Navy 35, Notre Dame 17. Of the many, many indictments leveled at Charlie Weis during the slow unraveling of his Notre Dame tenure, none captured the Irish's decline quite as succinctly as this: He lost to Navy. Notre Dame never loses to Navy. Even Gerry Faust didn't lose to Navy.
But Weis lost to Navy twice: Once to cement the 2007 team's status as the worst ever at Notre Dame, and again to open the gash that sent the Weis era to a watery grave during a five-game losing streak last year. If there was one thing this year that could kill any semblance of optimism and progress in Brian Kelly's first season, it was losing to Navy.
So now Kelly's Irish have been blown out by Navy. At least the previous embarrassments were close; the '07 loss came in overtime, and the supremely talented ND passing game mostly had its way last year with a 452-yard barrage against the Midshipmen secondary. Today was just an embarrassment.
Navy's triple option attack embarked on a 99-yard touchdown drive the first time it touched the ball, eventually slashing the Irish for 368 yards on the ground alone. More than 200 of that number came on straight-ahead plunges by plodding fullback Alexander Teich, and another 90 from quarterback Ricky Dobbs, who ran in three touchdowns. Dobbs was compelled to throw twice, hitting his first pass for a 31-yard touchdown and his second for a 40-yard gain that set up another score. n the other side, Notre Dame QB Dayne Crist completed two passes of his own to Midshipmen, both leading to Navy touchdowns, and found himself on the bench for almost the entire fourth quarter. Total positives for the Irish: Zero.
The only possible solace for the faithful is that Crist was operating without his two best receivers, the freakish Michael Floyd and NFL-bound tight end Kyle Rudolph. That doesn't change the fact that the defense yielded 400 yards to the Midshipmen for the second year in a row, or that a dozen members of the class of 2007 will leave South Bend with a 1-3 record against a team their predecessors had defeated 43 years in a row.
But the real sucker punch is that they actually fared a lot better as freshmen: For all of Kelly's purported powers of resurrection – touted in this space as confidently as anywhere – this is the same team, barreling toward another 6-6 finish and a dejected debate over whether to stoop to an invitation toward a third-tier bowl game. Nothing has changed. More optimistic Irish fans might prefer to say nothing has changed yet. At 4-4, though, even they have to admit it's beginning to look like a much longer, rockier and more uncertain road than they imagined.
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Stefan Everts Jaroslav Falta Claudio Federici Tim Ferry Ashley Fiolek
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