Asked after Saturday’s 38-14 victory how well Notre Dame had done defending Navy’s triple-option offense, Irish coach Charlie Weis answered with a question:
“Which half?”
It was a logical question.
“They didn’t do much wrong in the first half,” Weis said. “They didn’t score every time they got it, but they were moving up and down the field on us. They did a lot of good things.”
Enough that the Midshipmen trailed just 24-14 at halftime.
“In the second half, I think we got the best of them,” Weis said.
By doing so, the 11th-ranked Irish (7-1) extended their winning streak in this annual matchup to 43 games. They also came away with a renewed sense of confidence.
A week earlier, the Irish had needed to score on their last possession in the final minute to edge UCLA. But Saturday at M&T Bank Stadium, they scored on their first five possessions.
“That was our intent going into the game,” Weis said. “On offense we haven’t been running the ball, we haven’t been playing consistent. What we had to do was come out and have one of those games where we got the ball and scored early and often.”
After being held to a field goal on its first trip, Notre Dame completed four straight possessions with touchdowns before Navy finally stopped the Irish on downs just short of a fifth score on the 1-yard line.
Running back Darius Walker finished with 103 yards on 20 carries, and freshman James Aldridge added 29 yards on 12 carries late in the game. Rhema McKnight caught six passes for 94 yards and two touchdowns, and sophomore David Grimes followed last week’s career-high eight-reception game with three catches for 72 yards and a touchdown.
Even Brady Quinn got into the act, scampering 19 yards midway through the third quarter for a touchdown that put the Irish up 31-14.
“Maybe I was peeking at that JumboTron too much and trying to do something like that on our side,” Quinn said after a game in which Navy made run after spectacular run en route to 271 rushing yards. Eight Midshipmen ran the ball, led by Reggie Campbell’s 81 yards on 14 carries.
Navy’s passing attack was not nearly as productive. In his first college start, Kaipo-Noa Kaheaku-Enhada was just 2-for-5 passing for 25 yards, and Jarod Bryant went 2-for-2 for 18.
Quinn finished 18-for-25, a 72 percent completion rate, for 295 yards and three touchdowns.
“Seventy percent passing, was that what he was?” said tight end John Carlson, who caught five of Quinn’s passes for 75 yards. “That seems pretty good to me.”
Said Navy coach Paul Johnson: “What killed us was their making plays on third down. We did a good job of forcing them into third-and-longs, but to their credit, they converted them.”
Though the Irish were a relatively modest 4 of 11 on third down, they were 3 of 5 on fourth down. Defensively, Notre Dame allowed Navy to convert 5 of 12 third downs.
More importantly, after giving up 14 first-half points, the Irish defense made some halftime adjustments and held Navy scoreless in the second half.
“Nobody runs that offense like Navy does,” said safety Tom Zbikowski, who led the Irish with 14 tackles. “When you watch film you can see the way they block, but once you get on that field, it’s really hard to explain how much faster it is.”
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apatel@tribune.com
