With only one quarter remaining in this 2021 Notre Dame Fighting Irish football season, the squad now sits at 8-1 after a 34-6 defeat of the Navy Midshipmen. This game was looking another potentially agonizing Navy upset bid in the first quarter before the Irish took control and cruised to victory – let’s look at three areas that helped the game turn in that direction.

Freeman’s Option Experience Pays Dividends

The key to avoiding the Navy trap lies in stopping their triple-option offense, which poses a schematic challenge to Power 5 teams that do not have experience defending it and can starve its opponents’ offenses of opportunities to score.