Rakes Report #244: You best start believing in ghost stories (The Navy Review)
The Fighting Irish took care of business in a ranked matchup to get to their second bye week at 7-1 and remain very much alive in the playoff race.
~optional cinematic accompaniment~
1) I felt pretty good going into Saturday, as my suspicion was Navy’s gaudy scoring numbers* were at least partially the result of going against a woeful set of defenses and the lone capable offense they faced notched 44. Throw in the fact that the undefeated record and Top 25 ranking meant Notre Dame would likely be focused and this felt like it could go okay. Still, you never know against the Midshipmen, especially in a noon kickoff in an NFL stadium. The Irish played four quality quarters, took advantage of their opponent’s mistakes and put up an impressive final score to head into their second bye on the longest winning streak of Marcus Freeman’s career. If you go back to last October, the program is 12-2 since the loss in Louisville. Positive trend lines.
* Heard “Navy has the third best offense in college football” being thrown around last week. In the year 2024, we don’t have to use points per game as a metric. They were 36th in offensive F+, which is quite respectable but more realistic with the understanding of who their opponents were.
2) Clean defensive game overall. The Irish won in the margins, allowing just four third-down conversions on 11 tries and only one touchdown on three red zone trips. Blake Horvath got loose twice on long runs but their primary backs totaled only 84 yards on 23 carries with nothing longer than 12, something you'll take every time. Horvath had also been successful in the passing game coming into this but the only two receptions over 20 yards came on the reverse fleaflicker (fair play, tip the hat) and the fumbled snap that ended up working as a dandy of an unintentional (?) play action. Keep a lid on explosives and gum up the works on money downs and you’ll be alright. Respect to the Bob Elliott Memorial Institute for Option Studies.
Really nice to see Jaylen Sneed so involved (tied for the team lead with nine tackles), focused and rewarded with the fumble recovery touchdown – loved his reaction. Leonard Moore’s first career pick was fitting in that it took advantage of his freakish length. Not a great day for Christian Gray, but too soon to evaluate whether that’s Bad Day or Not Quite Ready To Step In As No. 1 Corner Following Benjamin Morrison’s Injury. Adon Shuler is so good and consistent (nine tackles, the first fumble recovery) you can forget he’s a sophomore. In Jack Kiser’s final game against the Midshipmen, he was again great, with nine tackles (one for loss) and a fumble recovery. Xavier Watts is the man and Junior Tuihalamaka seemed to be omnipresent around the ball. Not sure why Navy threw to a guy whose thumb was clearly bothering him but we’ll take it.
Al Golden’s lads were obviously aided by a flurry of Navy miscues. Most of them were of the very dumb plays/straight drops variety, but I do wonder if Notre Dame being such a large, fast and physical presence got into their head, almost how an elite rim protector can completely change the nature of an opposing offense even if they aren’t logging actual blocks in the stat sheet. Combine the known lethality of the Irish defense with the added pressure of the Navy offense knowing they were going to need to score to keep up and there’s your recipe for thinking too much and kicking the ball all over the place.
3) An important thing to do when playing an option team is to not turn the ball over and Notre Dame was perfect at that. They were sloppy in other areas, with some rare red zone miscues, unnecessary penalties and a couple drops but overall this was another good game by Riley Leonard and Jeremiyah Love and if those two are producing this is going to be a tough offense to stop. Special credit to Mike Denbrock and Leonard for answering both of the Navy touchdowns with clinical 75-yard scoring drives of their own — they never let the heat of game pressure get turned up beyond a simmer.
Jordan Faison had one of the drops but also looked healthy (leading receiver on the day with four catches, including a huge one to convert a fourth down), and if he’s 100% for the final month that’s a huge help. Great completion to Jaden Greathouse on the game’s initial third down, making Navy pay for an early attempt at man defense. Kris Mitchell continues to trend in the right direction and no drops by Beaux Collins, who did come through with another long touchdown on a blown coverage.
In other good injury news, Billy Schrauth was back and started at left guard. The fact he was able to go before the bye week seems promising for November. The ground game was really strong overall, hitting 94th percentile in EPA per rush. (Love that Love got to be in on some third-and-shorts, which he converted. He’s as tough as he is fast, which is saying something.) Leonard is a fascinating runner, mixing impeccable balance with an almost anti-grace that results in efficiency and explosiveness while at the same time looking like it’s on the precipice of toppling. The comparison that springs to mind is if you’re ever been out on an ATV or similar piece of hardware and started feeling a little too good and going a little too fast on rough terrain before bouncing recklessly to a destination you should have probably approached with a little more care. But in the end, you got there without taking a spill and you got there damn quick, even if it looked a little sketchy to those on the outside. Enjoy his little hops that are thrown in around the sideline.
Fun fact from the game notes: Love's eighth straight game with a rushing touchdown is the fifth-best streak in school history, a mark also achieved by Jonas Gray, Kyren Williams and Brandon Wimbush. What a fun group of dudes. Fun fact from the new SP+: The Irish are up to 11th in offense. I liked this chart. Starting to cook.
4) Something I maybe hadn’t realized but certainly do now is that when you’re learning a lot about all the different kickers on your roster from the booth that’s probably not a great sign. Don’t be offside on kickoffs, please. James Rendell had a 49-yard punt and two muffs so thumbs up for that, even if the first dropped kick wasn’t particularly impressive in distance.
If we are nitpicking: Up 14-0, Notre Dame had third and seven at the Navy 13. Leonard ended up taking a sack that was followed by a missed field goal. Considering Mitch Jeter was unavailable, maybe that should have been a third-down run to get to fourth and short to go for it. Zac Yoakam made one from 32 later in the game so it wasn’t like putting him out there for a 36-yarder was negligence or anything. Like I said, just nitpicking.
What a world of difference an announcing crew makes. A chill ran up my spine when they displayed the playoff percentages at the beginning of the broadcast but they called it like a normal game. Sean McDonough’s indignation at the horrific roughing the passer penalty on Kyngstonn Viliamu-Asa was a delight, and bonus points for bringing it up again later when discussing a potential late hit on Notre Dame (was absolutely not a late hit). The more the narrative is “You know, Leonard missed most of spring and this is really a different offense” the better.
Brief intermission for podcast business. I believe some people read the newsletter only, some people listen to the podcast only and some people do both so pardon if you’re already in the know on all of this.
I had the honor of talking to All-American point guard Olivia Miles last week and I highly recommend it if you have any interest in basketball as she is a genius and gave a lot of insight into her approach.
This Thursday, we will have a special spooky Movie Club episode on Halloween 3: Season of the Witch, which swaps out Michael Myers for an Irish guy. It’s a lot of fun and I also recommend a listen, but if you’d like to watch first, it’s on Peacock, AMC+ and as a cheap digital rental.
Also live: Jessica Smetana and Sam Werner (who was on the scene in the Meadowlands to provide some incredible color) discussed the Navy game.
These are all available on Apple, Spotify or anywhere you get your podcasts by searching Rakes Report.
5) Winning Is Hard round up: It was a tough primetime slate to have a halftime lead. LSU was up 17-7 in College Station but an outbreak of interceptions and some incredible work from the Aggie backup quarterback resulted in a huge victory for Texas A&M, who now have sole possession of first place in the SEC. Wisconsin led Penn State 10-7 at the break and had the advantage of Drew Allar not playing the entire second half, but one of the worst pick sixes you’ll ever see and general poor play on both sides of the ball resulted in a two-touchdown Nittany Lion win.
After losing a fourth-quarter road lead, Nebraska was driving for the win against Ohio State and had first-and-ten at midfield. They proceeded to go false start, two screens that didn't work and then an interception. Good try I guess! Buckeye fans are furious despite the win, and Penn State looms on Saturday. Kyle McCord threw three pick sixes at Pittsburgh and that was slightly too much for Syracuse to overcome. SMU turned the ball over six times at Duke but survived in overtime due to a blocked kick at the end of regulation and failed two-point try. (Undefeated Panthers head to SMU next week in what should be a dandy.) Missouri had to turn to Drew Pyne in Tuscaloosa and it didn’t go well. Undefeated Liberty lost to winless Kennesaw State as a 27-point favorite.
Boston College blew a 27-10 lead against Louisville in a Friday night home game. Ole Miss trailed Oklahoma at the half before a slow rally. Virginia got blown out at home by North Carolina, who was winless in ACC play. Memphis had a helluva time with Charlotte. Northwestern and Maryland were blown out on the road by Iowa and Minnesota, respectively. Utah, preseason No. 12, lost at Houston and is now 1-4 in league play. Oklahoma State, preseason No. 17, lost at resurgent Baylor and now will likely miss a bowl.
Rutgers got handled by the Trojans in a packed, buzzing Coliseum and the Scarlet Knight losing streak is now four. Texas Tech couldn’t hold onto a 31-14 lead at TCU. Central Florida ended up a short home favorite against BYU by kickoff and did nothing with the opportunity, the Cougars remaining undefeated. Kansas State barely survived Kansas at home. UTSA was up 35-7 at the half against Tulsa and lost.
Arizona lost at home to West Virginia. Sparty couldn’t beat this terrible Michigan team. Florida State lost by 22 to Miami and I almost didn’t include it. Troy rallied from a 23-3 deficit to take the lead with 105 seconds left but couldn't hold, falling to Arkansas State as Gerad Parker continues searching for his first FBS win. On the positive former offensive assistant side, Lance Taylor’s Western Michigan squad is 4-0 in MAC play.
Do you remember last week how Brent Key kept Zach Pyron out there unnecessarily as if he was trying to volunteer him for a human sacrifice? Pyron was 9 of 21 for 71 yards and an interception in Blacksburg before he was pulled for the true freshman third-string option, so definitely no residual effects of that maiming. The Hokies won the battle of Brent Techs 21-6.
6) As we head into the bye week, there are two statements I’d like you to consider that I believe to be 100% compatible.
The first is that Notre Dame, by whichever advanced metric you’d like to use (top ten in every one I’ve seen) and by the eye test, is a very good football team. They will be favorites in all their remaining games and if they keep their nose clean they will go to the playoff. If that happens, barring a really unfortunate seeding situation or a bunch of injuries, the spread will be within one score and they’ll have a reasonable chance at advancing due to the aforementioned high quality of the team.
(Before we get to point two, I want to underline that anyone in September who was saying Notre Dame should stop trying to win, focus on young guys and not worry about the playoff is a huge loser who has a fundamental misunderstanding of how college football works and what the sport is about.)
The second is that due to the combination of a weak schedule and having the worst loss of any playoff contender by a comically wide margin, Notre Dame maybe sorta probably has to take what it gets as far as ranking and playoff seeding. If the Irish were to win out, there’s a possibility the second- and third-best wins on the schedule will be service academies. If you want to grouse about rankings, first ask “Does the team I’m criticizing have a home defeat to a 4-4 MAC team that just lost to Ball State and has an offense ranked 127th in the SP+,” and then see if you want to continue. We’ll see what the committee does in eight days but at least the AP voters are currently on the side of the righteous.
My unsolicited guidance for the bye week is to enjoy both yourself and the fact that Notre Dame is 7-1, a possibility most of us doubted following the second game of the season. We’ve only got a month of the schedule left and this will all be gone very soon so enjoy your cheeseburgers, root for chaos and prepare for what should be a wild final third.
I don’t think there will be a bye week edition next Monday but will not totally foreclose on the idea. Until next time, take care of yourselves and each other, and Happy Halloween.