Stacking Up The Notre Dame Offense vs Navy

Notre Dame (6-3) will look to get its offense rolling against a struggling Navy (3-6) defense. The matchup is intriguing, with the run game matchup being outstanding, but the pass game matchup being two really disappointing and thus far in the season, bad units.

For Notre Dame, this is an opportunity to get the scuffling offense rolling and to gain some confidence heading into the final stretch. Let's look at how the two units stack up on paper.

Notre Dame Rush Offense vs Navy Rush Defense

Advantage: Notre Dame

This is the best matchup of the game. It pits Notre Dame's dominant and red shot ground attack against a Navy rush defense that has been outstanding all season.

One can look at the stats of the pass game below and assume the Midshipmen rank this high because teams don't run enough, but all the metrics of the run defense are strong. Not only are they in the Top 10 in fewest yards allowed, Navy also ranks high in yards allowed per attempt and they've allowed just five rushing touchdowns all season.

Only two opponents have rushed for more than 105 yards, and that includes Air Force, who had 200 yards on the ground. Even that is an outstanding performance, as Air Force is averaging 324.4 yards per game on the ground this season.

Notre Dame struggled out of the gate, rushing for just 117 yards per game through the first three games of the season. The ground game started to show some life in the win over California, but it exploded the next week 287 yards against North Carolina. That began a stretch of six games during which the Irish ground attack has averaged 233.8 rushing yards per game.

Navy runs an attacking style on defense, but on paper it's front seven has the same lack of size issues that Syracuse had heading into their matchup against the Irish. On top of having a massive and talented line, Notre Dame uses a three-man rotation at running back that has been dominant when given the opportunity.

Audric Estime and Logan Diggs have both gone over 100 yards rushing in at least two games, and Chris Tyree has topped 100 yards of offense twice this season.

Notre Dame Pass Offense vs Navy Pass Defense

Advantage: Notre Dame

This is a bad on bad matchup, at least from a production standpoint. Notre Dame certainly has talent in its pass game, including Michael Mayer, the best tight end in college football. The problem has been one of a lack of production, especially from the quarterback position.

Junior Drew Pyne showed promise early in his starting tenure, completing over 70% of his throws in his first three starts while throwing for 289 yards in the win at North Carolina and 262 yards against BYU. Pyne threw eight touchdown passes in his first three starts, but he's thrown just five touchdowns in the four games since while topping 200 yards just once (205 vs. UNLV).

Offensive coordinator Tommy Rees absolutely needs to find a way to get Pyne going in this game in hopes of building up his confidence for the final stretch. He gets to do that against one of the worst pass defenses in college football. Navy ranks near the bottom of the rankings in almost every pass defense statistic.

Part of the issue is they play in a league with a lot of good throwing teams, but Navy has consistently been ripped up through the air. Memphis torched Navy for 415 yards, but SMU (336), Cincinnati (299), Tulsa (284), Temple (268), East Carolina (267) and Houston (261) all went over 260 yards against the Navy defense.

Notre Dame Scoring Offense vs Navy Scoring Defense

Advantage: Notre Dame

Navy's scoring and total defense numbers are better than Notre Dame's, but the Irish are better overall in the red zone and on third down. The reason Notre Dame gets the advantage here is more about context. Navy has yet to play a Power 5 football team, and it keeps the numbers and yards down more based on style of play than simply being able to stop people.

Notre Dame has significantly more talent, and when it plays good football this matchup isn't really close. The only question is whether or not the Irish offense will show up and play its best football.

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