CFB: Notre Dame Fighting Irish Week 9 Preview

By Stiofán Mac Fhilib

The Notre Dame Fighting Irish continue to move through the gears and churn out victories. They overcame Georgia Tech in Atlanta and now face an unbeaten Navy. Stiofán Mac Fhilib guides us through last week and previews a tricky matchup in Week 9.

Looking Back at Last Week

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Notre Dame secured bowl eligibility with a decisive 31-13 win at Georgia Tech, which highlighted the Irish team’s strengths and some key areas that still require improvement if a playoff run is on the agenda. 

After generously allowing the opposition to take the lead for the fourth consecutive game, Al Golden’s defence slowly suffocated the opposition in the final three quarters. To continue to play at such a high level in the face of a litany of season-ending injuries is hugely impressive and is ND’s best hope of seeing out the rest of the regular season with the wins necessary for a playoff place. 

Tech had to go with backup QB Zach Pyron, and after completing his first nine passes, he was 11 of 27 with a pair of INTs the rest of the way. The Yellow Jackets also came into the game on the back of running for 245 and 371 yards. ND held them to 64 at a paltry 2.2 yards per carry. 

The Irish offense was the usual mixture. Having thrown a very costly interception against Northern Illinois on a badly underthrown deep ball, Riley Leonard made sure not to underthrow Beaux Collins in the first quarter. Badly overthrowing him into double coverage wasn’t the best idea either, and the hosts took full advantage of their Safety’s INT. 

When faced with that 0-7 deficit, Leonard led second and early-third-quarter drives of 75, 68, and 60 yards, capped with a pair of TD runs by himself and another for Jeremiyah Love, who has one in every Notre Dame game this season. Then, the unit retreated into its conservative shell, and it took an Adon Shuler 36-yard INT return with just over two minutes to go to ice proceedings with a 31-7 Irish lead. 

To cap off a comprehensive victory in all three phases of the game, Notre Dame not only blocked a pair of Tech FGs, they also successfully converted a fake punt AND a fake FG on the same fourth quarter drive. Something on film to give future opponents another thing to prep for.

The Week Ahead

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Navy Midshipmen (MetLife Stadium, East Rutherford, NJ); 12noon EST; 5.00pm IST/BST

Another week, another NFL stadium for Notre Dame. That makes it 12 since the 2016 season, the most of any team in college football during that period. And there’s still quite a famous baseball stadium in the Bronx awaiting the Irish in November. Any thoughts of Army in Yankee Stadium, however, will have to wait. This weekend, their service academy rivals, the unbeaten Navy Midshipmen, take on ND in a game that invariably gives Irish fans palpitations, regardless of how good the Middies are on paper. And this year, they look rather good, albeit against mostly very poor opposition. 

They have a new OC and a new-look offense. They operate out of the shotgun almost half the time, use motion most of the time, and utilise QB roll-outs and play-action passing much more frequently. When added to the other elements of their option running game, it has made for a very dangerous and high-scoring unit, with a plethora of explosive plays in their first six games. So much so, in fact, that they don’t even have to place much reliance on time of possession any more – nationally, they’re 85th to date!

QB Blake Horvath, is a threat on the ground and with his arm, and has a 10-1 TD-INT ratio. Alex Tecza is the biggest threat on FB Dive plays, and Slotback Eli Heidenreich is Horvath’s favourite target through the air. The OL, however, is undersized and vulnerable to Mills and Cross at DT for the Irish. 

Navy have allowed only 13 tackles for loss this season but have yet to face a defense in the same stratosphere as ND’s. Creating negative plays is a huge must for the Irish defense against a Navy offense that has recorded 22 TDs on 23 red zone trips. 

It will also be fascinating to see how Golden lines up his defenders this week. The young Irish defense has huge talent but little experience against the option, especially in the back seven. Good tacklers are at a premium and the likes of Nickelback Jordan Clark seeing a lot of snaps at CB would not be a surprise. 

Notre Dame’s only experienced LB, Jack Kiser, will have a great responsibility getting everyone lined up, and assignment-correct football will be essential to getting the Midshipmen off the field. 

The Irish offense has tried to develop Riley Leonard’s passing in recent weeks. On Saturday, that can be placed on hold as every drive counts, and Denbrock and Freeman need to play to their team’s strengths. Navy struggled on defense against the one decent team they have faced – Memphis – and especially against the run. This is a run to set up the pass game and Love and Price need to be fed, and fed regularly. 

An undersized Navy DL can be moved off the ball, which is the key to Irish success. They will, almost certainly, blitz early and often, quite possibly with increasing desperation, and while this caused ND major problems in the second half two years ago, Denbrock should be significantly better than his predecessor in adjusting to it successfully.

Game Prediction

Notre Dame 38-21 Navy

The Middies will have some success early as Notre Dame’s young defense takes a quarter to adjust to the Navy option game. But they won’t be the first – or last – offense to be slowly suffocated as the game progresses, and the Irish run game will lead Marcus Freeman’s team to a victory that is only assured in the fourth quarter.

Where to Watch

Sky Sports NFL (Channel 408) 5:00pm IST/BST

ABC/ESPN+ (in the USA)

Playoff Picture

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Week 8 elsewhere was not overly kind to Notre Dame’s playoff prospects. BYU, Miami, Missouri and Iowa State all flirted with defeat before pulling through late in the fourth quarter. Very, very late in some cases. Alabama’s defeat at Tennessee could prove very costly for the Tide come December, and A&M’s continued good run only enhances the Irish resumé each week. Louisville and USC losing, however, has the opposite effect. 

This week has some fascinating encounters. Missouri travels to a nervous Alabama side with zero room for error now. Oregon hosts a resurgent Illinois. LSU goes to Texas A&M in a battle of unbeaten SEC teams, while Texas heads to Vanderbilt. And don’t sleep on Penn State at Wisconsin, the Nittany Lions’ toughest outing to date. 

STIOFÁN MAC FHILIB

COLLEGE FOOTBALL ANALYST

A VERY LONG-DISTANCE SUBWAY ALUMNUS OF NOTRE DAME, COUNTY ANTRIM-BASED STIOFÁN HAS BEEN A FAN OF THE FIGHTING IRISH SINCE 2000. FOLLOW HIM ON TWITTER @SMACFHILIB.

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