Friends, we’ve got a big game this weekend. Your Army Black Knights will play in their first ranked vs. ranked matchup since they played at Cincinnati way back in 2020. An Army win this week will set the college football world on its ear, forcing a hard reset of assumptions all across the national landscape. In the national media, NO ONE wants Army to win this week because while Army-Navy might make for feel-good, patriotic TV ahead of the Army-Navy Game, dealing with this team as a college football team makes many Americans uncomfortable.
Service makes people uncomfortable. The fact that these cadets can choose to serve while also being good at football… This just does not compute. The folks trying to cover this sport nationally don’t understand it, and they never will.
It would be way easier for them if the Black Knights would just go away.
Your Need to Know for Saturday's matchup in the Bronx. pic.twitter.com/mvx4Zc6TxU
— Army Football (@ArmyWP_Football) November 20, 2024
Army vs. Notre Dame
The Bearcats’ defensive coordinator for that last ranked-on-ranked Army Football game? Current Notre Dame Head Coach Marcus Freeman. Freeman has faced triple-option teams a whopping eight times as either a defensive coordinator or head coach. This includes 2012 Kent State vs. Army, 2017 & 2018 Cincinnati vs. Navy, 2020 Cincinnati vs. Army, and 2021-24 Notre Dame vs. Navy.
Make no mistake, this Notre Dame defense knows what they’re up against.
Thankfully, Army caught a few breaks heading into this game. First, they’ll face the Fighting Irish fresh off of a bye, while Notre Dame had to prepare for Virginia last week. This gives the Army Team both extra prep time and a chance to rest and heal up from a season of hard hits. Secondly, while this will technically be a Notre Dame home game, the Irish will have to travel by plane, while the Black Knights have such a short bus ride that they’ll barely travel more than they do on home football weekends. Lastly, there already exists a blueprint for how to beat the 2024 Fighting Irish. By comparison, the blueprint for taking down the Black Knights remains incomplete. Army has won every game; and they’ve done that in different ways. No one has really even pushed them yet. So Notre Dame will have to guess — at least to some extent — about what’s going to work.
If we gave you the typical preview article this week, you could probably guess what it would say. Offense: They’re really good. Don’t get beat deep and keep them off the field. Defense: They’re really good. Game control matters, and please don’t cough up the rock. Special Teams: They’re really good. Don’t let special teams be the reason you lose. And you’d be right. So instead, let’s dive into a couple of Notre Dame’s previous games to see how they can be beaten.
November 1️⃣9️⃣ #CFBPlayoff Selection Committee Rankings 🏈🏆
— College Football Playoff (@CFBPlayoff) November 20, 2024
1️⃣9️⃣. Army // @ArmyWP_Football pic.twitter.com/PqJztcDsdX
Navy vs. Notre Dame
This is the “What Not to Do” game. The obvious takeaway here is don’t turn the ball over. But it wasn’t just that Navy turned it over six times. Five of those turnovers came completely unforced. They didn’t involve any Notre Dame action beyond picking up a loose ball. Instead, it looked like Navy QB Blake Horvath re-injured his finger, causing his pitches to go wild, and Notre Dame benefitted. The only other turnover in this game came on a fairly meaningless interception on a fourth down play.
The thing is, Notre Dame didn’t really stop Navy. In non-turnover or half-ending drives, Navy had two touchdowns, two punts, and a missed field goal. We can’t blame that missed kick on the offense. But that’s a winning ratio in most games. Additionally, Navy rushed for 222 yards, averaging 5.2 yards per carry. They put together multiple six-plus minute drives. In fact, despite their six turnovers, Navy almost found a way to win time-of-possession. And this from a Navy team that has been largely boom-or-bust on offense all season long!
There’s only one other Notre Dame opponent that came remotely close to those numbers. We’ll talk more about that in a bit.
But the blueprint starts to form from here. If Navy doesn’t give up 27 points off of turnovers, and if they score on a couple of those drives where they instead fumbled, this becomes an entirely different ballgame. But how? Well, despite all the hoopla about Navy’s passing attack, the Midshipmen ran the damn ball against the Irish. They made it work, too, save on five — very bad — plays.
6️⃣ in the College Football Playoff Rankings #GoIrish☘️ pic.twitter.com/tS1x925Pk9
— Notre Dame Football (@NDFootball) November 20, 2024
NIU vs. Notre Dame
The 7th ranked team in the MAC, the NIU Huskies, have been the only team to earn a victory against the Fighting Irish this year. That came a week after Notre Dame beat a Texas A&M team that now controls its own destiny in the SEC, and that win came at Texas A&M.
Do we still have to convince you that college football is the best?
Let’s dive in and see how NIU did it.
Again, turnovers became the biggest contributing factor. NIU won that battle +2. The Huskies scored six points off of those turnovers, including the game winning field goal with :31 left on the clock. Army can’t rely on generating turnovers come Saturday, but the Black Knights defense *is* tied for ninth nationally in interceptions. So there’s a decent chance provided that Army’s offense can hold onto the football.
NIU also kept their defense fresh while keeping Notre Dame’s on the field. The Huskies held the ball for 35 minutes, and that not only prevented the Irish from being able to score, it meant that Notre Dame’s defense got tired. When a team is inching down the field to make a game winning field goal, defensive fatigue matters a lot.
We mentioned earlier that another team had come close to Navy’s rushing numbers. Well, the Huskies rushed for 190 yards on 4.2 yards/carry. That helped them control the game’s flow.
Finally, field position matters. On average, Notre Dame started drives against NIU at their own 30 yard line. That seems normal enough. But typically, when you see schools with a massive talent disparity play each other, the better team usually starts with phenomenal field position throughout the contest. We’ve seen that with Army all season long. Here, however, NIU started drives on average at their own 28. Again this seems normal enough, but it’s not what we’d expect given the talent gap. It happened because the Huskies had just one three-and-out all game long. And despite having multiple drives start inside their own 10 yard line, NIU never gave the ball to the Irish in plus territory. That made this game a “fair” fight, at least based on the field position.
Final Thoughts
If Army can work their offense and force Irish QB Riley Leonard to work from within the pocket, then they have every chance in this game. That seems simple enough. But can the Black Knights do it despite the talent disparity?
This is why we play these games.
If you’re going to this one, do yourself a favor and bundle up. It’s gonna get chilly out there. We’re expecting temps in the lower-50s to upper-40s at kickoff, falling into the mid-to-lower-40s as the game progresses. More to the point, the forecast calls for up to 20 mph of wind. That may or may not affect play on the field, but it will most certainly affect fans in the upper decks. DRESS WARMLY.
Jeff Monken Weekly Press Conference – Nov 19th, 2024 https://t.co/wEmsj5oJYk
— Army Football (@ArmyWP_Football) November 19, 2024
NBC has coverage of this one, starting at 7:00 pm Eastern. We have no idea what this announce crew will be like, and unfortunately, that’s rarely good. This might be one where you sync the TV feed to Rich DeMarco’s call via the Varsity Network.
Don’t listen to the haters, friends. Army can win this game! They can make the haters cry, creating fear and self-loathing in so-called football minds the world over.
Those people have it coming. If you’re at the stadium, GET LOUD! And if you’re at home, still GET LOUD! Let them know that this Army Team is here, and they’re ready to play.
Go Army! BEAT Notre Dame!!!
Cover image via @ArmyWP_Football.
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