Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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26 NOV. 27, 2017 BLUE & GOLD ILLUSTRATED DEFENSE COMES UP HUGE In Notre Dame's 28-27 loss to Navy last November, the Irish allowed the Midshipmen to score touchdowns on four of their first five possessions, not including that Navy took a knee at the end of the first half. The final drive didn't end in points, but Navy was able to run out the re- maining 7:28 of the game to earn the victory. Notre Dame was far more effec- tive on defense this season, allowing Navy to score only two touchdowns on its eight drives. The Midshipmen finished the game with 277 rushing yards, 92.8 yards below their season average. In addition, Navy's 3.8 per carry aver- age was 2.1 yards below its season average. "We didn't give up explosive plays," head coach Brian Kelly said. "They made some key plays, obvi- ously the third-and-15 where the guy bends back and we don't make a tackle there. "The wheel route to the fullback — they made some key plays, but we didn't give up explosive plays." Notre Dame took an aggressive ap- proach against the Navy triple op- tion, something few teams are will- ing to do. There is risk involved, but Notre Dame went after the Midship- men and it paid off. "The biggest thing is not playing on their terms and playing on ours," senior linebacker Greer Martini said. "I think we did that." Notre Dame threw some unorth- odox looks at Navy and mixed up its personnel. Starting field corner- back Julian Love lined up at strong safety until late in the game. Love re- sponded with a career-high 14 tack- les and 10 solo stops. The unique looks — which in- cluded snaps with linebacker Nyles Morgan lining up at nose guard — kept Navy off balance. "Giving them different looks kept them on their toes because they were going to run into our pres- sures," Morgan said of the defensive alignments. "We kept them guessing and kept changing up the calls so they wouldn't catch on and kept it interesting." Navy had two possessions in the fourth quarter, and it had a chance to tie the game with both drives. Sopho- more cornerback Troy Pride Jr. inter- cepted a pass to end the first march, and the Irish came up with a crucial fourth-down stop to end the final one in the closing minute. It was a vast improvement over its 2016 performance, when Notre Dame couldn't get off the field when the game was on the line. "I think guys remembered last year when we weren't able to get a stop," senior rover Drue Tranquill said of the final drive. "Defensively we were sitting there like, 'Guys, the game rests on us. We have to get this stop.' "We were going to come together and get that done." GREER MARTINI SHINES AGAINST THE OPTION … AGAIN Senior linebacker Greer Martini's first career start came all the way back in 2014, when he was a fresh- man facing Navy's triple option. It began a four-year career of excellence against that unique offense. In his five previous starts against triple-option opponents, Martini to- taled 46 tackles (three for loss) while racking up at least eight stops in each game. NAVY GAME NOTES BY BRYAN DRISKELL The Irish defense held Navy to 277 rushing yards (well below its season average of 369.8) and permitted only 3.8 yards per carry (also below its season average of 5.9). PHOTO BY BILL PANZICA MISCELLANEOUS NOTES • Navy ran the ball 72 times against Notre Dame, the third time this season it ran that much. It averaged 564.0 yards and 7.83 yards per carry in those other two games. Notre Dame limited Navy to just 277 yards and 3.8 yards per rush. • The Irish offense ran just 49 plays on of- fense, its lowest total since running just 49 plays in a 28-7 win over Wake Forest on Nov. 14, 2015. • Notre Dame's four scoring drives totaled 278 yards and took a combined 8:50 off the clock. By contrast, Navy's three scoring drives totaled 160 yards and burned 20:11.