Everything Navy coach Brian Newberry said after losing to Notre Dame football

Navy head coach Brian Newberry spoke to the media for just over five minutes following the Midshipmen’s 49-10 loss to Notre Dame in South Bend, Ind. This is everything he said.

Opening statement

“We’re obviously disappointed. Not necessarily in the result. Really didn’t think it was going to be as lopsided as it was. I thought we came out first half and played relatively well. Gave up a couple explosive passes. We were able to stop the run for the most part. The Achilles heel today for us on defense was just not being able to get off the field on third down. We had several opportunities in the first half. If you can get off the field on those third and sevens, third and nines, it’s a different game at halftime.

“Come out in the third quarter, give up the long run to Love. Thought it was a TFL. Third and nine right before that. Just couldn’t get anything going offensively in the second half, particularly in the third quarter. I think we started out with two three and outs. Maybe three. Defense is on the field. I put us in some bad situations, going forward on fourth and two. Felt like we had to take a chance there. They got the stop. It really just snowballed from there.

“I’m proud of our effort. Proud of our fight. Knew we had to execute really, really well tonight. Just didn’t do it well enough to be in the game. That’s a really, really good football team that we played tonight. Just wasn’t good enough on our part. Would have loved for this to have been a competitive game. Like I said, just kind of got away from us in the third quarter. Proud of a lot of our guys. Got to learn from it. Got to get better from this as a staff and as a team. Got a big one coming up next weekend in Annapolis. So we’ll push forward.”

On Navy not playing quarterback Blake Horvath

“Didn’t feel like he was ready to play. Didn’t want to put him in harm’s way and make something potentially worse. Just didn’t feel comfortable putting him out there tonight.”

On when he knew Horvath was not going to play

“I don’t know why it matters. I only talk about the game and our players. He didn’t play. We made the decision not to play him. Should be back next week hopefully.”

On the moment not being too big for Navy QB Braxton Woodson

“No, I didn’t feel like it was. I thought he played well in the first half. Certainly didn’t play perfect. Came out in third quarter, missed some reads. The plan was to get Jackson in the game earlier. I thought Braxton was playing well. Had a hot hand early on. I thought Jackson Gutierrez went in there and did some good things. We got to convert some first downs and move the ball a little bit. I was pleased with the way Braxton played in the first half and how he handled being in an environment like this in his second time as a starter.”

On not getting Navy’s playmakers involved because Horvath wasn’t playing

“Yeah. A lot of what we do are reads, flags. Sometimes guys get called. Sometimes they don’t. Going into the game, it was going to be a heavy quarterback run type game. They took away some of the perimeter stuff. The triple. Weren’t able to let us pitch the football. It became one of those tough games. Obviously you want to get the ball in your playmakers’ hands in a game like this. We weren’t able to do that.”

On Notre Dame converting on third and 10 early in the game with a pass to Jeremiyah Love and if that was a missed opportunity for Navy to get a big stop

“It was. That one, they got us in a call. Got the back out of the backfield. Ran a little angle route. That particular call is a bad one for us. To their credit, they got themselves a good call in that situation. We had other opportunities on third down to get off the field. Third down really killed us defensively today. I think we probably got a little tired in the second half and they popped some runs. The run that Love had, we thought he had him in the backfield. That was a little bit of a backbreaker right there. That’s when things kind of really snowballed after that.”

On Notre Dame quarterback CJ Carr

“I thought he was a really good player going in. Yeah, he’s a good football player. When they weren’t able to run the football, we got them out of some situations. Converted on third down. We gave it those two explosive plays, explosive pass plays in the first half. That’s what killed us there. He’s a really good player. He is who I thought he was.”

On Notre Dame wide receiver Malachi Fields

“Yeah, he’s a good player. He’s a big wide receiver. He got behind us one time. I thought one of the PI calls was a little nitpicky. On the other one, we just got to turn around and make a play right there. We’re in good position. Young corner, panicked a little bit. Receiver slows down, you got to turn around and find the football or they’re going to call it every time.”

On Navy flushing the Notre Dame game before a big game against South Florida

“Absolutely. That’s what we talked about just now in the locker room. We’ve got to be able to flush this. We can’t let this affect our preparation going into next week. We’ve got to learn from it and get better from it. Everything is still in front of us as far as the conference race. We’ve got two of the better teams in our conference coming up. South Florida is a really good football team. I’m excited that we get to play them at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium. I’m looking forward to getting back to work on Monday.”