Thoughts, observations from rewatching Notre Dame’s win over Navy
The at-first-glance relative ease of Notre Dame’s 34-6 win over Navy sells short the chess match between the Fighting Irish quarterbacks and Midshipmen defensive coordinator Brian Newberry.
Notre Dame averaged 7.0 yards per play, completed 80 percent of its passes and converted seven of 13 third downs. A seemingly stress-free win on paper, though, was no simple task. Newberry’s variety of blitzes and disguises kept Notre Dame quarterbacks Jack Coan and Tyler Buchner on alert.
In the end, Coan and Buchner handled them well, as did the rest of the offense. But there were intermittent speed bumps, especially early on, that slowed Notre Dame’s offense out of the gate.
Navy repeatedly brought pressure from the second level, with slot defender John Marshall, and safety Eavan Gibbons as frequent rushers. The Midshipmen often showed Cover 0 blitzes on passing downs, with six players at the line of scrimmage. Sometimes, they sent heavy pressure out of that front, as expected. Other times, they dropped two defenders back and rushed four. Navy also rushed three on some passing downs.
At first, the unpredictability had Notre Dame off-balance. Navy dropped eight on the first third down and caused Coan to scramble for merely three yards. They did it again on the first play of the next drive, causing a Coan throwaway (and a miss of wide-open sophomore tight end Michael Mayer running across the field).
Two plays later, on third-and-four, Navy rushed six and forced Coan to throw hot to junior running back Kyren Williams on a screen. It resulted in a two-yard loss when the first man to hit Williams brought him down.
Notre Dame went three-and-out on its first two drives. The third reached the red zone, aided by a pair of Williams runs and a 31-yard play-action pass to freshman wide receiver Deion Colzie. Notre Dame caught Navy in a safety blitz on one of Williams’ runs, a nine-yard gain when he bounced outside.
Notre Dame tried to find Colzie on a second-and-11 fade from 26 yards out. Coan had time when junior left guard Andrew Kristofic came off a double-team to pick up Marshall on a slot blitz, but his pass sailed too long. Navy put six players on the line of scrimmage on third-and-11, but dropped two back into a zone defense and forced Coan to check down.
The drive died on fourth-and-four on the 19-yard line when Navy showed the same six-man front, but brought all six. It beat Notre Dame’s five-man protection and led to the first of Navy’s two sacks.
Rees called a play that should often work against that blitz. Coan looked to his left to find Williams on a tunnel screen, but defensive end J’arius Warren defeated freshman left tackle Joe Alt’s cutblock and stood in the throwing lane. Coan had to hold the ball. Meanwhile, Marshall came unblocked off the right side. Coan never saw him until it was too late to throw to Avery Davis in the flat on the other side.
From there, though, Notre Dame had answers.
Navy dropped eight on third-and-five on Notre Dame’s next possession, but Coan still found Mayer for 14 yards. The next play, he burned Navy on another zero blitz. Navy sent seven against a six-man protection. Coan saw it and knew he had senior wide receiver Kevin Austin Jr. running a go route one-on-one with no safety help. He let it fly to Austin right before the unblocked man hit him for a 38-yard gain.
Coan wasn’t alone in beating blitzes. Buchner led all but one play of Notre Dame’s first touchdown drive. On the penultimate play, Notre Dame faced third-and-seven from Navy’s 11-yard line. Newberry loaded the line of scrimmage again. He sent four rushers and kept a pair of spies in the flat, but Buchner understood the secondary was playing man coverage across the board and delivered a decisive, on-time throw to Austin at the marker.
The pass gained 11 yards and set up Williams’ one-yard touchdown plunge.
Finally, Coan’s 70-yard touchdown to Austin was a third-and-seven play right before halftime. Navy dropped eight and played zone. Coan had time to look a safety off with his eyes and find Austin down the sideline.
Notre Dame outscored Navy 17-0 in the second quarter in no small part because it adjusted to Navy’s pressures and disguises. Navy sacked Coan once in the second half when nobody picked up cornerback Michael McMorris on a blitz. But that was it.
All told, Coan was 10-of-12 for 87 yards with two sacks against blitzes. He was pressured on just seven of his 31 dropbacks (21.9 percent), and Pro Football Focus did not charge the offensive line with either sack. The front five communication seemed strong, save for the second sack. Twice in the first half, a guard came off a double-team to stifle a slot blitz. Sophomore running back Chris Tyree also picked up a safety blitz on freshman wide receiver Lorenzo Styles Jr.’s 13-yard catch in the third quarter.
Diving into the defense
Even Notre Dame head coach Brian Kelly acknowledged this Navy team isn’t among the best he has faced in his 12-year tenure. The Midshipmen don’t have dynamic slotbacks who can stretch Notre Dame’s defense horizontally or a passing game that provides much of a downfield threat. Quarterback Tai Lavatai’s first-half departure due to injury didn’t help the latter.
As a result, Navy found itself running up the middle on fullback dives for much of the game. Notre Dame’s interior line and middle linebackers were ready for it. Graduate student nose guard Kurt Hinish’s career day was partially a product of Navy’s up-the-gut tendencies. He was also too quick for Navy’s linemen to reach him on angle blocks, pulls and traps.
Navy’s line had trouble handling the Notre Dame defensive front. This year’s Midshipmen team isn’t blessed with a strong line either. Notre Dame had 12 tackles for loss or no gain. That’s not including the safety, when Navy muffed a pitch in its own end zone.
In all, Navy ran 58 plays and gave its three fullbacks 27 carries. Those dives totaled 78 yards, with a long of 10 yards. The only two other run plays to gain 10 or more yards were a 32-yard reverse when the defense lost contain and an 18-yard gain on a late pitch when sophomore vyper Jordan Botelho came off the pitch man.
Other notes
• Coan’s average release time was 2.5 seconds or faster in three straight games. Against Navy, it was 3.02 seconds. His average depth of target remained short, at 6.7 yards.
• Navy threw the ball three times, but it called eight passing plays when counting three scrambles and two sacks.
• Remove the 32-yard reverse and two 18-yard gains, and Navy totaled 116 yards on its other 55 plays.
• Junior Zeke Correll, who started the first six games at left guard, was in the game at his original position (center) for the last few plays of Notre Dame’s final drive.
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