Dominating Up Front Is A Key To Victory for the Notre Dame Defense

Notre Dame has performed well on defense for much of the season, but in the loss to BYU that unit struggled. The 5th-ranked Fighting Irish will look to get its defense back on track against a potent Navy option attack. Notre Dame is a bit beat up on defense, but the unit has done well against the option in recent season and should be able to handle business in this matchup as well.

For that to happen, Notre Dame will need to have a game plan that is sound and one the players execute at a high level. Being assignment correct is always a key to handling the option, as is being aggressive and taking the fight to the offense. Beyond that, there are four specific keys to handling this version of the Navy option offense.

1. Control The Middle Of The Line of Scrimmage - Handling the interior of the line is always an important ingredient to slowing down a productive option offense. This serves several purposes, including playing a key role in shutting down the fullback run game and the quick trap plays. Navy has struggled to gets its fullback going this season, and Notre Dame needs to make sure that continues in this game. Dominating up the middle, and being sound of the middle, plays a key role in that.

The second result of dominating up the middle is it plays a big role in throwing the offense off rhythm. Being aggressive up the middle forces the quarterback to make faster decisions on the true triple plays, it plays a role in causing him to bow as he works laterally on the speed option plays and it plays a key role in shutting down the designed run plays.

Navy is dangerous getting outside this season, but it wants to still play an inside-out game. When teams are focused on shutting down the inside runs it opens up perimeter opportunities. If Notre Dame dominates up the middle it forces the ball outside and makes the offense more predictable, which then allows the speed on the Irish defense to rally to the ball and shut down the perimeter runs.

2. Win Early Downs - Defending Navy is quite different than defending traditional offenses, and it goes beyond just playing the option. It's harder to force them into pass heavy situations, and the Navy offense is also more than willing to go for it on fourth-down. The key to shutting down this offense is dominating early downs and putting Navy in tougher third and fourth-down situations. When Navy faces 2nd-and-long and third-and-long situations it's much less effective. While this is true for most teams, it's even more damaging to a Navy offense that doesn't have the pass game repertoire to really be highly effective in "have to thrown" situations.

3. Shut Down The QB Run Game - The Navy ground game has been built around the quarterbacks this season, with the Midshipmen getting three 200+ rushing yard games from its quarterbacks this season. Jackson Gutierrez took over when Braxton Woodson went down and he's hitting his stride. Gutierrez has rushed for 596 yards (198.7 YPG) and eight touchdowns in the last three games, which includes 232 yards in the win over Tulsa and 225 yards in the 49-39 loss to North Texas.

Having a plan to hit him early and often is key, getting him out of rhythm is important, and not allowing him to cut inside is crucial. Hitting him early keeps him from getting downhill and getting upfield, but when Gutierrez does look to get outside he wants to get the defense working laterally and then he'll burst vertically through an opening. Forcing him to the sideline is a key to shutting him down when he does look to attack the perimeter.

4. Have A Plan For Braxton Woodson - Woodson began the season as the starting quarterback, but in the last couple of games Navy has gotten him on the field at the same time as Gutierrez. He's a legit weapon who rushed for over 100 yards against the Irish last season. You can fully expect Navy to make him a bigger part of this game plan, both as a runner and as a trick play guy, like we saw in the UTSA game when he took a handoff and then threw the ball back to Gutierrez for a 63-yard gain. Notre Dame will have to be prepared for Woodson to go at them in different ways, and be ready to shut him down.

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