Everyone involved with Navy football needs to take the Servpro approach in the wake of Saturday’s 51-14 blowout loss to Notre Dame: Like it never even happened.
Navy just needs to flush that game and move on.
Yes it was disappointing. Yes it was deflating. It need not be demoralizing.
The Midshipmen need to lean into their overall body of work and know what happened Saturday in East Rutherford, New Jersey, does not detract from what this team has accomplished to date.
This is a good Navy football team despite evidence to the contrary presented to a crowd of 76,112 at MetLife Stadium and a national television audience on ABC. The Midshipmen went unbeaten through six games and earned a No. 24 national ranking by playing an overall quality brand of football and I expect them to do so going forward.
What is most disappointing is that Navy had a chance to make a major statement on a national stage and not only failed to do so, but embarrassed itself instead. Fans who had not seen the Midshipmen play this season probably came away thinking they were vastly overrated.
And just like last season when Notre Dame routed Navy, 42-3, there have been the typical social media postings asking why these two teams continue to play on an annual basis. Of course, the insinuation is that the Midshipmen don’t belong on the same field as the Fighting Irish.
I still maintain that Navy could have competed with Notre Dame had it played up to its full potential in all facets of the game.
Navy’s offense committed four turnovers — three unforced fumbles and an interception. Through six games, the Midshipmen had only two turnovers and one of those was an interception thrown by backup quarterback Braxton Woodson during mop-up duty.
The Fighting Irish scored 27 points off those turnovers. One can only speculate how many points the Midshipmen would have scored had they not given the ball away six times.
ABC reported during its broadcast that Navy starting quarterback Blake Horvath suffered a thumb injury during the Charlotte game. I saw no evidence that Horvath was bothered by a thumb injury when I attended practice last week and he certainly was not wearing any sort of protective tape on either hand.
Horvath was involved with all four of the turnovers so maybe the thumb injury affected his ball handling. I thought a pitchout that fullback Alex Tecza dropped was delivered on target and that fumble was charged to Tecza.
Horvath later fumbled on a botched mesh exchange, which we have seen many times during the triple-option era. I would think that was the result of Horvath having trouble pulling the ball from the fullback’s belly, but maybe the thumb injury was a factor.
Horvath had the ball drop out of his hand while winding up to pass from his own goal-line. Again, maybe the thumb injury made it difficult for Horvath to grip the ball, although I saw no evidence of that throughout the game.
Horvath’s final turnover was an interception and was simply due to making a bad throw into double coverage.
Navy wasn’t good on special teams either thanks to two muffed punts and a missed field goal. I’m not sure why Isaiah Bryant was fielding punts in the first half, but he completely misjudged the flight of the ball. Season-long punt returner Eli Heidenreich handled the only other Notre Dame punt and the normally sure-handed snipe also dropped the catch.
Notre Dame rolled up 466 total yards, so clearly it was not a good game for the Navy defense either. The Fighting Irish converted 8 of 13 third down situations and one fourth down attempt.
“I thought we had some chances to get off the field defensively and didn’t. Against a team like this you have to take advantage of those opportunities. They executed on third and fourth down better than we did,” Navy head coach Brian Newberry said.
It was just an overall bad day for the Midshipmen and in my view just one of those games that spiraled out of control. Personally, I’m not putting much stock in the Notre Dame result as it relates to the capability of this Navy football team and what it can accomplish moving forward.
Newberry has emphasized moving on to the next game no matter if the previous one was a win or a loss. The Midshipmen did a good job of putting the previous contest behind on the way to starting 6-0 and should be even more motivated to do so after their worst performance of the 2024 campaign.
“It’s just a bump in the road. We have to maintain the 1-0 mentality. It’s on to the next game so now we’re focused on Rice,” Navy senior inside linebacker Kyle Jacob said.
Rice is suddenly a program in turmoil after firing head coach Mike Bloomgren as a result of a 2-6 start. Associate head coach Pete Alamar will take over the Owls on an interim basis.
Navy (6-1) travels to Houston this Saturday to face Rice, which is 1-4 in the American Athletic Conference. Meanwhile, the Midshipmen are 4-0 in the American and very much in contention to play in the conference championship game.
I would expect Navy to be favored in three of its remaining four AAC contests with a Nov. 16 home game against Tulane the lone exception. Heidenreich pointed out during Saturday’s post-game news conference that winning an AAC championship and capturing the Commander-in-Chief’s Trophy are the primary goals of the program. Both are still in play.
“We still have most of our goals in front of us. Yes, Notre Dame is a fantastic team and it would have been a program-defining win,” Heidenreich said. “We still have conference play and a conference championship, hopefully. And the CIC. We have our main goals still ahead of us and that’s something we can look forward to.”
Horvath took a very thoughtful approach when asked how the Navy coaches and players would respond to such a devastating loss. He did not simply shrug off getting beaten by 37 points and looking pretty bad in the process.
“We’ll see. You can’t answer that question yet. We’ll have to see what we’re made of. We’ll see how we answer that question this week,” Horvath said. “Obviously, this is just a chapter. It’s not the whole story.”
Horvath pointed to the 2019 Navy football team that compiled an 11-2 overall record and 7-1 conference mark. Quarterback Malcolm Perry directed an explosive offense that was the catalyst of Navy rebounding from a 3-10 record in 2018.
That 2019 team lost at Memphis in its AAC opener and was routed by Notre Dame. Those were the only two blemishes for a club that closed out the season by beating Army to claim the Commander-in-Chief’s Trophy, then upset Kansas State in the Liberty Bowl.
“Great Navy teams have hit speed bumps. We really look up to that 2019 football team and what they had been through and how they turned it around. They hit a speed bump as well. You have to learn from it and can’t let it affect you the rest of the season,” Horvath said.
One thing I did find a bit disturbing was Newberry’s assessment that the “stage might have been a little big for some of our players.” The second-year coach felt some of the Mids were afraid to make mistakes and that others “tried to play outside of themselves.”
“I think sometimes you want something so bad that you try to play outside yourself. I thought we did that at times today and it hurt us,” Newberry said.
I certainly hope that was not the case, and if it was the coaching staff and players better figure out how to fix it before the Army-Navy game on Dec. 14. Ditto if the Midshipmen wind up in the AAC championship game.
Navy getting overmatched by Notre Dame naturally led to some college football observers and media to question the caliber of competition through six games. Yardbarker.com already posted a story stating that Navy’s 6-0 start was the product of a weak strength of schedule.
Memphis (7-1, 3-1) is the only opponent Navy has beaten this season that currently has a winning record. Temple, Alabama-Birmingham and Charlotte are a combined 6-17 overall and 3-9 in the American.
Bucknell (3-5) is a struggling Football Championship Subdivision program and service academy rival Air Force (1-6) is having a down year.
As a result of playing Notre Dame, Navy moved from the bottom of the Football Bowl Subdivision strength of schedule rankings to No. 83. The Midshipmen at one point ranked last (134th) and prior to playing the Fighting Irish were 113th.
Guess what, Army, which is ranked No. 21 in the latest Associated Press poll and has become a media darling, currently ranks 121st in strength of schedule.
Navy, by the way, dropped out of the Top 25 and is back in the “others receiving votes” category. With 23 votes, the Midshipmen would rank No. 29.
I expect Navy football to bounce back big-time by soundly beating Rice. That is the first of two straight road games with the Midshipmen traveling to Tampa to take on South Florida (3-4, 1-2) the following week.
If Navy maintains its confidence and plays the way I know it is capable, the Senior Day game against Tulane will have major implications in the conference race.