Rakes Report #202: Pluck me from this driftwood, Lord, I'll be a better man; raise me from the deep sea in the palm of your great hand (The Navy Review)
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~optional musical accompaniment~
1) Navy games are dumb and should not be played annually if at all but having seen some ugly losses both in the series previously and by this specific 2022 Fighting Irish team I am not going to complain much about a win of any sort. That second half was a root canal but thankfully the points you score in the first count, too. My primary big picture takeaway is that Marcus Freeman had his team focused at the start despite the Clemson hangover, which was a major concern considering some of the lapses earlier this season. Things got sketchy there for a bit but that seems more like a failure of in-game adjustments (not good, mind you, but a different issue) and the weirdness of playing Navy.
Whatever, it’s thankfully over until we see them again in Dublin. I also think there was enough evening chaos and schadenfreude to really put the “No bad wins” in perspective by the weekend’s conclusion. Onward to another game that is a no-upside obligation.
2) Smiling serenely as I imagine someone who didn’t watch the game looking at Drew Pyne’s final stats: 80% completion rate, nearly 13 yards per attempt on 21 throws? And he ran for a score?! Doesn’t get much better than that, you say, with no further context. Can’t say enough good things about the first half (five total touchdowns for Pyne!) or bad things about the second half (12 total yards!). Getting the negative out of the way, I’d put that failure as a combination of Pyne not getting rid of the ball quickly against Cover 0 “NFL Blitz”-style defense, Tommy Rees not attacking outside enough with the Midshipmen congregated inside throwing everything at the backfield, the offensive line not having its best day and the general weirdness of having halftime plus that lengthy Navy drive to start the third quarter taking everyone out of rhythm. We know there is minimal margin for error with this team on offense, which means if Pyne is a little off, the line isn’t at its peak and Tommy has shifted from consistent Good Plays, and it’s gonna be ugly. That was very ugly.
To focus on the positive, Braden Lenzy might have had the catch of the season across all of college football. Jayden Thomas and Deion Colzie are outplaying Lorenzo Styles as far as sophomore contributors, and Pyne’s dime to Thomas for the final score of the half (wait, game – dammit) immediately after the punt block was as pretty as you’ll see as far as both throw and route. Mitchell Evans converted another short yardage attempt, tailbacks didn’t put the ball on the ground and Audric Estime continued to show he’s a threat in the air in addition to his rushing acumen.
The rosiest way to look at this is the Midshipmen took away the run (Estime, Diggs and Chris Tyree went for 82 yards on 22 carries, so under four yards per) and the Irish still put up 35 away from home and won. (The Irish also only had the ball for 18 plays after the break, a mix of their own inefficiency and Navy chewing clock.) Coming into this game, Navy's defense was ranked 65th in the F+, Boston College was ranked 78th and USC 74th - take that for what you will. If Pyne plays like he did in the first half, the Irish can make it to December with a “3” remaining in the loss column. If he plays like he did in the second, well…
3) Trying to come up with any holistic big picture defensive thoughts from this game is pointless (particularly without J.D. Bertrand in there*), please stop playing Navy. I do think we can look at some fun stuff individuals did: It’s not surprising that the best linebacker in his high school class is really starting to come on at the end of his sophomore season, but the idea of Prince Kollie only scratching the surface right now is really exciting. Benjamin Morrison followed up his star-making night with another good day, Xavier Watts excelled and Clarence Lewis had a dandy of a pick that showed off the total package. It was fun seeing Marist Liafau and Junior Tuihalamaka flying around together out there and D.J. Brown is playing some good football as of late.
* Freeman said Betrand should be back on Saturday for the home finale. Tobias Merriweather missed the game as well with a concussion and is also expected back.
4) Game management theater: I adored Freeman's decision to go for it on fourth and one from the Irish 42 on the game's opening drive - particularly early in a Navy game, you have to score, you're bigger and stronger, just go get it. For this game reason, I loathed the decision to kick on fourth and two from the 27. Blake Grupe hasn't been locked in of late and that's at the edge of his range, get physical and get it done. There was immediate redemption at the end of the first half with great use of timeouts to squeak out another possession.
The football gods immediately rewarded that savvy timeout work with another punt block, which is just getting silly. When you’re prognosticating games you can’t look at things like forcing turnovers and blocking punts as repeatable, but…if you’re blocking a punt in every single game maybe it is repeatable? Wizard shit from Brian Mason. Jon Sot pinned Navy inside their own 15 on his final three punts after there was no use for his services in the first half. Ray Guy award, please.
It did seem like Kenny didn’t want to be there until some good work by Brian Newberry made it interesting enough for him to try late. Punting on 4th and 3 from the midfield on their first possession was bizarre behavior.
5) Winning Is Hard/Schadenfreude Round-Up: Nightmare night for the PAC-12. Oregon was in a situation where if they won out they would have had a good shot at the playoff – they lost at home to Washington as a two-score favorite. With the big game against USC up next week, UCLA was a 20-point favorite against Arizona and lost at home. Arkansas and Ole Miss couldn’t pull it out at home against LSU and Alabama, respectively, sending the Tigers to the SEC title game. Clark Lea got his first SEC win, taking down Kentucky with a late touchdown. Wildcats can now get healthy and rebuild Will Levis’ draft stock against…Georgia. Okay, good luck.
The Longhorns had GameDay in town and a chance to take a big step toward a Big 12 title game bid and their high-powered offense scored three (3) points against TCU. Baylor got blown out at home by Kansas State. Texas A&M scratched out 10 whole points in a loss to Auburn and will not be going bowling despite giving Jimbo Fisher a contract with a total value equal to the annual GDP of a small island nation. Tulane lost at home to Central Florida and lost their grip on both the conference and a potential New Year’s Six bid. Illinois lost at home to Purdue and lost its grip on the Big Ten West. Iowa beat Wisconsin 24-10 despite having 146 yards of offense. (Was a Graham Mertz pick six involved? You bet.) Northwestern lost to Minnesota and we’re two games away from realizing the dream of 0-for-the-United-States. Syracuse got housed at home by the Noles and has the chance to finish 6-6 after a 6-0 start.
Oklahoma lost at West Virginia and they’re now 5-5 in Brent Venables’ first season, needing to either win Bedlam or in Lubbock to make a bowl. Clemson got back on track against Louisville and North Carolina stole one in Winston-Salem, meaning Notre Dame is officially the 2022 ACC champion. (Wake Forest was No. 10 in the nation and has now lost three straight.) Marshall beat my beloved App State Mountaineers to get bowl eligible and continue their torture of me personally. Indiana is a broken program. Maryland got waxed in State College. Virginia threw pick sixes on their first two snaps against Pitt and did not rally back from that. Matt Campbell lost another close game, this one at Oklahoma State. South Carolina got walloped by Florida.
I said a single nice thing about Dave Doeren last week and he immediately lost at home to Boston College as a 20-point favorite. I appreciate him giving the Eagles something to feel good about for their season so they can take it easy on Saturday but this is a lesson to me.
6) While it would have been nice to have doubled or even simply maintained the first-half margin after the break, the Irish got out of Saturday with a win and no major injuries, so for that we give thanks. Here’s a thing written in this space to conclude the BYU Review:
I think we’re all pretty accepting that this is a silly sport played with an oblong ball by college students and as such there can be random results on random Saturdays that aren’t indicative of anything other than us all making poor decisions about our hobbies and emotional investments. That being said: You cannot, cannot, cannot lose to Stanford this weekend.
Welp. Anyway, I understand that Notre Dame lost to Marshall at home and they also lost to a terrible Stanford team at home but you cannot lose to the Thundering Herd and the Cardinal and then this woeful Boston College team on Senior Day when you’ve got some momentum going. The Irish have scrapped and clawed their way to 7-3 and as improbable as this would have seemed a month ago there’s still a chance at a 10-win season and a final Top 10 ranking despite the starting quarterback going down on the second weekend.
Two games left! That’s it, the season is almost over. It’s a shame that second half against the Midshipmen was rough to watch but a win is a win and unfortunately you will have to find other outlets for venting two weeks from today because our beloved Notre Dame football will be on ice. This next game is also a true “Win and stay healthy” situation which is annoying but still something to savor. Go Irish, Beat Eagles, keep this sometimes-rickety wagon on track.
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