EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — An undefeated Navy football team was supposed to provide a test for Notre Dame on Saturday.
Instead, the No. 24 Midshipmen provided the No. 12 Irish with ample opportunities to handle the matchup in MetLife Stadium with ease. Navy, who entered Saturday with just two turnovers through its first six games of the season, committed six turnovers, and Notre Dame took advantage of them in a 51-14 victory in East Rutherford, N.J.
Navy clearly wasn’t ready for the spotlight. Notre Dame continued to show that its College Football Playoff hopes should be taken seriously after a sixth consecutive victory following a loss to Northern Illinois that made the Irish a punchline.
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Notre Dame’s defense and special teams made sure an Irish offense that hasn’t always been consistent this season didn’t feel too much pressure to score on every possession. The Irish offense did plenty of scoring anyways.
Notre Dame’s defense accounted for four turnovers — three fumble recoveries and one interception. The special teams accounted for two more fumble recoveries on muffed return attempts by Navy on the only two punts of the game for James Rendell. The Irish recovered five fumbles in a game for the first time since 1977.
Meanwhile, Notre Dame never committed a turnover of its own, which made victory a surety. It’s hard to lose a game with a 6-0 turnover advantage. That’s why Irish head coach Marcus Freeman steered a question about Notre Dame’s ability to recover so many fumbles toward its ability to protect the football.
“You hear me say it all the time,” Freeman said. “I don't want to play ‘fit’ ball. I want to be aggressive and violent on defense, but probably more of the emphasis was on offense, because of the turnovers and fumbles they [Navy] were creating on defense. And that's probably what I'm most proud of, is that we put a huge emphasis on our scout team that every time there's a ball carrier, try to knock it out. And to have zero balls on the ground versus that defense is huge.”
Navy entered Saturday tied for 15th in the FBS in turnovers gained with 14 on 10 interceptions and four fumble recoveries.
Playing Notre Dame led Navy into a number of negative firsts on the season. The Midshipmen hadn’t lost a fumble all season until fullback Alex Tecza did so on Navy’s first drive.
When Navy failed to score on a red-zone trip in the second quarter, it became the first time in 25 tries this season in which Navy didn’t score in the red zone. The Midshipmen had previously registered 23 touchdowns and one field goal on 24 red-zone entries.
Navy hadn’t even trailed by more than seven points at any point this season. The Irish were up 14-0 less than 10 minutes into the first quarter. It was a different script for Notre Dame after trailing 7-0 in each of the past three games.
“Our ability to respond and reload, Coach Freeman talks about it all the time,” said Notre Dame quarterback Riley Leonard. “That’s one of his biggest things. Reload, reload, reload. Something bad happens, reload. Something good happens, reload. No matter what happened on the last play, you can’t let it affect the next. That’s just our MO now. We live by that.”
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Leonard led a balanced Notre Dame offensive attack with 178 passing yards and 83 rushing yards. He completed 13 of his 21 passes (61.9%) with touchdown connections of six yards to wide receiver Kris Mitchell in the first quarter and 37 yards to wide receiver Beaux Collins in the third quarter. Leonard, who rushed 10 times including one sack, gave Notre Dame its first touchdown on a one-yard sneak up the middle.
Running back Jeremiyah Love continued his breakout sophomore season with 12 carries for 102 yards with touchdown runs of 64 and two yards in the second quarter. He’s scored a rushing touchdown in all eight games this season and surpassed 100 yards for a second time.
A pair of previously injured starters — wide receiver Jordan Faison and offensive guard Billy Schrauth — gave Notre Dame’s offense their biggest contributions since early season injuries. Faison, who’s dealt with an ankle injury since the season opener, caught four passes for 52 yards. He only managed four catches for 29 yards while playing in four of ND’s first seven games. Schrauth played for the first time since suffering an ankle injury in the third game of the season against Purdue. But rather than reclaim his starting right guard spot, the Irish started him at left guard in place of a struggling Sam Pendleton.
“It's great to have him back,” Freeman said of Schrauth. “He's a heck of a player. We felt like this was what was best for this game, based off some of the previous evidence that we had.”
There was little evidence to suggest that Notre Dame would recover five fumbles against Navy. The Irish failed to recover the first five fumbles opponents had this season and only recovered three all season heading into Saturday. But time after time when Navy put the ball on the ground, Notre Dame made sure to corral it.
Shuler recovered the first fumble that Tecza dropped on a pitch from quarterback Blake Horvath. Shuler returned it 28 yards after defensive end Junior Tuihalamaka prevented Tecza from recovering it. Tuihalamaka recovered the next fumble from Horvath on Navy’s second drive of the game.
Punt returner Isaiah Bryant was responsible for the third Navy fumble when he failed to catch a punt cleanly. Linebacker Jack Kiser came away with that loose ball. Horvath fumbled again on his own when dropping back to pass near his own goal line and linebacker Jaylen Sneed recovered it in the end zone for a touchdown. The fifth lost fumble fell at the hands of Eli Heidenreich for failing to cleanly catch another punter. Irish safety Rod Heard II recovered that one.
Freshman cornerback Leonard Moore accounted for Notre Dame’s lone interception, which was also the first of his career. He caught intercepted a Horvath path in the end zone to prevent a Navy score early in the fourth quarter.
Navy put up 310 yards of offensive, 217 of which was accounted for by Horvath’s rushing (129 yards) and passing (88 yards). But its offense also accounted for four of the six lost turnovers.
At the end of its fall break, Notre Dame passed a test that was much easier than expected.
“That’s always a key to the game: defense has to wreak havoc on the ball, get the ball and create opportunities for our offense,” said Kiser, who tied with Sneed for a team-high nine tackles. “But you look at all phases of the game, we were able to do that. From special teams to defense, obviously, and then our offense took advantage of it when it mattered.”
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