‘Force on force’
Midshipmen defense ready for Notre Dame’s powerful rushing attack
Navy defensive coordinator Brian Newberry didn’t need to think twice when asked what Notre Dame has done to turn around its season.
The Fighting Irish have won six of their last seven games after starting 0-2.
In the wake of losses to Ohio State and Marshall and a lackluster offensive performance in a win against California, firstyear coach Marcus Freeman decided Notre
Dame needed to implement a ground-andpound philosophy on offense.
“Notre Dame is a very different team right now than it was early in the season. They’re obviously playing at a very high level on offense,” Newberry said. “I think the biggest difference is that they’ve really established the run game. They’re totally committed to running the football.
“I don’t think that philosophy is going to change. We know what they’re going to do, so we have to do our best to slow them down.”
Notre Dame debuted its ground-based offense against North Carolina, running the ball 51 times for 287 yards in a 45-32 victory. The Fighting Irish have surpassed 200 yards rushing in all four of their subsequent wins.
Notre Dame flexed its muscles big time last Saturday night against then-No. 4 Clemson. The Fighting Irish piled up 263 rushing yards on the way to a 35-14 rout.
“Clemson has NFL talent across the board along the defensive front seven and I think our offensive line took it as a challenge,” Freeman said. “It was a case of playing to your strengths within the flow of the game. We were having success so we continued to run the ball.”
Freeman said the mentality starts with conducting tough, physical practices. Notre Dame goes good-on-good quite often during the week so both sides get accustomed to power football. The Fighting Irish feature the nation’s No. 35 rushing defense and therefore provide a stiff challenge for the offense.
“There’s a belief on my part that this is our staple. We’re going to have to run the ball when teams know we’re doing it,” Freeman said. “It all starts in practice. You can’t just turn it on Saturday.”
Notre Dame averaged 268 rushing yards over its last five wins with powerful tailbacks Audric Estime (5 feet 11, 227 pounds) and Logan Diggs (6-0, 214) sharing the workload. Those two have combined to run for 1,207 yards with Estime usually getting the ball on the goal line as he’s scored nine touchdowns.
Newberry said Estime and Diggs rotate series as Notre Dame steadily works to wear down the defense. He’s impressed by the amount of yards after contact the tailback tandem gains.
“They’re as good as any backs we’ve seen all season — big guys that really run behind their pads and break tackles,” Newberry said. “We’ve got to get things going east and west; we can’t let it get going north and south. When it does, we have to fit things well, leverage the football ball and tackle well.”
Notre Dame fields a typically huge offensive
line comprised of tackles Joe Alt (6-7, 317 pounds) and Blake Fisher (6-6, 327), guards Jarrett Patterson (6-4, 310) and Josh Lugg (6-6, 316) along with center Zeke Cornell (6-3, 308). The Fighting Irish add to that beef up front by routinely employing two and three tight-end sets.
Meanwhile, Navy ranks seventh nationally in rushing defense, holding opponents to just 88 yards per game on the ground. It all starts up front for the Midshipmen with nose guard Donald Berniard Jr., tackle Clay Cromwell and end Jacob Busic doing a great job of occupying blockers.
Nicholas Straw has done a superb job of setting the edge from his hybrid outside linebacker position known as raider, while John Marshall has been a disruptive force on the other side at striker.
The Midshipmen rotate four inside linebackers with starters Will Harbour and Colin Ramos teaming with backups Jianni Woodson-Brooks and Tyler Fletcher to provide solid production.
Marshall leads Navy with 72 tackles and 13 tackles for loss, while Ramos and safety Rayuan Lane rank second and third with 57 and 56, respectively.
Navy just played a power running opponent in Cincinnati and Straw said the defensive
front is accustomed to going against huge offensive lines.
“Notre Dame being proud of its rushing game is good for us because stopping the run has been the strength of our defense,” Straw said. “It will be force on force, culture versus culture. They’ll try to ground us out and wear us down with the run game, but I know our defense isn’t going to back down.”
The Bearcats wanted to establish the run last Saturday and the Midshipmen responded, giving up just 55 yards on the ground. If Navy can shut down the Notre Dame rushing attack as well, it would provide a psychological edge.
“If we can stop the run and force them to pass that’s a little bit of an in-game victory,” Straw said. “We’re a physical group that is always playing downhill and playing fast. We relish going against that gritty, heavy run game and our excited to get after these guys. We’ve got a plan for this team, I promise you that.”
Due largely to its commitment to running the ball, Notre Dame ranks 17th nationally with an average time of possession of 32 minutes, 39 seconds. Navy is fifth in that category at 34:36, so this figures to be a lot like a service academy contest with limited possessions.