You never get a second chance to make a first impression, as the saying goes. That's unfortunate for the Mids, whose debut under new head coach Brian Newberry was a 42-3 defeat at the hands of Notre Dame. The offense could only muster 169 total yards, while the defense gave up touchdowns on six of eight Notre Dame possessions. It was an unfortunate way to start the new era of Navy football, especially considering how getting off to a fast start, both in the game and the season, was a point of emphasis for Newberry in fall camp.

It's hard to be too critical, though. Playing Notre Dame is always challenging, but that is especially true this year. This Irish team had an extra week to prepare for the Navy offense, which is a far cry from changing gears to prepare for the option in the middle of the season. The Irish were especially motivated on offense. Playing poorly against Navy does real damage to the Notre Dame psyche. After Alexander Teich ran for 210 yards in a 35-17 Navy win in the 2010 game, Irish fans spent the next five years mocking Brian Kelly for his postgame comments about defending "the veer." Last year's offensive performance, particularly in the second half, was almost as much of a sore spot, eased only by the fact that the Irish held on to win the game. Still, for a team that established an identity running the ball, being held to 66 yards on the ground hurt their pride, and they wanted to redeem themselves.

Indeed, while most talking heads expected Notre Dame to play with their shiny new toy at quarterback, I wrote in the preview that I expected the Irish to keep running the ball. And that's what they did; in fact, Drew Pyne threw for more yards against Navy last year (269) than Sam Hartman did on Saturday (251). But while Pyne was sacked five times, Hartman never was. More importantly, Notre Dame rolled up 191 yards on the ground, a stark contrast with the 2022 game. On Monday, Newberry credited Notre Dame's game plan while also finding fault with his defense's tackling and run fits. That is understandable in the first game of the season, but it's disappointing for a unit with as many returning players as Navy.

Still, the defense is a known commodity that will undoubtedly bounce back this season. The real question on everyone's mind coming into the game was what the offense would look like. Now that the game has been played, I'm not sure how much of that question has been answered. I had a few thoughts as I watched the game, though, and for simplicity's sake, I'll just bulletize them here.

-- This is a new offense. While it seems like that's stating the obvious, I don't know if Navy fans truly understand that. While we saw some of the same inside veer plays that we grew accustomed to seeing over the last 20 years, this is not an evolution of the spread option that started with Paul Johnson at Georgia Southern. This is an entirely new offense.

Before each practice last spring, the offense would come out of the locker room a few minutes early to gather on Rip Miller Field. Offensive coordinator Grant Chesnut would walk players through the terminology of his offense, and the players would practice lining up in formations, going into motion, and calling audibles. I asked Chesnut about the learning curve for the players trying to absorb the new terminology. He said it was steep, but he made it that way on purpose to drive home the point that this is indeed a different offense.

"The way we are organizing our offense from a play series standpoint, how we're communicating, it's new for everyone, and I did that very intentionally," he said. "We want to create the Navy offense. We're not trying to be anybody but who we are."

As he explained it, he said about one-third of the offense would look "familiar," but two-thirds would be completely new.

"Some of it would take a trained eye to see the nuance, but to defenses, it's definitely a change, which is the important thing."

It's also important for fans to remember this when they watch. The old Navy offense, and the Paul Johnson offense in which it was rooted, had a track record. There were books, videos, coaching clinic footage, and four decades of game film one could use to learn what the offense was all about, how defenses adjusted to it, and what the offense did in response. None of that exists with the new Navy offense. The things that applied to that offense don't necessarily apply to this one. Sure, both offenses are all about sound football fundamentals: numbers, angles, and leverage. But there will be a difference in how the new offense achieves these things.

-- We don't know the "base" offense, if there is one. In the old offense, if I mentioned the "base offense," you all would know what I was talking about: the triple option run out of the double-slot spread formation. I don't know if what we saw on Saturday was a new base offense or if it was specifically tailored to what the coaches expected Notre Dame to do defensively. It will probably take at least a full season of seeing the offense in action to get a sense of what the base stuff is, what the constraint plays are, and what new things defenses will do against it. Even then, the offense will still be a work in progress.

-- It's probably safe to say the new offense is more zone-heavy. The biggest problem the Navy offense faced last year was inside defenders getting outside to make tackles on pitch plays. Because there was no more cut blocking on the perimeter, runners taking a pitch had to be patient and read blocks rather than seeing the defenders in front of them on the ground and immediately turning upfield. That slowed them down, which gave linebackers and defensive backs time to catch up to them. It also made it more difficult to run inside because defenders didn't have to commit one way or the other; plays were slower, so defenders had time to read what was happening.

It appears that one way the new offense addresses this is by running more zone option. In a zone scheme, the offensive line moves laterally at the snap. That forces defenders to move with them to cover their assigned gaps. Getting the defense moving laterally at the snap means they will have to change direction to track down option plays that run in the opposite direction. In theory, that should buy time for the pitch man. Most teams run this from the shotgun, but Navy ran it under center.

This is what we saw when the offense lined up with two fullbacks. The quarterback would read the defensive end. One fullback would run an inside zone play as the first option, while the other became the pitch man. These were Navy's most effective plays. Whether this solves the issue of being able to run pitch plays remains to be seen. The Mids still found themselves outnumbered on the perimeter for most of the game. That could be a schematic issue, or it could just be because Notre Dame's secondary was highly aggressive in run support. The safeties were consistently lined up almost at linebacker depth, which is also why the Mids had guys wide open when they ran play action. They just couldn't give quarterback Tai Lavatai enough time to throw the ball. Along those lines…

— Stop sweating the short passing game. The introduction of new, higher-percentage passing plays has been a hot topic since the introduction of the new offense, but we didn't see any of that during the game. With Notre Dame's secondary playing so shallow, there wasn't any room for a short passing game. Throwing short isn't some magic elixir; you still have to take what the defense gives you. They weren't giving the Mids room to throw underneath.

— I see why the B-backs are now "T-backs." While fullbacks running outside the tackles is nothing new, it appears to be a fundamental part of the new offense. The fullbacks look like they will be used in various ways, making it more of a multi-dimensional position. But they still line up with their hands in the dirt, so I'll continue to call them "fullbacks" for now.

— Tai Lavatai looked good. In the weeks leading up to the game, the coaches mentioned that they thought Lavatai was moving even better than before his knee injury. I was skeptical; usually, one hopes to just get close to normal after an ACL tear. But sure enough, the senior quarterback indeed looked better than before. The offense as a whole seemed to operate more quickly, even if it wasn't all that successful. Looking toward the future, that bodes well. Lavatai still didn't look entirely comfortable running the ball, but I think Notre Dame had something to do with that. I'm excited to see what he can do against the rest of the schedule.

— The new short yardage package was effective. Navy's first play from scrimmage saw them line up in an old-school T-formation and run power over the right tackle. It went for five yards. The Mids returned to that look in short-yardage situations, sometimes with the quarterback running instead. With two fullbacks and a tight end lined up in the backfield, that's a lot of momentum to have in front of you if you only need a yard. It's one of those plays that should work every time as long as the offense executes. Against Notre Dame, it did.

Putting a positive spin on a 42-3 blowout loss is hard. However, the Notre Dame game has rarely accurately gauged Navy's season. The 2019 Navy team was probably the best of my lifetime. They lost to the Irish by 32. The 2002 team finished the season 2-10 but held a lead on Notre Dame late in the fourth quarter. The 2007 Navy team that broke the streak lost to Delaware a week earlier. The game has always been a wild card. On the bright side, it has sometimes been a speed bump for Navy teams picking up momentum in the middle of the season. At least now, the game is out of the way. The Mids took their lumps, but now they have a chance to get on a roll.