Rakes Report #302: You hear the door slam and realize there's nowhere left to run (The Navy Review)

Chris WilsonNov 2, 2026

Rakes Report #302: You hear the door slam and realize there's nowhere left to run (The Navy Review)

After a shaky start, the Irish did what was necessary to set up a top-five clash. Also: Hannah Hidalgo met the Pope.

Nov 2

~optional musical accompaniment~

1) We’ve now learned that going “Heartbreaking and frustrating loss -> Bye Week -> Playing against the option with the knowledge the biggest game of the season looms” is among the worst fortnights to suffer through as a college football fan. That gets considerably worse when your favorite team’s defense spends the first half looking like they had given no consideration to fixing the things that had led to the aforementioned heartbreaking and frustrating loss.

Despite the slow start, the Irish led at the half, never trailed over the final 30 minutes (because their opponent scored no points) and gave us a peaceful fourth quarter. We’ve had more pleasant Navy games in recent years, but that’s still an acceptable result. The other thing you hope for in every game but especially against the…hmm — let’s say unique competitive spirit of the academy? — is a clean bill of health and the Irish were not that fortunate.

Doesn’t matter because Miami is Saturday night regardless of who’s on the injury report and how you’re feeling about it. Let’s speed through a discussion about the goings-on at Foxborough and turn the page from the safety of land.

[We did a triple instant reaction podcast on Sunday covering the Navy game and both basketball games in Rome. Also had a lot of fun with last week’s episode on the trends from Notre Dame’s first seven games as well as a look at teams living up to and falling short of preseason expectations across the nation. “Rakes Report” wherever you get your pods (Spotify) (Apple).]

2) I believe I was much less annoyed with the offense at halftime than the median Notre Dame fan. The Irish could have handed it off more but they scored two touchdowns on three drives (facing two third downs across the trio) and probably would have been fine on the third if Micah Gilbert had run the second down route correctly. I understand that seeing so much time drain off the clock on defense heightens the tension and cranks the individual playcalling micromanagement/second-guessing dial up to 11 but it is seldom perfect.

Overall, the offense scored touchdowns on five of its first six drives and a lot looked good. (As it should against a defense that came into the day ranked 92nd in F+, but still have to do it.) Nolan James Jr. continued to play like an RB1 (he averaged nearly seven yards per carry even if you take out the incredible 52-yard touchdown) and Jonaz Walton got plenty of touches and looked good doing it (although a long of only 12 and about four yards per carry, so more eye test of pop versus pop translating in this instance).

Big shoutout to the offensive line, which allowed a single tackle for loss and zero sacks while powering a seven-yards-per-carry game for the team. C.J. Carr has been sacked twice through eight games, credit to him and the large lads in front of him. Iffy Carr game overall, however, and I can’t say it’s a positive to hear the broadcast saying the starting quarterback is in a battle with intrusive thoughts and shouting at a fan.

A lot to like on the opening drive, with play action, Ian Premer (eighth most snaps on offense for the day!) and continued great work from Jordan Faison (he has a reception in 29 straight games, second all-time behind T.J. Jones’ 40 consecutive contests.) Another good Jaden Greathouse game, we are stacking success and staying healthy there. Perhaps the most important news of the day was Jerome Bettis Jr. ended up leading the team in both receptions and receiving yardage while showing out in a variety of ways*, including a “Thriller” celebration. He looks like the fourth wide receiver, and might move up in the pecking order if Gilbert is hurt. (You’ll see plenty of dogging on Gilbert for his bad route and because of how good Bettis looked, but he turned three targets into a touchdown and a second-and-10 conversion, so let’s not totally impugn him.) Elijah Burress was an inch away from an awesome touchdown of his own.

* Pro Football Focus tracks a stat called yard per route run, where anything over 3 for a season is A+. Bettis was 7.8 yards per route run on Saturday. Single game, small sample size theater, etc., etc., but still cool.

3) Well, now that the good stuff is out of the way, let’s talk about the first half defense. How do you play like that against BYU and then come out passive, vanilla and disorganized? What did Chris Ash spend the bye week doing? The only acceptable answer is “Spending too much time getting his charges ready for an incredible effort against Miami.” Otherwise, disaster. I know Navy had found an offensive groove but how are you giving up the edge and a wide open pitch man so often? How are you letting third-and-17 get converted? In true Oct. 31 fashion, the deadly “Not playing well at all” virus finally spread to the defensive front, which wasn’t aggressive and got moved by the Midshipmen. It felt like Luke Talich was the only guy interested in competing in the early going, although credit must be given to the whole group for forcing the pair of field goal attempts and keeping things more palatable.

Don’t love to see reporters on site talking about how much Freeman was coaching the defensive players directly during breaks. Then going into halftime, he said, “You can’t start calling things that your guys don’t know how to execute, so we gotta make sure we clean up what they have to do.” Oh, okay. Thankfully Adon Shuler, Jaylen Sneed, Jayden Sanders and Armel Mukam were among those joining the fray in pitching a second half shutout, guys flowing to the ball and playing physical. The effort after the half was so much improved, with the first three drives resulting in a pair of three-and-outs and a 6-play, 18-yard effort that ended on the great Talich-Shuler tag team on fourth down. Another positive: Nothing much in the big play department, with Navy having a single reception going for double-digit yardage (17) and a long run of 16.

Some real dirty stuff from Navy that should cause The Powers That Be at Notre Dame to consider whether this series is an auto renewal every year. Let’s go through the list: Drayk Bowen (he’ll be out for some time with his ankle injury) and Francis Brewu (doesn’t seem good) went down on Saturday. The injury D.J. McKinney suffered in Provo will keep him out for Miami and probably the rest of regular season. Jason Onye played five snaps against Navy and was banged up. It seems like Leonard Moore and Kyngstonn Viliamu-Asa could have gone on Saturday and should be fine for Miami but we’ll see where their healing process is at. The fact Brauntae Johnson wasn’t even a consideration for this game makes me feel like he won’t be back this weekend but stranger things have happened.

4) Ominous to have the opening kickoff go out of bounds but honestly not much to remark upon with special teams otherwise. No field goal attempts, one punt, not much to say on returns either way. Not having much to say about special teams feels like a big win nine out of 10 times.

Notre Dame is now 17-0 on Halloween. Somehow eight of those games were against Navy. The power of Christ compels Our Lady’s University??

No turnovers and two penalties on the day. Don’t take clean football for granted.

Extremely funny how many times the booth was talking about the character of Navy and the honor of this football series while a Midshipman was participating in some sort of malfeasance or being flagged for a dirty play. I think this booth is usually pretty solid when they aren’t being electroshocked into mentioning the playoff odds every 35 seconds like during the 2024 Georgia Tech game.

Kirk Herbstreit Update: Our favorite apolitical normal guy headlined a fundraiser for a pro-Tommy Tuberville PAC. I hope he and Pat McAfee both feel safe on Saturday, I know it’s been tough for them of late.

I am going to do my best to avoid the midseason playoff rankings and surrounding discourse. For a long while I did a great job of staying out of the mix — Tuesday night movies were a recurring part of the plan — but I got sucked in last year and regret it. I’ll still chime in here and there because I lack that much self-restraint but I mainly want to see where the chips fall on Selection Sunday versus hearing the committee make ridiculous explanations for their decisions week after week.

5) Winning is Hard Round Up: Ohio State needed a strong defensive performance to help their backup quarterback win against the Trojans and instead fell flat across the board in their second loss. SMU fell victim to some Steve Angeli Magic at Syracuse. Northwestern had a double-digit lead at Oregon and couldn’t hold onto it. Florida was never really in the fight against Georgia. Oklahoma State had another nightmare trip to Ames, falling 51-49 on a buzzer-beating field goal.

Indiana struggled the entire day and needed overtime to defeat three-touchdown underdog Minnesota. Miami trailed North Carolina in the fourth but rallied and held on against a flurry of onside kick attempts. Boise had a 28-3 halftime lead at home against Texas State, blew it, then came back to survive in what might have been game of the year. Wisconsin followed up their big win over Southern Cal by scoring 0 points and giving up 30 at Iowa. Cincinnati followed up their big win against Texas Tech by being blown to hell at home by Utah. Central Florida followed up their big win over BYU by losing at home to Baylor’s interim coach. Illinois almost lost to Maryland’s interim coach but survived. Cal got blown out by NC State’s interim coach.

Oklahoma got handled at home by South Carolina. Florida State was a home favorite against Clemson and got worked pretty good so they fired Mike Norvell despite a massive buyout. Nebraska led Washington 7-3 late in the fourth in Lincoln and collapsed for their third straight loss. (Matt Rhule is now 2-12 when trying for his sixth win with the Huskers.) Ole Miss had some trouble with Auburn for a bit but then scored the game’s final 28 points. Boston College scored two points against Duke and gave up 47. Virginia scored seven against Wake Forest and gave up 51.

Oregon State got crushed at Fresno State, ending their winning streak and good vibes. Gerad Parker and Troy followed up a woeful home loss to UL Monroe (who had not won a game since September 2025) by going to Harrisonburg and defeating James Madison in overtime. (Billy Napier mangled the end of regulation so, so badly.) App State followed up their own big win over James Madison by laying an egg against Georgia Southern in the Deeper Than Hate rivalry, frittering away a chance at taking control of a Sun Belt title game slot. Kent State was a touchdown favorite at Sacramento State and got blown out, the Hornets’ first win against an FBS team as an FBS team.

6) A brief hoops corner: Life has a little more light in it because Hannah Hidalgo played basketball on Sunday, putting up 32 points, eight assists and seven boards as the Irish dominated Villanova in Rome. (It’s as early as could be, but the Wildcats were projected as a No. 9 seed in the NCAA Tournament coming into the season.) Hidalgo was obviously great and the engine that drove everything, but so many fun Irish debuts.

Sophomore Leah Macy (who spent last season rehabbing a knee injury) was incredible (27 points and 14 boards on 11 of 14 shooting) in the post, and got to read at mass with the Pope. Freshman Jenica Lewis was bombing threes and displaying the type of floor game you’d expect from someone with more state titles than losses in high school. Veteran Princeton transfer Madison St. Rose was showing an ability to make from deep that if it lasts for the whole season would transform expectations for this team. Freshman Jacy Abii had some foul trouble early but was flying around the floor like we spliced the DNA of Hidalgo and Cass Prosper, the highest compliment I can pay. Fun debut and we’ll go longer on them plus the rest of the rotation at a later date.

And congrats to the men on overcoming a 10-point deficit in the second half to also prevail over Villanova (a Top 40 team, per KenPom, and a projected 7 seed in the tourney per Joe Lunardi). Few programs needed more of a shot in the arm than Micah Shrewsberry’s and any Irish fans who tuned in would have certainly appreciated the effort and guts, in addition to Bill Raftery on the call. Some of the transfers look like hits and returning leader Brady Koehler lived up to the preseason hype. Fun stuff.

7) Well, there’s a big election on Tuesday then four days later Notre Dame will host the No. 1 team in the country so it’s a nice stress-free week for all of us and not reminiscent of 2020 in any way.

This is maybe not technically a must-win for making the playoff but it certainly is for emotional and spiritual health. Win and it’s a special night we’ll remember forever as Notre Dame puts itself in a position where three more victories as a double-digit favorite would mean a postseason bye and an incredible opportunity to win a national championship against a flawed field. Lose and they would need good fortune to even make the tournament, getting a road game to begin play if they did. Defeat could mean a second missed postseason, and while last year Notre Dame fans could justifiably direct plenty of anger at how the committee screwed over a team that had won 10 straight, this year those feelings would be directed at Freeman and his staff.

Like I said above, nice and stress-free. Miami is undefeated but if you have any doomsaying fans in your life remind them Notre Dame is the betting favorite so victory is possible. While we’ve been focused on Irish flaws, the Hurricanes have had their issues against most teams with pulses: A shootout with Wake Forest, double overtime against Florida State (and saying the Seminoles have a pulse is being generous considering how this season has gone), a game-long brawl with Chapel Bill. The passing defense has been leaky all season and Carr is going to have opportunities if he can match the play of slinging luminaries Billy Edwards Jr. and Ashton Daniels. (The Canes are ranked outside of the top 100 in PFF’s coverage and tackling grades.) The lines aren’t what they were last year but Darian Mensah has been dealing to a talented cadre of weapons led by the terrifying Malachi Toney. Mario Cristobal has cleaned up some but not all of his game management errors.

There are consistent debates among Irish fans about what counts as a Big Game — I was surprised to find out over the last two weeks that apparently 2025 Southern Cal doesn’t qualify — but there’s no question over what the stakes are on Saturday. The Irish are 17-1 in their 18 games but if the Hurricanes win it’ll be a sour November and probable long, ugly offseason for Freeman, the good vibes from the national title run completely expunged.

Win? Win and everything is back on track. Looking forward to the weekend, looking forward to a frothing stadium, looking forward to feeling a whole lot of feelings. Let’s meet back here to discuss it next Monday. Until then, take care of yourselves and each other.