Irish Struggle Early, Then Beat Navy : Notre Dame: After Middies’ semi-wishbone attack proves troublesome for a half, second-ranked team wins, 52-31.

Lou Holtz isn’t talking national championship these days, and it was obvious why after second-ranked Notre Dame defeated Navy Saturday, 52-31.

The Irish didn’t show much of a defense against an undermanned Middies team that made them look foolish with a wishbone that wasn’t a wishbone.

“This is one of the lowest spots in my career,” Notre Dame’s coach said after his offense scored 42 second-half points to blow open a 10-10 halftime tie.

“You can’t be a great football team if you can’t play great defense,” said Holtz, who last week lost starting nose tackle Chris Zorich because of a dislocated kneecap.

“I also know what lies ahead of us.”

What is ahead are games at Tennessee and USC sandwiched around a home game against Penn State. And after watching Navy roll up 382 yards in offense, Holtz is concerned.

To Navy’s credit, Coach George Chaump came up with a special game plan. He disguised the Middies’ Pro-I offense in a wishbone formation and it baffled the Irish for 30 minutes.

“We hadn’t worked against the wishbone all year,” Notre Dame cornerback Todd Lyght said. “It caught us off guard. We didn’t know what was going in the first half.”

Notre Dame adjusted during the third quarter by spreading its defensive front, but Navy still scored 21 second-half points.

“This isn’t a setback,” Holtz said. “We’ve had this problem all year. We’re in a state of disarray and I’m at a loss to explain it.”

Navy (3-5) made Notre Dame (7-1) work every play in the first half and the Middies seemed to have the momentum after tying the score on a 27-yard field goal by Frank Schenk.

However, the Middies had no answer for the Irish offense, which scored on six of its first eight possessions.

“I felt our kids played their hearts out,” Chaump said. “They played hard and I told them this was the proudest I’ve ever been of a football team. But to win we had to control the ball, not make any mistakes and get a few breaks. We didn’t get any breaks.”

The big drive for Notre Dame came at the start of the second half. It took eight plays and covered 73 yards, beginning with a 21-yard pass from Rick Mirer to Raghib Ismail. Seven plays later, Rodney Culver went off right tackle for the go-ahead touchdown.

Navy, which scored on two of its three first-half possessions, tried a fourth-down fake punt at the Middie 44 on its next possession, but the play failed. Notre Dame went into high gear in rolling to its fourth consecutive victory and 27th in a row over Navy.

“I felt to win we had to keep it close,” Chaump said of the fake, which resulted in a two-yard loss. “I felt if they got a couple of touchdowns ahead we’d be in trouble. We just didn’t execute.”

Ricky Watters capped the ensuing 42-yard drive with a two-yard touchdown run and Mirer scrambled 30 yards for a touchdown to make the score 31-10.

Tony Brooks added a three-yard touchdown run for Notre Dame early in the fourth quarter. Mirer later passed to Ismail on a 54-yard scoring play and Lyght scored on a 53-yard kickoff return in the closing seconds. Ismail had six receptions for 173 yards and finished with 219 all-purpose yards.

Quarterback Alton Grizzard, who became the fourth Navy player to rush for 2,000 yards in his career, accounted for Navy’s second-half points with a two-yard run and scoring passes of 19 yards to tight end Dave Berghult and seven yards to B.J. Mason.

“This was encouraging in that we played as a team and got things done,” said Grizzard, who rushed for 93 yards and now has 2,074. “But it’s also discouraging, because we didn’t win and that’s what we’re here to do.”

Notre Dame took a 7-0 lead on a one-yard run by backup fullback Jerome Bettis.

A 44-yard pass play from Grizzard to Berghult on the final play of the first quarter moved Navy to the Irish 12. Jason Pace scored from a yard out six plays later.

Craig Hentrich kicked a 31-yard field goal to give the Irish a 10-7 lead, but Navy went 68 yards in 15 plays to tie the score on a 27-yard field goal by Schenk.

Only seconds before the tying field goal, Grizzard failed to connect with a wide-open Berghult in the end zone on a second-down play from the nine.