I don’t know why anyone was worried about winning this game. Jokes aside, this is the type of performance that will make people think the Irish are going to blow Navy out for the next 5 years. Don’t forget, Notre Dame kicks off against Navy in Ireland to open next season. Back to South Bend, where the Irish cruised against a turnover-prone Navy offense leading to an easy blowout victory.

Let’s recap the 10th game of the 2019 season.

Stats Package

STAT IRISH NAVY
Score 52 20
Plays 53 77
Total Yards 410 360
Yards Per Play 7.73 4.67
Conversions 5/11 9/21
Completions 16 4
Yards/Pass Attempt 13.8 6.0
Rushes 31 64
Rushing Success 50% 44.2%
10+ Yds Rushing 4 7
Defense Stuff Rate 33.7% 11.3%

Offense

QB: A
RB: B
TE: B
OL: B+
WR: A

We figured the Irish would need a good performance from Ian Book and it was all that and more. He would throw just 6 incompletions–3 coming in his final series early in the 3rd quarter including a bad drop from Tony Jones–to 5 touchdown passes with several of his best deep passes of the season, including an absolute dime to Braden Lenzy for a 70-yard score.

Book’s 14.2 yards per attempt has to make Irish fans extremely happy. So should his sideline toss to Lawrence Keys, a deep cross-field dime to Finke, and a few nice throws to Claypool as the Canadian finished with a school-record tying 4 touchdown receptions.

Navy’s defense was supposed to be improved significantly, and Notre Dame made sure that was not apparent on Saturday afternoon.

Book wasn’t sacked, barely breathed on with one quarterback hurry, and Navy finished with a season-low 3 tackles for loss.

I think it’s easy to see just 105 rushing yards and be disappointed, but allow me to disagree.

Rushing Success

Jones – 7 of 9 (77.7%)
Armstrong – 2 of 7 (28.5%)
Book – 2 of 5 (40%)
Keys – 1 of 1 (100%)
Jurkovec – 0 of 1 (0%)
Flemister – 1 of 3 (33.3%)
Lenzy – 1 of 1 (100%)
Smith – 0 of 1 (0%)

First off, Notre Dame ran a season-low 53 plays which includes the 2 kneel-downs to finish the game. The passing game was so explosive and there were so few plays in total that I’m not sure it makes sense to get upset by barely running for 100 yards.

Secondly, the rushing performance was skewed by a bloated garbage time. Notre Dame was unsuccessful on their final 5 carries of the game stretching from late in the 3rd quarter and finished just 2 of 9 on successful running plays while Jurkovec was in at quarterback with vanilla play-calling.

With Book on the field, the Irish were successful on 63.1% of their carries. They weren’t very explosive but if this was a closer game I’m sure the ground game would’ve easily ran towards 200 yards with more snaps.

Defense

DL: A
LB: A
DB: B

Michigan was supposed to fumble like this, not Navy. The Middies didn’t shoot themselves in the foot, they did so multiple times while losing 4 fumbles, including an amazing batted pitch and catch by Rover linebacker Paul Moala that he took back for a touchdown.

I think it’s okay to say Notre Dame got a little lucky with 4 turnovers but to be fair they were very much forced.

Things were a little sticky early on as Navy quarterback Malcolm Perry looked every bit the dynamite runner he’s known to be. Unfortunately, he had so little help. If you can believe it, while Perry was in at quarterback (he was replaced with 5:18 to play in the 3rd quarter) Navy only managed 3 successful carries from their fullbacks or wingbacks.

The Middies put so much of the game on Perry’s shoulders and it would’ve been so hard for him to carry the ball 30+ times and keep moving the offense along. And, well, he fumbled too much.

Stuffs vs. Navy

(season stuffs in parentheses)

White – 4 (26.5)
Bilal – 2 (19)
Kareem – 2 (16.5)
MTA – 2 (12.5)
Ademilola, Jay – 2 (12.5)
Simon – 2 (3.5)
Owusu-Koramoah – 1.5 (13)
Lacey – 1.5 (3.5)
Moala – 1.5 (3.5)
Bracy – 1.5 (5)
Cross – 1.5 (2)
Hamilton – 1 (4)
Oghoufo – 1 (2.5)
Gilman – 0.5 (9)
Bauer – 0.5 (3.5)
Brown – 0.5 (1.5)

Clark Lea has to be smiling from ear to ear after this game. Notre Dame was super disruptive, had Navy off schedule constantly, and nearly pitched a shutout in the first half.

Navy did have a couple long runs of 46 and 26 yards. Their best 7 carries went for a total of 140 yards but their other 57 carries went for just 141 yards, or 2.47 per rush.

The Middies’ first and last drives of the first half showed promise but what happened in between, featuring 18 plays for 31 yards with 2 fumbles and a turnover on downs, absolutely buried them when Notre Dame scored touchdowns on 3 of 6 offensive snaps to build an early lead.

Final Thoughts

Technically the last couple opponents have been out-matched by Notre Dame’s talent but Ian Book seems so much more confident now. And confident Ian Book has usually been very prosperous for the Irish offense.

I hate to keep criticizing him but this was Jafar Armstrong’s 4th game back from injury and he’s putting together perhaps the worst running back season of the Kelly era. Armstrong now has 70 yards on 35 carries in 2019.

I know people will criticize having Jurkovec throw only 2 passes over 3 non-kneel down drives but his first completion–a long cross-field throw to Lenzy while getting drilled–was really impressive. Baby steps.

It may be time to officially get excited, especially if he can stay healthy, for a breakout 2020 season for Lenzy. After the Navy game he now has 5 rushes for 79 yards and 8 receptions for 199 yards on the year. Being able to put up 278 yards on just 13 touches is the type of explosiveness this offense desperately needs.

How many didn’t watch this game, saw Notre Dame just +50 in total yards, and were scratching their heads? Sure, the turnovers played a big part but the Irish were still over 3 yards per play difference at the final whistle. And that’s with just 37 yards on those last 3 boring offensive drives. I’m sure the advanced stats with garbage time removed are going to be brutally ugly for Navy.

How about Drew White this season, right? He’s up to a team-leading 26.5 stuffs in 2019.

The 4th down stop by Kyle Hamilton to drop Perry for a loss of a yard was just fantastic. The Middies were down 28-0 and approaching midfield with an opportunity to get back into the game. Hamilton was having none of it.

I just don’t understand punt return blockers pushing the first pursuing man in the back. The return man almost always will be able to juke that first man and it needlessly cost Chris Finke a nice touchdown.