Notre Dame and Sam Hartman enjoy an Irish Blessing in 42-3 rout of Navy in Dublin

The passes were all on target, the game was never in doubt, Sam Hartman enjoyed his Notre Dame debut in a way the Irish should be able to easily celebrate. “Irish” as in those in Ireland at the game at Aviva Stadium in Dublin, though also “Irish” as in the fans and players of Notre Dame.

The sixth-year quarterback picked apart Navy’s defense at will, that is when the fleet of Irish running backs was not churning up the field, sparking No. 13 Notre Dame (1-0) to a wire-to-wire 42-0 win.

Unlike a year ago, the Irish did let off the gas pedal against the Midshipmen (0-1). Hartman’s command of the offense was too thorough to consider it. Most impressively, he led a two-minute drive to close the first half with precision, covering 80 yards in nine plays in just 1:42.

Notre Dame had nine opportunities at genuine two-minute drives last year, converting five of them into touchdowns. Two of those were against prevent defenses protecting multiple-score leads in the fourth quarter. One was a single play, 37-yard touchdown. A fourth was in the rout of Boston College.

So if narrowing the focus to moments of some competitive competence, the Irish went 1-of-5 in two-minute drives last year.

Hartman went 6-of-7 for 64 yards on the drive, gaining another 14 yards on a pass interference penalty. He patiently avoided pressure, knew when to accept an incompletion and showed the kind of poise expected from a player with 114 career touchdown passes, including his four on Saturday in Dublin. All things Notre Dame lacked in 2022.

Consider Hartman’s misses on Saturday, completing 19 of 23 passes for 266 yards. Two of those incompletions were drops (Tobias Merriweather, Chris Tyree), one was arguably intentional during that two-minute conversion — throwing off target toward running back Gi’Bran Payne in order to stop the clock rather than gain only a few yards — and the fourth was an on-target pass into the end zone underthrown enough for the defensive back to break up the pass to Merriweather but underthrown in order to give Merriweather a chance to catch it in bounds.

In other words, every Hartman pass hit its target.

Meanwhile, no Navy pass hit its target. Well, that’s unfair. Midshipmen starting quarterback Tai Lavatai completed one early pass for all of two yards before he found slot back Brandon Chatman for 39 yards halfway through the fourth quarter to get Navy into scoring territory. That led to the only Midshipmen score, notable mostly because Navy should have scored twice earlier.

The Irish defense played well, but the Midshipmen should have scored twice. It was not a perfect performance, despite how well fifth-year linebacker Jack Kiser played in stifling the option throughout the first half (eight tackles before halftime), how disciplined senior defensive end Jordan Botelho was in handling his edge responsibilities and how much sophomore defensive end Joshua Burnham made of his first opportunity, notching a sack in the third quarter to further Notre Dame’s defensive showing.

SCORING SUMMARY
First Quarter
8:26 — Notre Dame touchdown. Audric Estimé one-yard rush. Spencer Shrader point after. Notre Dame 7, Navy 0. (13 plays, 81 yards, 6:28)
1:03 — Notre Dame touchdown. Jadarian Price 19-yard rush. Shrader point after. Notre Dame 14, Navy 0. (7 plays, 63 yards, 3:27)

Second Quarter
10:00 — Notre Dame touchdown. Jaden Greathouse 35-yard pass from Sam Hartman. Shader point after. Notre Dame 21, Navy 0. (4 plays, 84 yards, 1:52)
0:13 — Notre Dame touchdown. Jayden Thomas 14-yard pass from Hartman. Shrader point after. Notre Dame 28, Navy 0. (9 plays, 80 yards, 1:42)

Third Quarter
9:36 — Notre Dame touchdown. Jaden Greathouse 20-yard pass from Hartman. Shrader point after. Notre Dame 35, Navy 0. (6 plays, 63 yards, 2:48)

Fourth Quarter
11:54 — Notre Dame touchdown. Deion Colzie 25-yard pass from Hartman. Sharder point after. Notre Dame 42, Navy 0. (7 plays, 60 yards, 3:43)
3:33 — Navy field goal. Evan Warren 31 yards. Notre Dame 42, Navy 3. (15 plays, 62 yards, 8:21)

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