Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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22 NOV. 15, 2025 BLUE & GOLD ILLUSTRATED TURNING POINT Notre Dame ran the risk of trading scores with Navy in the first half, leading 14-7 with the ball in the Midshipmen's possession, until sophomore linebacker Kyngstonn Vil- iamu-Asa blew up a blocker and shouldered down the ball-carrying quarterback for a 1-yard loss on first down. Navy doesn't play well behind the sticks and, sure enough, the Midshipmen went three and out. On the ensuing Notre Dame drive, the Fighting Irish worked the ball downfield with chunk plays and a defensive pass inter- ference penalty. Junior wide receiver Jordan Faison punctuated the possession with a 5-yard touchdown catch, which gave Notre Dame a two-score lead it never relinquished the rest of the way. STATS OF THE GAME Going into the game, Navy was No. 4 in the nation in third down conversion per- centage (53.9). The Fighting Irish defense held the Midshipmen to 3 of 11 (27.3 per- cent). That tied for Navy's worst third-down outing of the season; the Midshipmen also went 3 of 11 versus Temple. Time of possession disparity is a worry for any team facing Navy, too, but it didn't end up being of any consequence for Notre Dame. The Irish possessed the ball for lon- ger than the Midshipmen, 30:37 to 29:23. Notre Dame did more with the ball when it had it, too, racking up 502 total yards on a very impressive 8.8 yards per play. Navy was held to 228 total yards on 4.1 yards per play. THERE IS NO STOPPING THE IRISH OFFENSE It's totally understandable. You don't want to look foolish against the best running back combination in college football, so you load the box and sell out to stop the run. But here's the thing; Jeremiyah Love is still capa- ble of making you look silly anyway, which he did to Navy on his 48-yard touchdown, and when he's not doing that redshirt fresh- man CJ Carr is completing 81.3 percent of his passes on 13.6 yards per attempt with 3 touchdowns and 0 interceptions. Love still gets his even when teams key in on him. Redshirt junior tailback Jadarian Price scored a touchdown in the game, too. And Carr is carving up the opposition because there often isn't safety help in the secondary; they're busy crowding the line of scrimmage to go after Love. Just wait until those safeties do drop back because teams get sick of Carr throwing over their heads; Love and Price will have a field day opportunity. Pick your poison. They're both lethal. THREE OBSERVATIONS BY TYLER HORKA LB JAIDEN AUSBERRY The redshirt sophomore joined the credited tacklers on two of Navy's first three plays and continued to give Navy's offense problems throughout the game. He sacked quarterback Braxton Woodson while forcing a fumble that Navy managed to recover in the third quarter. He also took down slotback Brandon Chatman for a 2-yard loss. Ausberry, who previously recorded just 1 tackle against Navy in his Notre Dame career, finished with a team-high 8 tackles. QB CJ CARR Notre Dame's wide receivers had clear advantages against Navy's defensive backs, and the redshirt fresh- man signal-caller made sure the Irish exploited those mismatches. He allowed wide receivers Malachi Fields, KK Smith and Will Pauling to stretch the field vertically. His 52-yard connection with Fields in the first quarter and 34-yard touchdown pass to Smith in the third quarter were beautifully thrown. Carr finished the night with 13 completions on 16 attempts for 218 yards with 3 touchdowns and 0 inter- ceptions. On a rainy and snowy night in Notre Dame Stadium, he made sure the Irish passing game still took flight. He played so well the Irish were able to insert backup Kenny Minchey at quarterback before the third quarter ended. RB JEREMIYAH LOVE He didn't score another touchdown of 90-plus yards, but the junior ball carrier still managed to make magic happen on a 48-yard touchdown run. After Love spun away from an unblocked defender in the backfield, Navy appeared to have him bottled up for a loss. But defensive end Julien Moutome was pinned under Love when he tried to swing Love to the ground, and Love managed to prevent any body parts from hitting the ground before he planted his feet and got up to finish the final 50 yards of the run. Love turned his 13 carries into 94 yards and a pair of touchdowns. He also caught one pass for 27 yards in the victory over the Midshipmen. GAME BALLS BY TYLER JAMES Redshirt freshman quarterback CJ Carr connected on 13 of 16 throws (81. 3 percent) for 218 yards with 3 touchdowns and 0 interceptions against the Midshipmen. PHOTO BY MICHAEL MILLER