Keys To Victory For Notre Dame Over Navy - Offense Edition
The 20th-ranked Notre Dame Fighting Irish (6-3) hit the road for a matchup against long time rival Navy (3-6). Notre Dame will look for its fourth straight win of the season and fifth straight victory over the Midshipmen.
For Notre Dame, beating Navy isn't just about getting out of this game with a win, it must also be about building on the foundation laid the last two weeks. That will give the Irish a chance to not only improve to 7-3, but also put itself in position to finish the season as strong as possible.
Finally getting the offense on track is a must if the Irish are going to be capable of running the table. A strong performance against Navy would give the offense the confidence and momentum it needs to do just that.
Here are the four keys that are essential for the Notre Dame offense to not only win this game, but build on its recently established foundation:
1. Start Fast - Outside of the victory over UNLV, the Notre Dame offense has continued to sputter out of the gate. In fact, the Irish special teams and defense has scored more first quarter points (14) in the last two games than the offense. Notre Dame absolutely must become a more effective offense at the start of games.
Against Navy specifically, the Irish will have limited possessions so it must capitalize early and often. Navy isn't really a good come-from-behind team either, so getting off to a fast start and putting touchdowns on the board is the fastest way to burying Navy and putting this game away quickly.
2. Be Who You Are, But Build On It - One of the mistakes coaches can make when playing an inferior opponent is spending too much time trying to focus too much on areas it needs work, or trying to get cute, instead of sticking with what got you there. Notre Dame certainly needs to come out against Navy and be the dominant, physical offense it has been when it plays its best football.
That means building around the line, building around tight end Michael Mayer, and building around the gifted backfield of Logan Diggs, Audric Estime and Chris Tyree. What I do want to see, however, is Tommy Rees and the offensive staff building its strong foundation. Getting more out of the 21 personnel units would be something I'd love to see in this game, continuing to expand the ground game instead of over relying on Duo would be great (we started to see that last week against Clemson), and building the play-action game are all things I want to see.
We saw Rees start to get Tyree more involved in the pass game last week, and I'd like to see that expanded as well.
3. Improve The Pass Game - I don't want to see Notre Dame come out of the locker room going empty every play and throwing the ball all over the yard. I do, however, want to see Rees focus the early game plan on finally getting the pass game going. He must find more concepts that quarterback Drew Pyne is comfortable with, and doing more to get the Irish wideouts more involved are important keys to success in this game.
Notre Dame doesn't really need this to beat Navy, but the Midshipmen secondary is really, really bad. This is the perfect game to establish some success, build up Pyne's confidence, get the wideouts some pass game momentum and give the Irish a more balanced attack moving forward.
4. Finish - Notre Dame has struggled to really put teams away this season. That includes not getting enough out of its red zone trips by settling for field goals instead of punching the ball into the end zone. The wins over Clemson and Syracuse saw the Irish take a big step to improving this area, and that must continue against Navy.
Notre Dame also has failed to put teams away in the second half, and that is an important finishing area. Really burying Navy, giving the starters a chance to get some rest, opening up opportunities for younger players to get a lot of snaps and really dominating an inferior opponent are all keys to success for Notre Dame.
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