Keys To Victory Revisited - Defense Edition: Notre Dame Thrives In Victory Over Navy

Notre Dame impressed in its 42-3 season-opening victory over Navy, and the defense played a key role in this win. The Irish got some semblance of payback for its struggles in last season's win, holding Navy to its lowest scoring total in this rivalry since 1998.

Let's look at how Notre Dame performed in the areas I felt were the keys to victory, with the focus now being on the defense.

NOTRE DAME DEFENSE

1. Be Aggressive And Disciplined

Notre Dame played very aggressive in this game, at least on the first two levels and at cornerback. The safeties weren't used to be as active in the first half, but Xavier Watts was turned loose a bit in the second half and he played better as well. But overall, defensive coordinator Al Golden put together and aggressive and sound plan against the Navy option.

Navy threw some new looks at Notre Dame, but the sound game plan allowed the defense to be able to handle it and keep the option offense in check.

From a discipline standpoint the defense was a bit hit or miss, but it was certainly an improvement over last season's results. There were two big pass play opportunities where an Irish defender turned a receiver loose deep, but pressures from the front seven forced an incompletion on both plays.

2. Stop The Fullback

Navy ripped Notre Dame up with its fullback in the 35-32 Irish victory in 2022, but the Irish had a great game plan to prevent that from happening in this matchup. Notre Dame's defensive tackles were active in attacking and controlling the middle of the line, which kept the fullback runs from getting going. The Irish playside inside linebackers were responsible for crashing the dive as well, and they played an important role in keeping the fullback runs down as well.

Fullback Daba Fofana rushed for 133 yards on 15 carries against Notre Dame in 2022, but he was held to 32 yards on 16 carries this season. He was credited with a 24-yard loss on a muffed snap, so his actual numbers are closer to 56 yards on 15 carries, which is still a huge drop off from last season. The two Navy fullbacks combined for 94 yards (if you add the minus-24 back in), but they did that on 23 carries, which was good for just a 4.1 per carry average.

If you break down Fofana's game, he had several carries where he ran outside and got a toss or sweep, so of that 94 yards not all of it came on traditional fullback plays. That's further evidence of how effective Notre Dame was at taking the fullback largely out of the game.

3. Early Down Disruptions

A big key to shutting down the option is being disruptive on early downs and putting them in tough third-down situations. Notre Dame did a decent job with this in the first half, but early on they did give up ground. Navy racked up 98 yards on first and second downs on 19 plays in the first half, good for 5.2 yards per play.

Notre Dame made some halftime adjustments with how it handled the perimeter runs, and that led to them being far more effective on early downs in the second half. Navy had just 67 yards on 17 plays in the second half, which is good for just a 3.5 per play average. That includes a 39-yard gain against a mostly backup defensive unit. Take that play out and Notre Dame gave up just 28 yards on the other 16 plays in the half.

This early down success played a key role in Notre Dame shutting Navy down.

4. Limit Big Plays

Navy ripped off way too many big plays against Notre Dame in 2022, but they flipped that around in this season's dominant victory. Navy had a 39-yard gain in the fourth quarter, but prior to that their biggest gain was just 14 yards. This forced Navy to run more plays in order to score, which gave the Irish defense more chances to make stops, and that's exactly what they did.

As mentioned above, the Irish did have a couple of plays where a mistake might have led to a big play, but the front seven players made big pressures in both situations, which prevented Navy from completing those throws.

At the end of the day, Notre Dame graded out well in all four keys to victory areas.

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2024 Commit Rankings - Defense

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2023 Recruiting Class Grades - Defense

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