Some Notre Dame players tried to talk the party platform, about how every Saturday the Fighting Irish have to deal with a fired-up opponent intent on playing up to the level of college football's most storied program.
Coach Tyrone Willingham, however, admitted that his team played to the depths of one that has been a Division I-A trailer in recent decades. A four-touchdown favorite against Navy, the Notre Dame boss knew that the Fighting Irish shouldn't have needed their biggest fourth-quarter output (15 points) in three years to avoid eclipsing the Denver Broncos for the biggest dud of the year at Ravens Stadium.
"The coach knows some things that the point-spreaders don't know," Willingham said. "A football game is tough to win. When you have some of the mental obstacles that we had to approach in this football game, it becomes even more difficult. You can't turn on emotion like a light switch. We were lucky today that we got the switch turned on at the right time."
Notre Dame's aspirations for its first national championship since 1988 all but vanished in a 14-7 loss to Boston College seven days earlier. Willingham's team was suffering from a hangover, and he said it "didn't wake up until there were four minutes left in the game."
An incomprehensible loss to Navy would have damaged the Fighting Irish's designs on a berth in the Bowl Championship Series, and given what happened to Miami after it struggled to beat Rutgers, Notre Dame might not remain No. 9 when the poll is updated.
Two weeks after the Fighting Irish swaggered into Tallahassee and dismantled Florida State, they were out-schemed and outplayed for a bungling 54 minutes. Quarterback Carlyle Holiday had a career-high 272 yards passing, but several bad underthrows. Eleven minutes passed before Notre Dame got a first down. It lost three fumbles in the first three quarters, two by sophomore tailback Ryan Grant.
In a surreal third quarter, the Fighting Irish were outgained, 126 yards to 1.
Notre Dame's drowsiness couldn't cloak its superior athleticism. For all of the work Navy did in the trenches in that third quarter, the Fighting Irish stayed close on a 92-yard kickoff return by Vontez Duff, the savvy junior cornerback who became the first player in school history to bring back an interception, punt and kickoff for touchdowns in the same season.
Down 23-15 in the fourth quarter, classmate Omar Jenkins atoned for the fumble that he lost on Notre Dame's first snap, which spoiled a 62-yard catch and run. Down the stretch he exploited seams in Navy's zone, as his 29-yard catch set up the tying points and his 67-yarder provided the winning touchdown with 2:08 left.
"We realized we had to pick it up," said Jenkins, whose 166 receiving yards were the most by a Notre Dame player since Rocket Ismail put up 173 against the Mids in 1990. "I don't know if there's a measure of redemption, but it's a great feeling knowing that you can catch the ball, and that they've got confidence in you."
On the luck of the Irish front, Jenkins' clutch catches made Notre Dame 6-1 in games decided by eight points or fewer.