Insider: Special teams blunders hamper Irish — again

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Notre Dame can improve defensively and it can work on its offensive identity. But if special teams continues to makes mistakes every week, the Fighting Irish will not see the postseason.

Notre Dame’s special teams has had game-defining miscues in five of six losses this season. Saturday’s 28-27 loss to Navy was no different.

In the third quarter with the Irish up 24-21, the defense made a big stop on third-and-7, forcing the Midshipmen to punt. But on that punt, Notre Dame was penalized for having 12 men on the field. Navy got the ball back, converted the fourth-and-1 and scored what would become the winning touchdown after a 16-play, 75-yard, nine-minute drive to begin the fourth quarter.

Brian Kelly said this week time of possession was going to be the decisive factor Saturday. Notre Dame (3-6) would have to score on each drive, and there wouldn’t be time for miscues like this. The penalty ended up being a critical moment because the Irish only had six total possessions: two in the second half. The Midshipmen’s triple option dictated the pace, controlling the clock for 33:53, eight minutes longer than the Irish.

Kelly was completely baffled by that fateful penalty call. Freshman safety Devin Studstill was on his way off the field when the penalty was called, and Kelly said he was standing next to the two officials when it happened.

Grading the Irish: Defense, special teams let down efficient offense

This was the explanation he received.

“Both officials confirmed that they felt he was off the field in time,” Kelly said. “I asked them both, because clearly they didn’t throw a flag and they were standing with me and I asked them both, ‘What did you see, I saw him step off the sideline.’ And they concurred that they saw the same thing that I saw. They were clearly overruled.

“But listen, Navy won the game. I’m not here to cry over that call. We had chances to get off the field and we couldn’t get off the field.”

Notre Dame also had an opportunity to take the lead late. On fourth-and-4 from the Navy 14-yard line with less than eight minutes to play, Kelly decided to kick a 31-yard field goal instead of going for it.

To Kelly’s surprise, the Mids ran out the clock on a 14-play drive that lasted 7:28, and the Irish never got the ball back.

“We certainly thought about going for it,” Kelly explained afterward. “Now, in hindsight, it’s something that, we didn’t get the ball back. But 28-27 made sense to me at the time that even if they scored a touchdown, we still have the opportunity to score and get the two-point conversion. So it made sense to me that 28-27 was the right call at fourth-and-4. I think if it’s fourth-and-2 or fourth-and-1, maybe. But you know, those are decisions that you gotta make. And again, I don’t question the decision to go for the field goal other than the fact that we couldn’t get the ball back.”

It was the first time in five years Navy beat Notre Dame, and now the Irish must win  their next three games against Army, Virginia Tech and USC in order to go to a bowl.

Most of the game was back-and-forth. Notre Dame’s defense made a few critical stops against Navy’s attack. Junior linebacker Greer Martini, who suffered a concussion against Miami last week, led the Irish with 11 tackles, one for a loss.

The main issue defensively was that Navy found a way to exploit the young secondary who has never played against the triple option.

In the second quarter with Notre Dame leading 10-7, Navy quarterback Will Worth broke loose for a 60-yard run that set up a touchdown a few plays later. Worth led the Midshipmen with 175 yards and two touchdowns on 28 carries. Kelly explained that because it was a quarterback-driven running game, Navy was able to crack the young safeties and force the Irish corners to run support.

Notre Dame plays four freshmen defensive backs regularly.

“They wanted to put the pressure on the young guys on the perimeter,” Kelly said.

When the Irish did have the ball, it was statistically better than it’s been. Before this game, the Irish were averaging 4.1 yards per run and 8.1 yards per pass. But against Navy, they showed better efficiency in the running game with 5.1 yards per attempt. They were 9-of-13 on third downs and 3-of-3 in the red zone.

Quarterback DeShone Kizer said earlier this week that the offense is still searching for its identity. Was it going to look like it did at the start of the Miami game when it scored on three of its first four drives with an up-tempo game plan? That’s how things started against Navy and the opening drive saw Kizer connect with Torii Hunter Jr. four times, including a fourth-down conversion and a touchdown. He finished the day at 19-of-27 for 223 yards and three touchdowns and was only sacked once. A couple of balls were overthrown, but he only had six opportunities to drive down the field.

“As of now, we’re disappointed,” Kizer said. “I’m very proud of the way that we fought and battled. It’s pretty consistent who we are and how we go about our game time situations. We’re going to go out and fight until the last minute. Obviously we’ve been in six games where it goes down to the last drive. In this situation, we trusted our defense to go out and make a play and Navy made a couple of more plays than we did."

When it came down to it, Navy’s clock management controlled the day — a nine-minute drive to take the lead and a 7:28 possession to preserve and end it.

“I think that was the rub,” Kelly said. “If we get the ball back with 1:14, I’m feeling pretty confident we’re gonna find a way to score. And that’s really, they made a couple of the big plays the needed to hold onto the football late and that was really the difference.”

Follow IndyStar Notre Dame reporter Laken Litman on Twitter: @lakenlitman.