Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/400621
GAME PREVIEW: NAVY the Irish with 34 points and 419 yards of total offense. If it's not … there are still options: • In this year's opener at Ohio State, the Navy fullbacks carried only 10 times for a respectable 57 yards, but the pitch or sweeps with the slot backs were open throughout the afternoon, with the top four slots combining for 22 carries that amassed 233 yards (10.6 yards per carry). Navy led at halftime and trailed only 20-17 in the fourth quarter before a couple of Buckeye touchdowns sealed a 34-17 win. Navy still rushed for 370 yards. "I don't know if we'll play a tougher team, and you're not going to see any- thing like that all year," said Buckeyes defensive tackle Michael Bennett, echo- ing a common theme of most Navy op- ponents. "Props to Navy, they're going to win a lot of games this year." • The next week against Temple, which ranked fourth in scoring defense entering the weekend of Oct. 18, the Navy slot backs were not prominent, but junior quarterback Keenan Reyn- olds romped for 173 yards on 21 car- ries (8.2 yards per attempt) and two scores in a 31-24 victory. The top two fullbacks, Copeland and Swain, "qui- etly" added 154 yards on 23 rushing attempts. • In a 51-14 blowout of VMI Oct. 11, the fullback tandem carried 19 times for 165 yards. Last year, Reynolds set an NCAA re- cord for most rushing touchdowns in a season by a quarterback with 31, and he is the centerpiece of the attack that ranked second nationally in rushing offense (342.1 yards per game) while averaging 6.3 yards per carry through games of Oct. 11. Nevertheless, not much can demoral- ize a defense more than repeated, ef- fective dive plays into the middle that establish control along the line of scrim- mage. THE 'OTHER' OFFENSE Every time Notre Dame plays Navy the overriding theme centers on "Can the Fighting Irish stop the Midship- men's triple-option attack?" That's somewhat understandable, given that Navy last year averaged its most rushing yards per game (325.4) since 2007 and returns six of the top seven rushers from that squad. Navy was No. 2 nationally on the ground again this year as of Oct. 11 with a 342.1-yard average, highlighted by 370 in the opener versus Ohio State. Navy will usually get its share of yardage. The more pertinent ques- tion is, "How do the Midshipmen halt Notre Dame's offense?" Over the past three years, Notre Dame has averaged 48.0 points against the Midshipmen, tallying 56, 50 and 38 points, respectively. In both 2010 and 2011, the Fighting Irish scored touchdowns on five of their first six possessions, with a turn- over the only snafu each time. Last year, Notre Dame threw two first-half interceptions that helped keep the game close. The Irish ended up run- ning only 56 plays (compared to Na- vy's 79), but they totaled 506 yards (264 rushing and 242 passing) — a whop-