Marcus Freeman on why Notre Dame struggled to put away Navy

Toward the end of the first half of Notre Dame’s game against Navy, the Irish built up a 35-13 lead. Then, coming out for the second half, Marcus Freeman watched his team meltdown and nearly lose to the Midshipmen. By the time the game was over, the final score was 35-32. The Irish only had 12 yards of offense in the second half.

Had Notre Dame been going up against a more explosive offense, the Irish almost certainly would have lost this game. Marcus Freeman explained why this happened and why Notre Dame struggled to put Navy away in the second half.

“It comes down to a couple things and one being the execution,” Marcus Freeman said. “And, you know, they were bringing a lot of pressure and–but they did in the first half too and we were able to get the guys blocked.”

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“At times, you’re not able to run the ball when they have that many people in the box and you’re going to have to throw it. Well, we weren’t able to complete some of those passes that we wanted to throw, and for multiple different reasons. Could’ve been protection. It could’ve been getting the ball out of your hand. Could’ve been the precision of the routes. Could’ve been a whole bunch of different things, but we weren’t able to really establish a passing game in the second half, and they continued to bring pressure, which is really hard to run the ball against.”

Navy likes to disguise its pressures. Especially in the second half against Notre Dame, Navy loaded the box and pressured Notre Dame quarterback Drew Pyne. In turn, the Irish couldn’t run into a heavy box. Meanwhile, Pyne struggled to find receivers against the pass rush. Had he been able to, Navy would’ve had to back off. Then, Notre Dame would have been able to run again.

“There was a difference in defenses, obviously, with what Clemson did and what Navy was doing in terms of what they were doing defensively against our offense. So, in order to get them out of all that pressure, you’re gonna have to complete some passes, which we did in the first half but we weren’t able to really get it going in the second half.”

Marcus Freeman was disappointed in the second half

While speaking to ABC’s Kris Budden after the game, Marcus Freeman explained why he was disappointed in his team’s performance in the second half.

“Honestly, not what you want. Man, you’ve got to continue to tell yourself it’s so hard to win and to appreciate it. We didn’t finish the way we wanted to. Thankfully, we were able to come out with a victory, so we’ve got to get some things cleaned up on both sides of the ball,” Marcus Freeman said.

“But we’ll take a victory. That’s most important.”