There is no game like Navy on the Notre Dame schedule for a bunch of reasons, but one of the several unique qualities about it is that no game on the schedule is more likely to go from “Federal emergency, burn down the program” to “oh, it’s basically over and we won” in four possessions.

Today certainly qualified as that. With the Irish trailing 13-7 late in the first half and the defense looking passive and utterly lost, the entire fan base was ready to leave Chris Ash in Boston, apologize for ever thinking Leave No Doubt was a good slogan for this season, and begin the “Are we totally sure Marcus Freeman is it?” conversation.

From there it was: Touchdown ND, halftime, touchdown ND, 3 and out, touchdown ND, fourth-down stop, touchdown ND. Game effectively over. Final score 35-13. What were you all worried about?

To be clear, we’re still worried about plenty. But at least the season remains on. And it will effectively all come down to a visit from presumably No. 1-ranked Miami next week. ND almost certainly has to win the game to make the playoff. (Especially because that Wisconsin win we were all so excited about becoming a ‘quality win’ is…uh…yeah.)

But before that happens, let’s examine a few subplots from today:

Chris Ash is still on notice and might want to send his resume to a few places

Notre Dame ultimately righted itself on defense and stifled Navy in the second half Saturday, but the first half was a five-alarm fire and a Julia Child-caliber recipe for how to lose to Navy, authored by Chris Ash. The defense looked completely passive, and the front line, which has been pretty good all season, was flat-out pushed around by Navy – an inexcusable phrase to write.

It’s one thing when someone messes up a read and Navy breaks loose for a touchdown – which has happened in this series and in fact happened 2 years ago, the last time Navy was the home team in this game. It’s quite another if you let yourself die by a thousand paper cuts due to fear of screwing up, which is what was going down in the first half. Navy’s first two possessions lasted a combined 17 minutes – thank goodness they only yielded 6 total points – leading to the Irish’s only having the ball 3 times in the entire half. (And it might not have even been that had one of them not been a completely stupid 3 and out with 3 incompletions.)

This led to Marcus Freeman – who, to be clear, owns Ash being a misfire if things continue in this direction, because it was a hire that never made a lot of sense in the first place in a job any defensive assistant in the country would have wanted – coming about as close as he ever does to taking a public shot at anyone in his halftime interview. It was aimed directly at Ash:

Navy did effectively nothing after halftime, so this could end up being a nothingburger. But for a bit, it was very, very concerning.

Just run the damn ball more, fellas

On the other side of the ball, maybe Notre Dame is overcomplicating things. It’s kind of funny to say given we fans spent the first few weeks asking where the heck the running game was, but now that the Irish seem to have found something in the Nolan James/Jonaz Walton duo,* maybe…just give them the ball?

* By the way, unrelated, but Aneyas Williams returning kickoffs when literally nothing about his skill set suggests that’s the best use of him reeks of feeling bad that he’s once again been surpassed by better RBs on the depth chart. Can we please dustbin that idea forever?

Sometimes it feels like ND’s coaches are treating CJ Carr like he’s Jayden Daniels given the swiftness with which they turn to the passing game, and certainly today. (Why bring Walton out and then throw 3 times?) Then, once the Irish started running the ball, good things started happening right away, with James’ long TD the first.

All due props to the offensive line, which has shown improvement in run blocking. Between that improvement and Carr seeming to be backsliding in the accuracy department of late, the time might have come to start thinking about the 2025 offensive philosophy as closer to the model for this team the rest of the way than what we’ve seen so far.

James had 107 yards on the ground, and Jonaz Walton got 51. They had 21 total carries. Both totals might need to be significantly higher next week in order to win.

Jerome Bettis Jr. didn’t just get better in a week and a half

I don’t want to be sad-sack doomer guy here, but Jerome Bettis Jr.’s strong performance in the second half was more annoying than anything else. This is not because it wasn’t a welcome sight – it definitely was! But no ND fan honestly believes he only got on the field because “Freeman challenged the wide receiver room,” which is what Louis Riddick said when he wasn’t inexplicably calling for an OPI flag on a screen pass when anyone who’s watched football enough to get paid for it knows that’s not a penalty.

Bettis could’ve just as easily been on the field against BYU, and whether he actually did anything in that game had he gotten the chance is less important than the indisputable fact that he could’ve given valuable time off to the 3 starters who were run into the ground that night.

That being said, it’s good to see a guy outside the usual suspects get loose and make stuff happen like Bettis did with that outstanding double move. There’s likely going to be a time next week when the main receivers need a breath, and Bettis ought to get a look at that point, no matter how tight the wide receiver rotation is.

Next week is the season

Don’t listen to a single pundit who tries to tell you Notre Dame can make the 12-team College Football Playoff if they lose to Miami next week. They won’t. (Especially after Wisconsin and SMU both went down today, ending any hope of them being a ranked win for the Irish at the end of the season.)

I’m not even going to get into whether it would be equitable if they didn’t get in over, for example, a hypothetical 10-2 Iowa whose best win would be the same Wisconsin team ND beat by essentially the same margin. We can talk about that in December, but the point is, they won’t.

If nothing else, the Irish would deserve the karmic payback for spending 8 months talking about not leaving it to the judges then running back essentially the same season and leaving it to the judges. For that reason I’m certain ND would be left out under that scenario.

So let’s just hope that doesn’t happen. It’s frankly hard to see that happening right now given what we’ve seen from ND the last 3 weeks, but one game is one game. Perhaps, just maybe, Nov. 7 is the night the Irish put everything together and deliver when it matters most.

I’m not optimistic given the injury issues on the defense. Drayk Bowen left today’s game, didn’t return, and is probably going to be out. DJ McKinney is going to be out. Brauntae Johnson, if he plays at all, will be rusty and limited. Same with Kyngstonn Viliamu-Asa. Leonard Moore is banged up. Francis Brewu left today’s game and (I think) did not return. The defense is shredded with injuries and needed to be at its best to begin with. I’m worried.

But we’ll find out.

(Photo credit – USA Today Network)