Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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36 OCT. 26, 2024 BLUE & GOLD ILLUSTRATED GAME PREVIEW: NAVY BY TYLER HORKA NAVY RUNNING GAME VS. NOTRE DAME RUN DEFENSE Ah, yes. The matchup that defines every out- come in this longstanding rivalry. Can the Fighting Irish stop the Midshipmen's option run game? If yes, Notre Dame usually wins. If no, things get complicated. This could be one of those years for the latter. Navy has an intentional running game. That's al- ways the case in the option offense, but it doesn't always yield elite numbers. That can be because of coaching, personnel, etc. Generally a combination. It appears the equation is correct in 2024. Through Week 7, Navy was running through the designed gap on 86.3 percent of its carries. That was the best mark in the nation in that statistical category, provided by Sports Info Solutions. The result was 295 rushing yards per game, second to only Army's 369.8. Notre Dame's rushing defense, meanwhile, only had a stuff percentage of 15.3 through Week 7. That's the amount of times opposing ball carri- ers netted 0 or fewer yards, and the Irish's figure ranked 117th out of 134 FBS teams. Navy ranked No. 2 nationally in stuff avoidance, only getting stuffed on 10.7 percent of carries — a crazy low mark for how much the Midshipmen run it (46.8 times per game, sixth-highest number in the coun- try through Week 7). The Midshipmen are going to run right at the Irish in a way the latter have not been tested this season, and the results may vary. Either the in- creased volume is welcomed and Notre Dame ups its stuff rate and gets the Navy offense off the field quickly or it's a long day for a defense that has been hit or miss against the run this season. Stuffs will need to come against the quarterback, which is unusual. Notre Dame did well against a dual-threat quarterback in Stanford's Ashton Daniels, limiting him to 14 carries for 27 yards (most of which came on a 27-yard scramble), but the Irish mostly needed to worry about his impro- visation. Navy junior quarterback Blake Horvath is the team's No. 1 designed runner, going for 565 yards and 10 touchdowns on 66 carries through five games. The Midshipmen had six other players with at least 15 carries through five games, too, the most notable among them being junior fullback Alex Tecza with 41 carries for 238 yards and 5 touchdowns. It's always an all-hands-on-deck affair for the Navy ground game. And it's seldom easy to slow it down, let alone stop it. That's especially true this year. Advantage: Navy NAVY PASSING GAME VS. NOTRE DAME PASS DEFENSE Generally, you would write this section off as a victory for Notre Dame and move along, espe- cially being that Notre Dame had the No.5 pass efficiency defense in the country through Week 7 after coming in at No. 1 in that category in 2023, but even that isn't the case this season. Navy had the nation's No. 2 pass efficiency of- fense through Week 7 behind Army, another Notre Dame opponent. These service academies are going to give the Irish all they can handle in both phases this fall. For Navy, it's once again mostly a two-person show through the air: Horvath and junior slot back Eli Heidenreich. The Midshipmen launched a Heis- man Trophy campaign for Horvath in early October, and he had completed 39 of his 59 pass attempts (66.1 percent) for 771 yards with 7 touchdowns and 1 interception through five games. Heiden- reich had caught 20 passes for 449 yards and 5 scores through five contests. Players listed as wide receivers on the Navy roster combined for only 3 catches through five games, so get ready to learn quick tosses to tight ends, running backs and fullbacks if you're the Notre Dame defense. But beware of the rare over- the-top bomb to a wideout, too; one of speedster Nathan Kent's 2 catches is a 77-yard touchdown on a traditional drop back from Horvath. Kent also has a 34-yard rushing score on one of his 2 carries this season. This isn't a game in which the vaunted Notre Dame passing defense, now without All-American Benjamin Morrison because of a hip injury, can wear down the opposition in man coverage all day long. Navy did not attempt more than 15 passes in a game in any matchup through Week 7. When the Midshipmen throw it, there is often a quirk or gimmick involved. That's going to take On PaPer Junior fullback Alex Tecza is the Midshipmen's No. 2 rushing option behind quarterback Blake Horvath. PHOTO COURTESY NAVY ATHLETICS