 5 of them.
They finished with 6 total turnovers. Quarterback Blake Horvath was picked off in the back of the endzone early in the fourth quarter to halt a drive that had pushed inside the red zone. That was the only turnover that was really “forced” by the Notre Dame defense all day. Navy was just sloppy with the football.
Navy fumbled the football away on both of its first 2 possessions of the game and Notre Dame took a 14-0 lead early. Navy got a touchdown early in the second, but immediately gave up a 3-play, 75-yard scoring strike to Notre Dame on the ensuing possession.
When Navy was able to force a 3-and-out a few possessions later, it muffed the punt that gave the ball to Notre Dame on Navy’s side of the 50. Tailback Jeremiyah Love scored from 2 yards out to put Notre Dame up 28-7.
And while Horvath has been encouraging this season as a passer, Navy was never going to be able to hang with Notre Dame’s athletes if the game got lopsided early. The offense has operated from the spread to a higher degree this season, but a 3-score hole effectively ended the game with 5:05 to play in the second quarter.
Notre Dame led 31-7 at the half. It answered a strong touchdown march from Navy to open the third with a touchdown drive of its own and then recovered a Horvath fumble in the endzone to go up 44-14.
The Irish never looked back.
Riley Leonard and Jeremiyah Love ball out
Leonard finished the day 13-for-21 passing for 178 yards and 2 scores. He added 83 yards and a rushing touchdown on 10 carries. Love hit for 102 and 2 scores on 12 carries.
Love broke off a 64-yard touchdown run for Notre Dame’s third score — the one that followed a Navy touchdown and kept the Irish at arm’s length. Leonard was responsible for 8 explosive plays, five passing and 3 rushing. He hit a 42-yard pass to Jaden Greathouse and ran it for 24 yards in the third quarter.
Notre Dame averaged 7.2 yards per play and went 8-for-13 on third downs. The Irish were excellent on first downs (8 yards per play) and only faced 1 third-down all day that was longer than 8 yards.
Through its first 6 games, Navy punished teams for mistakes and sliced them to pieces with ruthless offensive efficiency. That was Notre Dame’s entire script on Saturday. Leonard and Love operated it to perfection.
Defensive question mark
What should we take away from the defensive performance Notre Dame put out against Navy? Horvath got loose a few times for long chunk gains. He scored early in the second quarter on a 47-yarder. He also had a 60-yard gain and finished the day with 129 rushing yards on 14 carries.
Notre Dame kept the pass game completely blanketed — just 88 total yards — but gave up 222 yards on the ground.
A triple-option attack is always going to stress test a defense. The rushing yardage is going to be a little inflated. But Navy also averaged 5.2 yards per carry. It was the first time since Sept. 7 Notre Dame allowed more than 4 yards per carry to an opposing rushing attack.
It ultimately didn’t matter. Navy couldn’t hold onto the football. But if the coaching staff is looking for areas to harp on in the days ahead, this is probably it. Notre Dame has Army left on the schedule later this season. That was the only FBS team in the country with fewer turnovers than Navy entering Saturday’s action. Unless Notre Dame is going to recover 5 of 7 fumbles again, it’ll probably need a better performance from the front seven.
Derek Peterson does a bit of everything, not unlike Taysom Hill. He has covered Oklahoma, Nebraska, the Pac-12, and now delivers CFB-wide content.
