Quinn engineers good drives against Midshipmen

BALTIMORE (AP) -- Brady Quinn enjoyed an afternoon that would have satisfied almost every quarterback in the nation, especially one with a shot at winning the Heisman Trophy.
Quinn accounted for four touchdowns and No. 11 Notre Dame amassed a season-high 471 yards Saturday in a 38-14 victory over Navy, the Fighting Irish's 43rd consecutive win in the series.
With Quinn leading the way, the Irish (7-1) scored on their first five possessions to take a 31-14 lead. The Irish were then stuffed at the Navy 1 before Quinn completed his performance with his third touchdown pass.
Six scores in seven possessions is impressive work, but Quinn lamented Notre Dame's lone unproductive drive.
Goal is goal line
"One of the things our offense wanted to work on this week was being more consistent throughout the entire game," he said. "I think you saw that with the exception of that one drive when we didn't get it in at the goal line."
What could possibly be better than scoring 31 points on the opening five drives? "Six out of six and making them all touchdowns," Quinn said. "That's our goal every time, especially when we're in the red zone."
Quinn finished 18-for-25 for 295 yards, and he also ran 19 yards for a score. Darius Walker ran for 103 yards on 20 carries and Rhema McKnight had two touchdown catches to help the Irish win their fifth straight.
Although Quinn found fault with the offense, Notre Dame coach Charlie Weis was delighted with the way the Irish played after last week's 21-17 comeback win over UCLA.
"The first five times we got the ball on offense, we scored. That's always a good thing," Weis said. "To be honest with you, that was our intent coming into the game. We felt that on offense we haven't been running the ball, we haven't been playing consistent. What we had to do is have one of those games when we got the ball and scored early and often. Fortunately, that's how it panned out."
For a while, Navy kept pace with the Irish. Notre Dame led 17-14 in the second quarter and yielded 211 yards rushing before halftime.
Navy quarterback Kalpo-Noa Kaheaku-Enhada scored two touchdowns in his first college start and Reggie Campbell ran for 81 yards, but the Midshipmen couldn't mount enough offense to beat Notre Dame for the first time since Roger Staubach pioneered a 35-14 win in 1963.
Notre Dame's winning streak against Navy (5-3) is the longest against one opponent in NCAA history.
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