Quinn Harris, USA TODAY Sports
Keys To Victory For The Notre Dame Offense vs. Navy
First-year defensive coordinator Brian Newberry has completely revitalized the Navy defense. After giving up 33.5 points per game and 426.4 yards per game a season ago, the Midshipmen are limiting their 2019 opponents to just 18.1 points and 310.6 yards per game.
It is an aggressive attack that will make the Notre Dame offense play well if the Irish are going to pull out the win. Yesterday I broke down what Notre Dame must do to slow down the option offense, and now it’s time to discuss the keys to victory for the Irish offense.
1. Start Fast — I mentioned this in the defensive breakdown, but the best friend to a defense playing an option offense like Navy’s is for its own offense to start fast. Navy is going to minimize your possessions as an offense, and Notre Dame must maximize what it does with those early possessions.
If the Irish can put Navy in an early hole it will make the odds of achieving victory much greater. Navy is not built to play catch up due to its desire to limit possessions. When it gets behind, the Navy offense is forced to take more chances, especially in the pass game. That is when the Irish defense will have chances to make game-changing plays.
2. Offensive Line Must Play Smart And Be Physical — Navy is a diverse and aggressive defense that gives offenses a lot to worry about. Just read the description Navy provides in Newberry’s bio. It states that Newberry “He runs a multiple defense with 4-2-5 and 3-4 principles.”
Moral of the story, Navy is going to do a lot pre-snap. Just look at this series of three straight plays against Memphis:
Navy is going to throw a wide variety of pre-snap looks at the Irish offense. On top of that, they do a lot of pre-snap shifting and stunting, which has given Notre Dame’s run game problems in the past. On top of that, Notre Dame’s offensive line has had major problems recognizing and handling defenses that do a lot of slanting and stunting, and Navy will do a lot of that.
Teams that struggle to handle those stunts simply cannot get the ground game going. Notre Dame must be able to run the football effectively if it is going to beat Navy. That means OC Chip Long must design a game plan built around the run game and play-action pass game, that means the offensive line must play smart football, and it means the Irish line must be aggressive, physical and it must finish well.
If the line plays smart and aggressive it will be able to use its size advantage to run the ball. Notre Dame’s starting offensive line averages 305.8 pounds while the Navy “front four” averages just 262.8 pounds and has just one starter - nose guard Jackson Pittman - over 260 pounds.
3. Ian Book Must Be Decisive, Aggressive And Accurate — Navy is going to design a game plan to slow down the Irish ground attack, of that I’m quite certain. They are going to do what just about every other defense on the 2019 schedule has done, which is make quarterback Ian Book beat them.
That means Book must be on top of his game. That means making good pre-snap decisions and being decisive with his post-snap decisions. Notre Dame’s pass game must be efficient, and it can’t accomplish that if Book doesn’t thrive in both of those areas.
Book must also be aggressive all game long, which leads up to the next key to victory.
4. Can’t Miss On Big Play Opportunities — If Navy plays anything like it has all season, Notre Dame will only get about six or seven big play opportunities in the game. With those limited opportunities the offense must take full advantage. Memphis did that in its win over Navy, and the Irish have more offensive firepower than the Tigers.
When the backs get creases they need to take advantage and be aggressive attacking downhill. When the wideouts get the ball in space they need to make defenders miss and make plays. When the big men - Chase Claypool, Cole Kmet and Javon McKinley - get chances to make plays down the field they need to capitalize.
All of that will require Book to be aggressive and accurate. For much of the season, Book has been unwilling to attack opponents down the field unless he had a pure one-on-one or had a player wide open.
Against Navy he obviously needs to hit those shots, but he must also be willing to attack down the field with the consistency we saw against Duke, and be willing to give his skill players more chances to make plays against an undersized Navy secondary.
5. Answer Navy’s Scores — Navy is not typically designed to be a “come-from-behind” squad, but the 2019 Midshipmen offense is a bit different. The reason is the Midshipmen have an explosive offense thanks to the presence of dynamic quarterback Malcom Perry and fullback Jamale Carothers, a duo that combines to average 7.2 yards per rush. Perry is also averaging 24.9 yards per completion on his 29 completions.
That means when Navy does score, whether it’s early or late, the Irish offense must be able to respond with a score of its own. While Navy is not ideally suited to play from behind, it is absolutely built to play with a lead. When Navy gets up on a team and the opposition offense fails to get points, the Navy offense will look to eat up the game with a long, methodical drive. It is more than capable of choking an opponent out with its style of play.
If an offense goes through a stretch where it fails to get points the odds of winning greatly decreases. Notre Dame absolutely must avoid that, and it must answer all of Navy's scores with scores of their own.
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