Notre Dame (6-2) will look to win its seventh straight game when it takes on long time rival Navy (7-1). The Irish will look to have another blowout win in hopes of building on its College Football Playoff resume. Getting into the playoff is step one, but climbing high enough in the rankings to host a first round game would be ideal for the Irish. If that's going to happen the Notre Dame offense will need to be on top of its game against the Midshipmen.
Here are the keys to the Notre Dame offense playing that kind of football today:
1) Start Fast - This is always my first key, and for good reason. Notre Dame's offense needs a boost in momentum, which comes from confidence. Getting into an early rhythm and putting the ball in the end zone on multiple early drives would certainly do that for the offense. Getting CJ Carr into an early rhythm could help with this as will playing well up front (see key No. 3 below).
A fast start also helps the Notre Dame defense. If its own offense can score early and often it puts a ton of pressure on the Navy offense and takes some burden off the Irish defense. It has been over a decade since Chris Ash faced the Navy option, and this is a much tougher version to defend. If the Irish offense can get hot early it gives Ash time to get into the groove of the game as well, while also putting some pressure on Navy.
A fast start from the offense is also crucial if Notre Dame is going to earn the blowout win it needs to impress the committee.
2) Have A Blitz Plan - It's been interesting seeing all the different ways that defenses have chosen to defend and game plan for the Irish offense. Some times - like Boston College and NC State - are focused on shutting down the ground game. Other teams - like USC and Purdue - were more focused on stopping the pass game.
Navy has a major size and athleticism advantage against Notre Dame, so I doubt they just sick back and try to play the pass all game. Their hope to stop the Notre Dame offense rests on their ability to pressure the quarterback and clog up run lanes with a heavy and creative blitz package. Notre Dame didn't do a great job handling that against Boston College, and that will need to be better this week.
This includes having run game answers to gash the blitz as well has having answers with pass protection and pass routes. Notre Dame will need to be sound with its protection schemes, Carr will need to make smart protection calls, the offense will need to move the pocket and they will need to have some route concepts that make Navy pay for bringing pressure.
3) Dominate Up Front - Navy has an undersized front that averages just 274.3 pounds, two outside linebackers that average 209.5 pounds and its inside linebackers average just 225.5 pounds. They have solid athleticism, but this isn't one of the best front that we've seen from Navy over the last decade. Notre Dame's offensive line averages 315 pounds, and it averages 323.3 pounds inside. Their combination of size and talent should allow this line to dominate in this game in the run game, even if Navy tries to pressure.
That will require a strong run game plan and Joe Rudolph preparing the line to handle the pressures. If both of those things are true and the line executes the game plan they should dominate this football game.
4) Be More Creative - I'm not advocating for Notre Dame to run 50 new pass concepts and bring 10 run concepts into the game, but I think they can and must be more creative in how they implement the game plan. The run game needs to have some more answers if things aren't going well that include more than just Duo and its Mid/Outside Zones. The pass game could use some more creativity with presnap movement and post-snap switches to cause the defense to communicate more, which raises the odds they make a mistake in coverage.
The final piece, and this would be arguably the biggest, is be more creative with the personnel. Defenses are able to slow down Malachi Fields because they always know where he's going to be. The same is mostly true for tight end Eli Raridon as well. Fields has to be a bigger part of the pass game, and starting to move him around the formation in order to get him free and get him in more favorable matchups - and away from the bracket coverage - would be a great way to spark him, and in turn, spark the offense. If they can be more creative with how they use Fields and Raridon and make them more of a focal point in the pass game it will be much, much harder for teams to slow down the pass attack.
Getting the ball into Jeremiyah Love's hands in more creative ways would helps as well.
5) Finish - If the only thing this offense does different in this game is finish better - meaning touchdowns instead of red zone turnovers and missed field goals - they would be a Top 5 team in scoring and we'd be having a much different conversation about this offense. They absolutely need to finish in this game. That not only includes getting touchdowns, but also individual players finishing better on each snap, whether it's blocking, running and being more aggressive attacking the pass from the pass catchers.
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