Notre Dame Pulls Away From Navy To Earn A Frustrating 35-13 Win

Notre Dame stumbled through the first half against a undermanned Navy team for a 35-13 win to set up the showdown everyone has circled in Miami next week. Coming off of a bye week and a disappointing loss to BYU two weeks ago, the Fighting Irish (7-1)  looked to bounce back against a now 2-6 Navy in Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Mass.

Quarterback CJ Carr started the game 7 of 14 for 80 yards but started the second half going 10 for 10 and finishing with 210 yards, two touchdowns and a 66% completion percentage. Nolan James Jr. got the start today and rewarded Marcus Freeman for the nod leading all Irish rushers with 107 yards on 9 carries and two scores. Jonaz Walton and Aneyas Williams chipped in 51 and 29 yards respectively and Walton added a touchdown. Jerome Bettis Jr. led all receivers with six grabs for 78 yards and a score.

The game started with very limited series for each team which is exactly how Navy wanted this game to go. Navy opened the game with a 14 play 44 yard drive that ended with a 38 yard field goal by freshman Nolan Bartley. The key stat on this drive was the 8:17 taken off the clock. The Notre Dame defense stiffened in the red zone but they had very few answers for Navy’s triple option attack led by quarterback Jackson Gutierrez.

The Irish offense answered with an 11 play 75 yard drive capped off by an 11-yard touchdown catch by Micah Gilbert. Notre Dame did their best Navy impression by taking 4:56 off the clock. The drive was highlighted by Carr’s five for seven effort and the scoring throw to Gilbert.

Undaunted, Navy took another 8:43 off the clock as they traveled 66 yards in 16 plays for another Nolan Bartley field goal this time from 26 yards out. Gutierrez ran with the ball on 11 of the 16 plays and actually threw the ball for a gain of 15 yards as well. Once again the Irish defense keeps the Midshipmen out of the end zone to maintain a one point lead.

The ensuing possession for Notre Dame was a three and out which gave Navy another opportunity to take the lead, and they did. Gutierrez capped off an 11-play 63-yard drive that took 5:38 off the clock with a two yard rushing touchdown giving the Middies a 13-7 lead with 1:52 to play in the first half.

The Irish took the field to operate their two minute offense and started the drive with four straight Carr passes where he went two for four for 20 yards. Then they handed it off to James. That was a good decision by offensive coordinator Mike Denbrock because James took the ball and scampered 52 yards for the Irish score to put Notre Dame up 14-13 at half time.

The second half began the way the first half ended with an Irish touchdown. This time with an 11-play 78-yard drive that ended with a three yard score by Walton to make the score 21-13. The Irish defense started to figure out the Navy offense as the the only two drives for the Midshipmen in the third quarter totaled 9 plays for 25 yards which included a punt and a turnover on downs. 

The Carr led offense started to find their groove as well as they scored touchdowns on the next two times they saw the football. First James got loose for a 23-yard score and then the Irish took advantage of the turnover on downs and went two plays for 43 yards capped off by a 31 yard pitch and catch from Carr to Bettis to make the score 35-13.

The fourth quarter gave way to the Irish backups to finish up the game. Quarterback Noah Grubbs completed his only pass for 12 yards and Kedron Young added 13 yards on three attempts to close it out. Irish fans who were hoping for a dominant Notre Dame performance from start to finish will be disappointed with this game. The Irish struggled to figure out Navy’s triple option offense and allowed the Midshipmen to eat up over 23:00 of first half clock keeping the Irish offense on the bench. They seemed to figure things out and the game slowed down for them in the second half only allowing Navy 56 total yards compared to 189 in the first half. 

Notre Dame out-gained Navy 426-245 and had 25 first downs to Navy's 15. The Irish had 222 pass yards and 204 rush yards in the win.

The Irish will have to get some things figured out on both sides of the ball as they prepare to welcome #1 Miami to Notre Dame Stadium next Saturday for a primetime showdown that will undoubtedly be the game of the week.

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