The Navy Midshipmen (Seamen) finally ended their 43 game losing streak to Notre Dame, defeating the Irish in triple OT on Saturday, 46-44. You can read a nice recap of the long and actually very entertaining game here. Entertaining for a non-Irish fan, that is.
Every year we play Navy, I do not enjoy it. We have everything to lose and nothing to gain, and every time they have the ball on offense I feel uneasy at my stomach. They inch and crawl their way down the field with the same running plays. 2 yards here, 3 yards there, 5 yards next. One scoring drive was 19 plays! You feel like you might not ever get the ball back. Then when you do get the ball back, the pressure is that you might not see it for another quarter!Certainly we had a physical advantage over Navy, but those guys executed perfectly and got the yards when they needed. Kudos to Navy. Now on to the Irish . . .
Three edicts the Pope has about this game and the Irish:
1. Our passing game was very disappointing. 4 dropped passes, 2 at critical times in the 2nd half. Evan Sharpely failed to connect on a deep ball. Evan also overthrew a few open WRs. Heck, two of our receptions were bobbles that were luckily caught on the second attempt. I was disappointed in the QB and WR play against the weakest secondary we will see all year, and quite possibly the worst in Div 1-A.
2. I felt that our defense was rarely aggressive enough. I understand that defending the triple option takes incredible discipline and assignment football. I also understand that if you do not disrupt the play early on, then the triple option can work very well. The times when we got Navy for a loss was when our LB got into the backfield the fastest, and/or the CB took a chance and got into the backfield early. Brian Smith and Darren Walls had solid games, but I felt too many of the other defenders were waiting for Navy to run at them as opposed to being attacking. A defense that is thinking too much about assignments is just as bad as a wild, uncontrolled one.
3. Kick the damn field goal. With 40 seconds the play, and the game tied 28-28, the Irish decided to go for a 4th and 8 instead of attempted a game winning 41 yard field goal. Yes, 41 yards. And yes, a made attempt would have won the game. Instead the Irish were sacked as Navy player "Ram Vela" (whom I have nicknamed 'Club Vela') was shot out of a cannon over our RB and into Evan Sharpely.
The game went into overtime, which put too much on the Irish that eventually cracked our defense. We needed a win bad. I know the wind was against us, and our kicker had been horrible all week in practice and even in the game up to that point. But a measely 41 yard field goal would have ended the game - shouldnt we have taken a chance? Especially considering Navy's inability to move the ball downfield in quick chunks, even if we missed it they still would not have had enough time and a good enough kicker to beat us.
The game went into overtime, which put too much on the Irish that eventually cracked our defense. We needed a win bad. I know the wind was against us, and our kicker had been horrible all week in practice and even in the game up to that point. But a measely 41 yard field goal would have ended the game - shouldnt we have taken a chance? Especially considering Navy's inability to move the ball downfield in quick chunks, even if we missed it they still would not have had enough time and a good enough kicker to beat us.
This has been a trying, frustrating season. Im glad the streak ended this season, as we might as well get it out of the way and take our lumps this year. Im sorry to the Navy Seaman, as we did not put up our best fight this season. The Irish play this season has been as frustrating as the worst video game ever, which I played often in college, Seaman for the Sega Dreamcast. Read up on this game here. The review for this game is far nicer than mine will be for the Irish football team this season. 
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