A staple game of the Notre Dame-Navy series took place yesterday in Foxborough, Mass. If you had not seen the game but simply knew the series in general, would you believe that Navy controlled the clock on early possessions to shorten the game and threaten an upset bid in the first half, before Irish adjustments on both sides of the ball allowed their talent advantages to kick in and sent them cruising to a fine-but-annoying victory?
It was a slog as it so often is, but the Irish got it done and can return to South Bend for the first time in nearly a month for perhaps their biggest home game in a generation. Let's put a bow on it.
One of the biggest complaints Notre Dame fans had coming out of the BYU game was poor preparation and in-game coaching, particularly from the coordinators on both sides of the ball. Those fans had plenty to play with in the first half as Chris Ash's defense seemed like they were playing the option for the first time despite the benefit of not only having played Navy last year, but also Wisconsin and BYU offenses who use a lot of similar concepts. At the same time, Mike Denbrock's maddening refusal to lead with a running game that could have (and did later) pushed the Mids around and helped the Irish regain some control of the block helped Navy not only keep Notre Dame's offense off the field but grab the lead late in the second quarter.
Of course, if we are going to give Ash and Denbrock a hard time for the first half we must credit them with the adjustments they made in the second to dominate the Midshipmen, but one must wonder why it took so long for two men with plenty of experience against Navy to avoid checking every box on the List of Stuff Not to Do While Playing Navy. We have already seen this year that the Irish will not always be able to afford these slow starts and they certainly will not be able to next week.
One of the things that made Denbrock's first-half play calling so frustrating was Notre Dame's obvious physical advantage over the Midshipmen and the way it enabled them to run the ball, which we saw in full effect whenever the Irish deigned to do so. The skills of Nolan James and Jonaz Walton are well documented, but they were enabled by a dominating effort up front by Notre Dame's offensive line.
How good were the Irish big uglies? Notre Dame ran over 7 yards per carry and allowed only five stuffs and one TFL, while going 4-4 in power rushing situations. The offensive line was equally effective against the pass as Navy managed only one genuine pressure on Carr, whose mistakes were mostly mental in a game where he gradually got back into his pre-BYU groove. Yes, it was an overmatched opponent, but we've seen Irish units up front who weren't able to do this and stalled against Navy. This group has showed real progress since week one and now has a chance to prove itself against by far its most challenging foe to date.
This was a game that brought back a lot of old tropes about the dangers of playing Navy, particularly prior to a much bigger game, as the Irish suffered key injuries at multiple levels of their defense heading into a game against the nation's top offense. As someone who leans toward maintaining the series despite understanding many of the critiques, this week made it tough to defend. Does the inflation-adjusted value of the financial support Navy lent Notre Dame during World War II equal the 2026 value of Drayk Bowen and Francis Brewu's ankles? Is "mutual respect" what is on display when Navy players visibly twist the ankles of Irish players in the pile after the whistle?
The tweet above from Jamie Uyeyama doesn't necessarily voice my own sentiments but it does point to a real problem that the Irish must now contend with because of what happened in this game. Notre Dame's defense may well enter its most challenging assignment of the season without its emotional leader and captain at middle linebacker and its best interior defensive lineman. The Irish are deep at both of these positions and can absolutely still prevail against Miami, but yesterday's win nonetheless has the potential to be one of the costlier ones in recent Irish history.
