Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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32 NOV. 14, 2016 BLUE & GOLD ILLUSTRATED N otre Dame needed points, preferably touchdowns, on ev- ery one of its six possessions against Navy. The final one-point margin illus- trated that fact. "We knew exactly what we're get- ting ourselves into," Notre Dame ju- nior quarterback DeShone Kizer said. Sure, it wasn't a surprise that the Irish were limited offensively against the Midshipmen, a slow-it-down team that strategically drains clock. It was among the main topics of conver- sation in the week leading up to the game, and proved exactly correct once Notre Dame got to Jacksonville, Fla. Every time Kizer took a snap, the pressure was on to put up points — or at least make significant progress in achieving that goal. Only twice in the past two-plus seasons has a Notre Dame offense ran fewer than the 56 plays it fin- ished with against Navy. The Irish offense took 49 snaps in last year 's 28-7 win over Wake Forest and 53 in a 31-28 loss to Louisville in 2014. "I've never been a part of anything like it, but we definitely tried to mentally prepare ourselves for that," Kizer said. "We scored on a majority of the possessions that we had, but on the ones that we didn't we had opportunities to score." In recent games against the triple option, the Irish have still been able to build leads and run their offense. In last year's victories over Georgia Tech and Navy, Notre Dame ran 62 and 71 plays, respectively. As Navy continued to hang with the Irish physically and emotionally, it became clear that Notre Dame would need touchdowns to come out on top. "We know we have to be close to perfect with this one because they're going to take a lot of time to eat up the clock with the way that they run their offense," Notre Dame senior left tackle Mike McGlinchey said Wednes- day prior to the game. "We have to be able to do what we can to keep put- ting points on the board every time we get the ball in our hands." The lack of offensive drives for Notre Dame directly translated to Navy's 33:53-26:07 advantage in time of possession. The Midshipmen ran nine minutes off the clock on their go-ahead scoring drive and used up the final 7:28 after the Irish trimmed the lead to 28-27. The key play on that drive was a fourth-and-six from the Notre Dame 30 with 1:14 left. Navy senior quar- terback Will Worth picked up the first down with a 15-yard pass to senior wide receiver Jamir Tillman, essentially ending the game. Had Notre Dame made a stop, Kelly said he was confident his team would score. Unfortunately for the Irish, there weren't enough of those stops or opportunities to score. "We struggled on third downs in the first half," Navy head coach Ken Niumatalolo said. "It was a game of very, very limited possessions, and we just had to find a way to get them off on third downs." Navy had six drives — not count- ing a 30-second possession to end the first half. It scored touchdowns four times. Notre Dame scored three touchdowns on its six chances. It was exactly what the Midship- men wanted. "It couldn't have worked out bet- ter for us, to have the ball at the end with a chance to seal the game," Niu- matalolo said. "That's who we are. It was even less possessions than we had planned because they kept get- ting third downs. "They were having long, sustained drives, too. It limited both sides on the number of possessions. "It worked out perfectly. We want that situation. We're up by one, seven minutes left, the ball is in our hands. We control our own destiny. Our of- fense and Will did a really good job to finish the game." Navy finished its most cru- cial drive, which gave it the lead with 11:51 remaining. Notre Dame couldn't. "It's definitely frustrating," senior wide receiver Torii Hunter Jr. said. "We were asking a lot of ourselves, trying to put up touchdowns every time we got the ball because we knew it would be that type of game. It's tough." Two field goals by sophomore Jus- tin Yoon instead of touchdowns were the difference. "You're going to have to score ev- ery time you touch the ball against Navy," Kizer said. "We saw that on film, and we knew that going into the game. "We weren't able to execute it, and obviously two field goals … should've been touchdowns." ✦ ON THE IRISH BEAT MATT JONES Matt Jones..... Blue & Gold Illustrated since July 2016. He can be reached at mjones@blueand- gold.com. Limited Work Frustrates The Irish Offense Junior quarterback DeShone Kizer and the Irish outgained the Midshipmen in total yards (370-368), but had only two possessions to work with in the second half and just six for the game. PHOTO BY BILL PANZICA