Notre Dame football and Navy renewed their historic rivalry on Saturday in South Bend after not playing last year due..."/> Notre Dame football and Navy renewed their historic rivalry on Saturday in South Bend after not playing last year due..."/>
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Notre Dame Football: 3 takeaways for Irish in convincing win over Navy

By Danny McCormick

Nov 6, 2021; South Bend, Indiana, USA; Notre Dame Fighting Irish head coach Brian Kelly leads players onto the field before the game against the Navy Midshipmen at Notre Dame Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Matt Cashore-USA TODAY Sports
Nov 6, 2021; South Bend, Indiana, USA; Notre Dame Fighting Irish head coach Brian Kelly leads players onto the field before the game against the Navy Midshipmen at Notre Dame Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Matt Cashore-USA TODAY Sports /
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(Photo by Michael Hickey/Getty Images)
(Photo by Michael Hickey/Getty Images) /

Notre Dame needs to be faster out of the gate

The Irish offense basically sleepwalked through the first quarter. Notre Dame had multiple three and outs to start the game which just cannot happen. No offense to Navy but this was a three touchdown spread against Navy for a reason. It was okay against Navy today as Notre Dame was still able to win, but it may not be okay with future opponents remaining on the 2021 schedule.

The offense finally did wake up in the second quarter to take a 17-3 lead over Navy into the locker room which is great, but it could have been a lot more overall. The Notre Dame defense did its part by holding the Navy offense to only to a field goal in the first half.

You want to try and put teams away right from the start and the Notre Dame offensive unit needs to be better at doing that. The longer you let teams hang around the more confidence they get as a unit that they can compete with you and beat you.

In the second half Navy came out and got another field goal to get within 11 and the Irish offense once again came out and went three and out on their first possession of the second half. The Irish did get a first down on their second possession in the half but still no points to show for it. In the fourth it came on again for Notre Dame, but need more consistency from start to finish.

Again, as mention earlier this did not happen against Navy as the Irish were able to figure it out on offense eventually but there are better teams out there than Navy remaining on the schedule. The Irish have to do better at punching teams in the mouth on the offensive side of the ball right out of the gate. The whole offensive staff will be the first ones to tell you that for Notre Dame. We will see if they answer the bell next weekend at Virginia.

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