Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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www.BLUEANDGOLD.com NOV. 13, 2021 19 The prodding ultimately led to a 430- yard offensive day at the office. Gradu- ate student quarterback Jack Coan threw for 269 yards and a touchdown, while senior wide receiver Kevin Aus- tin Jr. had a career day with six catches for 139 yards and a touchdown. Notre Dame piled up 150 yards on the ground led by junior running back Kyren Williams' 95. He scored two touchdowns. Diggs added 59 yards and a touchdown of his own. The offense played well. But the Notre Dame defense was the story of the day. Led by graduate student nose guard Kurt Hinish's 10 tackles, the Irish held Navy to a mere 184 total yards. Navy ran the ball 55 times and averaged only 3.0 yards per attempt. There simply was no room for the Midshipmen to run. "Defensively we played very well," Kelly said. "I mean, we were detailed, focused. We trusted our teaching, trusted the guy next to each other, and got back to the foundational principles of playing really good defense. "That is communication, assignment, tackling, and that was on display today." FIRST QUARTER NAVY 3, NOTRE DAME 0 Top Moment: Coan connected with freshman wide receiver Deion Colzie on a 31-yard passing play over the middle to get the Irish down to the Navy 25-yard line late in the quarter. Colzie went into the game with two catches for 20 yards. The crowd reacted warmly to Colzie making his biggest play of the season. Feature Performer: Hinish recorded four tackles and a sack in the first quar- ter. He outmuscled the Navy center for his second sack of the season. Stats: Notre Dame outgained Navy 54-44. Thirty-two of Navy's yards came on one play, a reverse rush by sophomore wide receiver Jayden Umbarger. Notre Dame held Navy to 2.8 yards per play. Items: Notre Dame started the game with two three-and-outs offensively … The Irish got down to the Navy 19- yard line on its third drive, but Coan was sacked by a blitzer on fourth-and-four … Navy possessed the ball for roughly two- thirds of the quarter … Navy opened the scoring with a 49-yard field goal after back-to-back sacks from Hin- ish and sophomore linebacker Jordan Botelho nearly knocked the Midshipmen out of field goal range. SECOND QUARTER NOTRE DAME 17, NAVY 3 Top Moment: Coan found Austin open on the left sideline. Coan looked right and froze the Navy safety who had deep coverage on Austin's side of the field just long enough so he couldn't get back and defend the play, and Austin went streaking down the sideline for a 70-yard touchdown to give Notre Dame a comfortable 17-3 halftime lead. Feature Performer: Of Austin's 139 total receiving yards, 124 came in the second quarter. He also caught a 38- yard go-route over his shoulder on a nice throw from Coan. Stats: Notre Dame outgained Navy 225-12 in total yards. The Fighting Irish flipped the script and possessed the ball for 9:45. Notre Dame was 5 of 6 on third down. Navy was 0 of 3. Notre Dame av- eraged 8.7 yards per play to Navy's 1.2. Items: An illegal block in the back pen- alty on senior wide receiver Braden Lenzy backed Notre Dame up to a first-and-19 situation from the Navy 20-yard line re- sulting in a short field goal on a drive that previously had touchdown written all over it … Freshman quarterback Tyler Bu- chner led Notre Dame's first touchdown Graduate student nose guard Kurt Hinish spearheaded a Fighting Irish defense that limited the Midshipmen to 184 total yards and kept them out of the end zone. PHOTO BY CHAD WEAVER