A drive-by-drive analysis of how Navy’s offensive fared against the Irish’s elite 2024 defense.
A lot of folks predicted that the 2024 Notre Dame-Navy game would play out differently than previous matchups. The Midshipmen came into Week 9 undefeated, with four of their six wins coming against American conference opponents. There was even not so quiet chatter about a potential upset.
And we surely got a special game but nothing like those expectations.
That’s largely because Navy’s offense had probably its worst game in a long time against the absolute worst opponent: Notre Dame’s 2024 lights-out defense. I covered some of the big picture stuff the defense was able to accomplish in the game’s regular review but I wanted to do this special performance a little more justice.
So let’s go drive-by-drive and play-by-play for Navy to dissect the Irish’s defensive rout of the Midshipmen.
Drive 1 : Unfortunate Event #1 – Navy Fumble
The Navy offense’s campaign against Notre Dame’s 2024 defense was almost doomed from the start. They were successful in their 1st five plays even if they didn’t get a lot of yards for their efforts. Five of their six called plays were runs and that fifth rushing attempts is when the journey down the wrong path began. They recorded one yard on the rush but the ball carrier coughed it up and Notre Dame recovered. In total, they averaged 4 yards per play.
Irish Defensive Spotlight: Sophomore safety Adon Shuler was the big standout on this drive. He didn’t force the drive’s final fumble but claimed the recovery on the stat sheet.
Drive 2: Unfortunate Event #2 – Navy Fumble
The Midshipmen’s second drive got off to a brighter start. They pulled off a big 32 yard passing completion and followed that up with a 4 yard gain on the ground. But again, tragedy struck. A +7 yard rush got called back and -15 yards of penalty were also tacked on. Then came the -2yard rush attempts that ultimately resulted in another Irish fumble recovery. It was a really odd combo of events to happen in a 4-play drive.
Irish Defensive Spotlight: Defensive Lineman Junior Tuihalamaka (junior) was responsible for coming up with Navy’s lost fumble to end the Midshipmen’s second offensive attempt.
Drive 3: Slight Redemption – Navy Touchdown
Another promising-ish start turned into big success for Navy. Their 1st three plays of the drive were net positive and they picked up a favorable penalty that turned an incompletion into +15 yards for play 4. They followed up with a small rushing gain before Navy quarterback Blake Horvath cracked a 47-yard rushing touchdown.
Irish Defensive Spotlight: Not all spotlights are positive. The big takeaway from this drive was one of the Irish’s only consequential mistakes during the game. Sophomore cornerback Christian Gray was called for pass interference and that gave Navy 15 yards and a first down.
Drive 4: Some Quiet – Navy Punt
This drive was mostly a nothing burger whose main feature was failed Navy passing attempts. The final result was a 52-yard punt.
Irish Defensive Spotlight: Nothing really to report.
Drive 5: Unfortunate Event #3 – Navy Missed Field Goal
The Navy offense got off to a hot start. Blake Horvath had a 60-yard rushing gain on the first play. A series of spotty successes and mishaps, including a Navy recovered fumble, ended with a missed 40-yard field goal.
Irish Defensive Spotlight: No standout stats from this drive for Notre Dame’s defense. Navy had a recorded fumble but it was a self-inflicted wound by fullback Alex Tecza and he was responsible for the recovery.
Drive 6: A Defensive Mistake – Navy Touchdown
The Midshipmen bounced back from the missed field goal with arguably their strongest drive of the game. A string of successful passes and rushes, including some help from a +15-yard penalty helped Navy to cap off this drive with a rushing touchdown.
Irish Defensive Spotlight: One of the only major stats from this drive was a personal foul called on Notre Dame that gave the Midshipmen 15 yards and a first down.
Drive 7: Unfortunate Event #4 – Navy Fumble (Touchdown)
And then the bad luck hammer came crashing back down on Navy. Notre Dame’s defense was waging an ugly war of attrition up front against Navy by this point and they couldn’t get anything going on the ground. They gave up yet another fumble on a rush attempt in their third play. Only the Irish took this one all the way back for a touchdown.
Irish Defensive Spotlight: Junior linebacker Jaylon Sneed earned this drive’s defensive spotlight. Navy quarterback Blake Horvath had already lost eight yards on a broken-down rush attempt when he coughed up the ball to Sneed. The junior turned the recovery into six points, arguably earning him the title of most impactful defensive player for the game. Don’t sue me about that claim.
Drive 8: Unfortunate Event #5 – Navy Interception
This drive looked like it was going to be successful for Navy. They didn’t get more than nine yards in any single play, but they inched their way against Notre Dame’s defense into the red zone. But when it counted the most, ND freshman cornerback Leonard Moore picked off Blake Horvath.
Irish Defensive Spotlight: For a while this drive looked like it was going to be a net negative outing for the Irish defense. It got started off with a roughing the passer call against freshman linebacker Kyngstonn Viliamu-Asa. That penalty gifted Navy 15 yards and a 1st down. But cornerback Leonard Moore stepped up again as he continues to get asked to do more than any of us expected this early in his South Bend career. Moore helped take the heat off his fellow freshman and killed Navy’s hopes for a scoring drive with the end zone interception.
Drive 9: That’ll Do, That’ll Do – Navy Punt
Navy’s offense finished off the game without taking additional damage. The Irish defense didn’t relent by any stretch, but the academy didn’t turn the ball over. Small victories. The drive and the offenses’ game ended with a 68-yard punt for a touchback.
Irish Defensive Spotlight: All the damage had been done by this point.
Notre Dame defense’s dominance over Navy is much more entertaining and clear when you go back and watch the film. But this game was such a statistic anomaly that I couldn’t help but nerd out a bit with the numbers.