Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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26 NOV. 23, 2019 BLUE & GOLD ILLUSTRATED "Chase always has the juice," Book said after the game. "You can tell when he gets on a roll. You want to keep giving him the ball. Even though it might not be the clearest look, he's going to come down with it, and that's the best. Makes my job a lot easier." Defensive coordinators are learn- ing that they have to make decisions about who or what they are going to take away from Notre Dame's of- fense. Navy decided they were going to take away junior tight end Cole Kmet and the Irish run game follow- ing their 288-yard performance on the ground against Duke. That left Claypool to dominate against a lot of zone coverage and sometimes even linebackers in space. He is taking advantage of his op- portunities and Book is making sure to find him. If teams continue to ig- nore Claypool his stock will continue to rise, and you can bet Book will continue to succeed at getting him the ball. DEFENSE FORCES FOUR MORE TURNOVERS Coming into the game against Notre Dame, Navy was averaging one lost fumble per game. This was made even more impressive stat con- sidering they also averaged 59 rush- ing attempts per game. That is a lot of touches to only lose just eight fumbles all year, which is what makes Notre Dame's defensive performance that much more impres- sive. The Fighting Irish were able to force the Midshipmen into four fum- bles and, on top of that, recovered all four. Senior defensive end Khalid Ka- reem wreaked havoc along the line of scrimmage the entire game, forc- ing the first two fumbles from Navy quarterback Malcolm Perry on the initial two drives. That allowed Notre Dame to go up 21 points and the Irish never looked back. Head coach Brian Kelly was im- pressed with the speed of the defense and knew turnovers were essential to stopping Navy. "Any time you get Navy to turn the football over they're going to be huge for you," he said. "We were ac- tive. We were fast. We were physical. They hadn't played a team quite like that all year. It's difficult. "We talk so much about our inability to map the speed of the triple option. Well, they can't map the speed of our defense. So, it worked well for us to- day that we played fast and physical." The final fumble was caused by sophomore rover Paul Moala, who intercepted an option pitch and re- turned it 27 yards for a touchdown. His ability to play both the quarter- back and the pitch was impressive, not to mention the wherewithal to tip and catch the pitch in mid-air. He showed his athleticism and intel- ligence versus the option on that play and proved why he is such a valu- able asset to this team. Kelly also sees promise in Moala. "He's a really good football player," Kelly said. "We have to find a place to get him on the field be- cause Owusu is a really good player, too. Paul is smart, he's savvy, he's athletic. Trusted. "He's going to play a lot of foot- ball for us. It's great that he's a local player, too." ✦ NOTRE DAME VS. NAVY QUARTER-BY-QUARTER COMPARISON Notre Dame 1st Qtr. 2nd Qtr. 3rd Qtr. 4th Qtr. 1st Half 2nd Half Total Time of Possession 5:44 7:37 7:01 3:38 13:21 10:39 24:00 Third-Down Conversions 0-1 2-3 2-4 0-1 2-4 2-5 4-9 Fourth-Down Conversions 1-1 0-0 0-0 0-1 1-1 0-1 1-2 Average Field Position ND-26 NAVY-44 ND-21 ND-30 ND-46 ND-25 ND-36 Navy 1st Qtr. 2nd Qtr. 3rd Qtr. 4th Qtr. 1st Half 2nd Half Final Time of Possession 9:16 7:23 7:59 11:22 16:39 19:21 36:00 Third-Down Conversions 1-2 1-5 2-4 1-5 2-7 3-9 5-16 Fourth-Down Conversions 1-1 0-1 0-0 3-3 1-2 3-3 4-5 Average Field Position NAVY-25 NAVY-21 NAVY-25 NAVY-38 NAVY-22 NAVY-31 NAVY-27 PLAY CHART (NO. OF PLAYS) Yards ND NAVY Nega ve 5 6 0-5 29 50 6-9 5 11 10-19 7 6 20-29 5 2 30-39 0 0 40-49 1 2 50 or more 1 0 RED ZONE EFFICIENCY (INSIDE 20-YARD LINE) No Poss. TD FG Score Notre Dame 5 4 1 0 Navy 3 1 2 0 BIG PLAYS (25 YARDS OR MORE) Notre Dame • 1-10 ND27 Keys rush for 11 yards to the ND38, PENALTY NAVY personal foul (Brennan) 15 yards to the NAVY47 • 1-10 NAVY47 Book pass complete to Claypool for 47 yards and a touchdown • 1-10 ND30 Book pass complete to Lenzy for 70 yards and a touchdown • 3-7 ND25 Book pass complete to Keys for 27 yards to the NAVY48 • 1-10 NAVY48 Book pass complete to Finke for 28 yards to the NAVY20 Navy • 3-4 NAVY38 Perry rush for 46 yards to the ND16 • 1-10 ND43 Olsen pass complete to Cooper for 43 yards and a touchdown • 3-7 ND38 Ruoss rush for 26 yards to the ND12 The Fighting Irish were able to force the Midshipmen into four fumbles and recovered all four, including this one that senior defensive end Jamir Jones fell on. PHOTO BY ANDRIS VISOCKIS