One of Notre Dame’s biggest offensive question marks was answered during their rivalry victory against the Navy Midshipmen
The Notre Dame was given an important answer during their victory over the Navy Midshipmen.
The Notre Dame offense has been mostly good so far during the 2025 college football season, but over the last few weeks, things have felt a bit disjointed for some reason. When you have a superstar in the backfield like running back Jeremiyah Love, another talented runner with Jadarian Price, a breakout star at the quarterback position in CJ Carr, and a strong offensive line, this team should be kicking on all cylinders at this point in the season. Something, however, just hadn’t felt quite right.
When you talk about the Mike Denbrock offense, a position that is so vitally important for it to function at its highest level is the boundary receiver. Early on in the 2025 season, former Virginia transfer Malachi Fields got off to a fast start. In fact, many believed he would be the best Fighting Irish pass catcher when all was said and done, especially after a really strong performance against Texas A&M during the second game of the season. The 6-4, 222-pound pass catcher followed that up with some explosive plays the next couple of games against Purdue and Arkansas.
For whatever reason, Fields has not been a featured part of the offense in recent weeks. In the previous three games against NC State, USC, and Boston College, he managed to make just four receptions for 81 yards and a touchdown. Through eight games coming into this weekend’s battle against Navy, Fields was third on the team in receiving yards (400) and fourth on the team in receptions (21). That is not where most would have expected him to be after his strong start.
When Fields and the boundary position in general aren’t making a ton of plays, that condenses a lot of the offense. That includes condensing everything from a passing game perspective, making things harder for players like Jordan Faison and Will Pauling, a couple of wide receivers who do some of their best work when manipulating space. It also makes windows a lot smaller for tight end Eli Raridon, and allows opposing defenses to sneak an extra safety down into the box at times when they aren’t being threatened vertically as much.
Quite simply, when Fields is playing well, the Notre Dame offense is just better. I am sure that head coach Marcus Freeman and the Fighting Irish staff understand that, and there felt like a concerted effort to get Fields the football early and often against the Midshipmen during the team’s 49 to 10 victory.
Malachi Fields’ resurgence against Navy
Despite the game getting out of hand early in the third quarter in favor of the Irish, Fields made his impact known early. Even with one bad concentration drop, he made a plethora of big plays for the Notre Dame passing attack, ending the day with four receptions for 97 yards, an average of 24.3 yards per reception. Those big plays and physical presence were a sight for sore eyes from the Notre Dame fanbase.
It doesn’t feel like a coincidence that once Fields made a couple of early plays, this offense seemed to hit a groove we haven’t seen in a couple of weeks. Carr hit a couple of big throws. We saw Faison make a ton of players miss in space. Love made a couple of Superman plays. Price ran hard. KK Smith caught a long touchdown. As long as Notre Dame wasn’t their own worst enemy, this was an offense that wasn’t going to be stopped against Navy.
From here, it is about utilizing that momentum for Fields and harnessing that presence in the offensive attack. When he is making plays in the boundary, this is an incredibly hard group to stop.
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