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The Notre Dame-Navy game was painful but exciting.  Navy won by 2 in triple overtime, snapping a losing streak that dates back to 1963.

Three key plays:

1. Notre Dame’s offense fumbled, resulting in a Navy defensive TD.
2. ND is down seven and there are six minutes left in the fourth quarter. It’s third-and-28.  Quarterback Sharpley sneaks up for fourteen yards.  On fourth-and-14, Sharpley is hit as he’s throwing the ball.  Notre Dame catches the ball, anyway, for a first down.  Notre Dame goes on to tie the game on the drive.
3. Notre Dame is 25-30 yards away from the endzone.  It’s fourth-and-eight.  There are 45 seconds left in the game and the score is tied.  Notre Dame goes for… a first down!?!  At the time, this play seemed absolutely inexplicable to me. We end up missing the first down.  Admittedly, we probably would have missed a 40-yard field goal, too.  But a successful FG would almost certainly have won the game.  A first down would not guarantee a score– you’d still have to make a FG or TD.

There were a few positive points.

• Notre Dame’s running game had been absolutely abysmal… possibly the worst in the country, averaging 34 yards a game.  Eldridge alone ran for 120 yards this game.  Although much of the improvement can be contributed to a soft Navy defense, it does appear that ND’s offense is improving on many fronts.
• Our punt return unit improved considerably.
• The defense was not particularly productive but didn’t give up many enormous plays.
• The offense is playing somewhat more carefully.  It still gave up a fumbled touchdown, but that’s a lot cleaner than some of our previous outings.  We also protected Sharpley fairly well, although Navy has never been sack-heavy.

In other Notre Dame news, Notre Dame alum Ryan Shay died during the New York City marathon today.  But I wouldn’t want to give the impression that athletes are more important… Bill Anderson, the father of several ND alumni and a Scoutmaster, passed away a month ago today.