Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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www.BLUEANDGOLD.com NOV. 19, 2022 25 NOTRE DAME STRUGGLES WITH COVER-0 BLITZES IN SECOND HALF Drew Pyne entered M&T Bank Sta- dium the same way he enters any other venue. He huddled up his fellow Notre Dame quarterbacks in the tunnel, said a few supportive words and bounced on one leg then the other in a confident, pep-in- the-step skip onto the playing surface. He does it every Saturday. What he hasn't done every Saturday is play the way he did in the first half of a 35-32 Fighting Irish victory over Navy. Pyne was sensational. Mesmeriz- ing. Nearly perfect. All after completing 45.9 percent of his passes for a meager 139.3 yards per game in the Irish's previ- ous four matchups. Against Navy, Pyne completed 14 of 16 throws (87.5 percent) for 234 yards with 4 touchdowns in the first half alone. The physically limited signal-caller who's only 6-0 when he's wearing his best height-boosting sneakers and is only 200 pounds on a day when he eats two Big Macs and chooses to super-size his French fries scrambled for an 11-yard rushing score down the sideline and past the pylon to put Notre Dame ahead 28-13 late in the second quarter. His best throw of the day, a 37-yard touchdown to sophomore wide receiver Jayden Thomas deep over the middle, came on his very next play from scrimmage. Pyne could do no wrong in the first 30 minutes. He could do nothing right in the second 30 — and that was not his fault in ways it was for good portions of the last month. Notre Dame's offense totaled 12 yards in the second half. Twelve. It only took five plays to get there on the Irish's opening drive of the first quarter. Pyne was sacked 5 times for a loss of 30 yards. That dinged the total number. Those sacks were the reasons the Irish couldn't do anything else offensively. Navy's halftime adjustment was to not let the Notre Dame passing attack continue to have a field day. Time and again the Midshipmen sent all-out blitzes in Pyne's direction. And time and again, they worked. "They played hard in the second half," Pyne said of the Navy defenders. "It was tough with Cover 0. If we have nine in protection, they were bringing 10. You have to find a way to get the ball out." Ironically, that's exactly what Pyne did when Navy sent a blitz on third-and-8 in the first quarter. Irish sophomore running back Audric Estime ran an angle route out of the backfield and was matched up with a defensive lineman who dropped back into coverage. Pyne backpedaled with rushers in his face and easily flipped a pass to Estime over the top. His straight-line speed was no match for a 256-pound nose guard trying to flip his hips to stay with him on a 30-yard touchdown. There wasn't any of that from the Irish in the second half. Head coach Marcus Freeman, a defensive mind through and through, was a bit miffed at what he witnessed. "How do we make sure if a team wants to bring all-out pressure versus our of- fense we have our answers for it? Our exact answers?" Freeman said. "And ex- ecute them. I think we had answers, but we didn't execute them." Pyne has to be aware of where his check-downs are, and offensive co- ordinator Tommy Rees has to dial up plays that provide such outlets. The Irish can't be looking to attack down- field when Pyne barely has time to get from "A" to the letter in the alphabet with which his name starts in his head before a blitzer barrels down on him to rip it off. He was a sitting duck on just about all of the sacks. Pyne played as well as anyone would have expected in the first half given he hadn't completed better than 52.9 percent of his passes in any game since Oct. 8. But a new wart popped up for the Irish with two games remaining in the regular season; Notre Dame desperately needs to properly diagnose a blitz, react to it and combat it effectively. Period. "We have to be able to find ways to at- tack that," Freeman said. "That is some- thing we need to improve on because other teams are going to do that." CLARENCE LEWIS' INTERCEPTION WAS A POSSIBLE 14-POINT SWING Marcus Freeman knew the significance of Notre Dame dominating the first part of the "middle eight" against Navy in the moment, albeit not for the exact reason it ended up proving so crucial. Freeman, in his on-field interview with ESPN reporter Kris Budden shortly before the third quarter began, high- lighted the Irish's 2 touchdowns, blocked punt and interception in the final 3:44 of the first half. Those plays turned a 21-13 lead late in the second quarter with Navy NAVY GAME NOTES BY TYLER HORKA AND PATRICK ENGEL Junior Drew Pyne played his best half of the season in the first 30 minutes vs. Navy, but the Irish offense completely stalled in the second half. Notre Dame managed only 12 yards on 20 plays in the final 30 minutes. PHOTO BY TAVAN SMITH