Notre Dame crushes Navy 50-10 in Ireland; Purdue next
By DOUG GRIFFITHS
ISL Corrrespondent
Notre Dame’s offense was supposed to be shorthanded against Navy in the season opener, but looked anything but.
Even without suspended running back Cierre Wood, the Irish rolled over the Midshipmen 50-10 Saturday in Dublin, Ireland.
The Irish offense amassed 490 total yards, including 293 on the ground and surprisingly controlled the clock (33:37-26:23) against a ball-control Navy team.
First-time starting quarterback Everett Golson led the Irish offense to three first-half touchdown drives the first three times it touched the ball and for all practical purposes it was game over.
The only hiccup offensively in the opening 30 minutes was an interception Golson threw in the red zone.
Notre Dame flexed its muscle from the outset, establishing its running game with Theo Riddick, who started for Wood.
In the opening half, Riddick carried it 14 times for 83 yards and a touchdown.
Riddick opened the scoring with a nice 11-yard run, capping an 11-play, 75-yard drive that took 5:48 off the clock.
Needless to say, that drive set the tone for the rest of the game.
The Irish continually overpowered Navy, just like they did a year ago when they hammered the Midshipmen, 56-14.
Riddick wasn’t the only impressive ball carrier for the blue and gold. George Atkinson III had the best run of the game on a play that started right, he cut it back and outran the Midshipmen defense for an electrifying 56-yard touchdown scamper in the first quarter that put the Irish up 13-0 with just over three minutes to go.
Atkinson and Riddick, who helped the Irish ground game average 6.4 yards rushing per attempt, enjoyed big days thanks to the play of the Irish offensive line – a veteran crew to say the least with four seniors and a junior starting. The five linemen were impressive, creating plenty of daylight for their backs.
Anytime you play a Navy team you’ve got to play physical and control the line of scrimmage, said Irish coach Brian Kelly afterwards. I think we were able to control the line of scrimmage today.
Speaking of impressive, Golson looked very poised considering this was his first collegiate start. Other than the first-half interception he threw in the opening half, he played mistake-free football, not bad for the rookie starter.
I think I was comfortable, said Golson, who threw for 144 yards, completing 12-of-18 passes, including a five-yard scoring strike to tight end Tyler Eifert.
Kelly, who told reporters earlier this week that Golson was going to make mistakes and seems to be taking a little more lenient approach with his new signal caller, was pleased with what he saw from No. 5.
He made some good decisions and moved our offense, said Kelly of Golson. I thought he managed the game (well). I think he would take one decision back (his interception).
We put 50 points on the board, so that’s a pretty good start.
Kelly was happy with what he saw from Golson and certainly not surprised.
We knew what we were getting with Everett, Kelly said. This wasn’t something where we didn’t know what was going to happen. We would not have put him out there if he didn’t have a good grasp of the offense. He’s going to be a much better player each and every week.
Defensively, the Irish played pretty well against Navy’s tough-to-defend triple option.
A key play for the Notre Dame defense came early when in the first quarter, inside linebacker Manti Te’o stopped Midshipmen quarterback Trey Miller on a fourth-and-one situation at the Notre Dame 30.
Te’o was terrific, finishing with six tackles with an interception and a fumble recovery.
Later with Navy trailing 20-0, it appeared as if it might make a game of it, driving to the Irish 16.
Irish defensive end Stephon Tuitt (6-foot-6, 302 pounds), however, erased any glimmer of hope Navy might have had by scooping up Miller’s fumble and racing 77 yards for a touchdown. On the play, Miller, who appeared to hurt an ankle earlier on the drive, didn’t have his feet set and the ball simply slipped out of his hands as he was getting ready to throw it.
Tuitt’s return was Notre Dame’s longest fumble return since 1985 and third-longest in history.
Tuitt’s score made it 27-0 with just over two minutes left until halftime and the rout was definitely on.
Navy did get on the scoreboard on the final play of the first half thanks to a 26-yard Nick Sloan field goal.
To the Midshipmens’ credit, they didn’t lie down and die completely in the second half.
Navy needed less than a minute to move 75 yards as Miller hooked up with receiver Shawn Lynch for a 25-yard score to get within 17 at 27-10.
However, the Midshipmen continued to have no answer whatsoever for the Irish offense.
Notre Dame responded by engineering touchdown drives on its two possessions.
First, Atkinson scored on a three-yard jaunt and Riddick followed with a three-yard run of his own. The score was 40-10 with still over four minutes left in the third quarter.
Riddick finished with a game-high 107 yards rushing on 19 carries and two scores. Atkinson added 99 yards of his own on just nine attempts with two touchdowns.
Following those scoring drives, Kelly inserted back-up quarterback Andrew Hendrix. He looked good, too, completing all but one of his five passes for 53 yards.
Robby Toma, usually a slot receiver, finished the scoring with a touchdown run in the final minute of the game.
Notre Dame’s success on defense stemmed from its ability to make Navy’s fullback a non-factor, a critical component of any triple-option team. As a result, the Midshipmen were forced to run East-West much more than they would’ve preferred.
The Irish held Navy to just 149 yards rushing, its lowest output in a single game since Dec. 11, 2010. Notre Dame also forced four fumbles.
We’re just carrying on from where we were last year as a defense that’s very stingy against the run, Kelly said. I’ve got a guy next to me in Manti Te’o who is a huge reason why.
We’re very blessed with a physical group and a great scheme. Anytime you can hold Navy to 10 points and one of them was through the air than you’re feeling pretty good about it.
If you were looking for a negative, it would have to be the Irish inexperienced secondary, particularly true freshman cornerback KeiVarae Russell, who was thrust into a starting role after Lo Wood tore his Achilles in fall camp.
One has to wonder how Notre Dame’s defensive backfield will fare once it begins playing spread offenses.
That’s the challenge the 1-0 Irish will face beginning next week when a Purdue team that is expected to compete for the Big Ten’s Leaders Division comes to town for a 3:30 p.m. tilt in Notre Dame Stadium.
We’ll enjoy this one for about 24 hours and then start getting ready for a great rivalry game with Purdue, Kelly said.
Notre Dame Nuggets
– The 50 points scored by the Irish were their most in a season opener since tallying 52 against Purdue in 1983.
– Russell was the first freshman ever at Notre Dame to start at cornerback in the opening game, which leaves the quarterback position that never has had a freshman start the opener.
– Eifert now finds itself now in third place on Notre Dame’s tight end career receptions list. Today he surpassed Kyle Rudolph (90, 2008-10) and Anthony Fasano (92, 2003-05).
– Notre Dame has won nearly 83 percent of its games (134-26-5) against the service academies (Army, Navy and Air Force).
– You can bet Kelly will make extra points a point of emphasis in practice this week after his team missed a pair. Kicker Nick Tausch missed one wide right, while the other was errant after a snap went through holder Ben Turk’s hands.
– A man decided to run on the field early in the third quarter and promptly did a jig around one of the goal lines. Once he walked over to the sideline, he was greeted by authorities. USA Today reported that the man refers to himself as Jungle Bird, and became famous by squawking during Bob Costas’ interview with Webb Simpson at the U.S. Open golf tournament in June.
