Navy vs. Notre Dame: Game Grades, Analysis for Irish

Just when you thought Notre Dame could translate a positive performance against Miami last week into some momentum, along comes Navy and throws a frigate-sized wrench into the gears. For the first time in six attempts, Navy was able to get a win against Notre Dame, thanks to its efficient, ball-controlling triple-option offense.

Notre Dame wasn't particularly terrible in this game, especially on offense. But if your defense can't get off the field, you're going to be in trouble. Just how bad was it? Notre Dame had just two second-half possessions and punted just once in the game.

Let's take a closer look in this week's game grades for the Irish.

Pass Offense

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When DeShone Kizer completes better than 70 percent of his passes, throws three touchdown tosses and doesn't turn the ball over, you'd expect a win on most Saturdays. Ordinarily, you wouldn't be wrong. Ordinarily, that would be enough to win against most opponents.

Navy isn't most opponents.

But before we get to the crux of the Notre Dame loss, let's hand out a grade for the offense. From a passing standpoint, it had a pretty darn good afternoon.

Torii Hunter Jr. caught eight passes for 104 yards and a touchdown, while Equanimeous St. Brown had five receptions for 62 yards and a score.

DeShone Kizer finished 19-of-27 for 223 yards, three touchdowns and no interceptions.

There will be plenty of people who grumble about the Irish putting up just 27 points on Navy, but considering the Irish had just six offensive drives, 27 is not a bad score. Far be it for us to punish the offense for being fairly efficient.

Pass Offense: A-

Run Offense

Associated Press

Navy's defense should be really good against the run, considering that it practices against one of the nation's top rushing offenses every day. But again, Notre Dame did a decent job of picking up the necessary yards when needed, averaging better than five yards per carry in the game.

Josh Adams led the team with 73 yards on 12 carries, and the Irish finished with 147 yards on 29 attempts.

Run Offense: B

Pass Defense

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Navy's Will Worth is a legit player, but it's not because of his passing ability. He was 5-of-8 for 48 yards, but none were bigger than when he converted a first down in the game's final minutes to ice the win for the Midshipmen.

With only eight passes thrown, it's hard to get a handle on exactly how well the defensive secondary defended the pass—but the coverage wasn't there on the rare occasions it was needed. For that, we're handing out a mediocre grade for a questionable performance with only light duty.

Pass Defense: C

Run Defense

Associated Press

When you play Navy, you know it is going to test your run defense. Navy ran the ball 56 times against Notre Dame, and the Midshipmen's ability to hang onto the football limited Notre Dame's offensive opportunities.

Will Worth was the primary weapon, as expected, and ran for 175 yards and two touchdowns. Overall, Navy ran for 320 yards and four touchdowns, but the biggest problem for Notre Dame wasn't so much the yardage surrendered but the possessions missed because of Navy's time-swallowing ball-possession game plan.

Navy is maddeningly efficient with the football and had only three drives that lasted fewer than five minutes. The last two drives were a combined 16 minutes, 28 seconds (nine minutes and seven minutes, 28 seconds, respectively) to end the game. The Midshipmen were also a safe money bet in short-yardage situations and went 4-of-5 on fourth-down conversions.

Not many teams can stop Navy's run game. The Midshipmen came into this game averaging nearly 300 yards per game, fifth in the FBS, but we're not going to let that be an excuse for Notre Dame being completely unable to get the Navy offense off the field.

Run Defense: D

Special Teams

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After some questionable plays over the past few games, we were beginning to wonder when the special teams would make that one critical mistake that would cost the Irish the game.

Last week, it almost happened against Miami. This week, it did happen against Navy.

In one of the few instances where Navy's offense was stopped—by anyone this season—and Notre Dame's defense was able to get off of the field after forcing a 4th-and-5, the punt-return unit went out on to the field with 12 players. The last guy didn't get off in time, and Navy converted the 4th-and-1. That drive ended up lasting nine minutes and resulted in seven Navy points.

Notre Dame got the ball only once more after that, and those seven points were exactly what Navy needed to squeak by with a one-point victory.

Special Teams: D

Coaching

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There are going to be a ton of people who whine and complain about Brian Kelly now that Notre Dame is 3-6. But those who renew their wailing for Kelly's ouster after this loss are likely belying their anti-Kelly bias.

First, Notre Dame had a solid game plan against Navy. The offense was efficient, mixing in the run and pass, and the offensive play-calling took perfect advantage of Navy's defensive weaknesses. But will the anti-Kelly crowd give the coach credit for that?

Second, we knew that the young Irish defense would face a mountain of a challenge in stopping the Navy triple-option offense. Navy's offense isn't the type a team sees often, so the defense is essentially being asked to alter its scheme system for one game. It's exactly why Navy, often viewed as undersized and under-talented, is 6-2 on the season.

Then, of course, there's Kelly's decision to kick the field goal to cut the Navy lead to one point with more than seven minutes left in the game. Before you crucify Kelly for that call, look at the situation. There were more than seven minutes remaining, and Notre Dame still had all three timeouts. Even if Navy scores a touchdown, it's a one-score game.  

And if the defense can get a stop, the Irish can win the game with a field goal. Why not kick it?

The problem there is that the defense proceeded to allow Navy to drain the final 7:28 off the clock. Maybe Kelly should have known that his defense couldn't stop Navy, but do you really want a coach betting against his own defense?

Coaching: C

All recruiting information via Scout. Stats from NCAA.com, CFBStats.com or B/R research. Quotes obtained firsthand unless otherwise noted. Follow Bleacher Report CFB Featured Columnist and Notre Dame Live Correspondent David Luther on Twitter @davidrluther.