It’s going to be a barebones debrief this week since I covered a lot of stuff over the weekend. I’m sure we’ll all be ok.

Last year, Memphis lined up against Navy in an odd front despite being a base 4-3 team. They did the same this year, which is understandable considering how effective they were at shutting down the Mids. The secondary played man defense against Navy’s slotbacks and receivers, which was also like last year’s game.

Navy's first drive felt scripted to me, which would have made sense if the coaches felt like they had a good idea of what was coming. I don't know if it was; that's just a guess. Regardless, the drive ended after some bad luck when Tai Lavatai lost his footing on a midline option to knock the Mids off schedule. A pass on third down was incomplete.

However, the Mids responded on the first play of their next drive. Alex Tecza took an option pitch to the field side and outran defenders to the edge. There was nothing overly special about the play. Memphis defenders respected the dive and stepped forward to stop it before following the ball carrier outside. There was one subtle difference in the blocking compared to years past, though. Normally, the slotback would arc out and try to get outside leverage on his assigned defender. That, or the wide receiver would look like he's running a post pattern toward the safety to get outside leverage on him while the slotback blocked the corner. On this play, both players were split wide, and they both got inside leverage on their blocks. Tecza could turn upfield before the play got strung out.

On the next drive, the Tigers continued to be aggressive with their inside linebackers taking the fullback, but Tecza and Daba Fofana ran through tackles.

The Mids ended the drive with a pass from Lavatai to Regis Velez, who ran a crossing pattern opposite jet sweep motion.

The Mids converted a third down with a jet sweep on their first drive:

Memphis guarded against it the rest of the game, sometimes to their detriment. Here, the offensive line carried out the fake jet sweep to draw the defensive back covering Velez forward after the snap. Because the DBs were playing man defense, the jet sweep motion drew the safety away from the middle of the field, where Velez was wide open.

After that, the Mids had some trouble moving the ball. Their next drive ended with a fumble. On the drive after that, the Mids started with their backs to the goal line, but got some breathing room after picking up a first down and completing a 17-yard catch-and-run to Fofana. The drive stalled after that.

You may recall that the Mids had difficulty blocking Memphis' linebackers last year. The Tigers did a good job of changing up their stunts. As soon as the Mids adjusted to one stunt, the defense had already moved on to another, making the adjustment moot. On the first play here, it seems something similar may have happened. The playside tackle blocked one inside linebacker, leaving the other free to step upfield to make the stop. It looks like a missed read in real time, but I don't think it was.

On the following play, the Mids went back to the jet sweep, but Memphis was keying on it.

The Mids started their next drive on their 31 yard-line and picked up a first down on a swing pass from Lavatai to Eli Heidenreich. The Mids had a chance to get another first down (and potentially a lot more) on the ensuing third-and-three, but Lavatai missed his read on the midline.

Navy went for it on fourth down but was stopped short.

The offense's fortunes turned after halftime, when Anton Hall punched the ball into the end zone from two yards out on the Mids' opening possession of the half. That play was set up by a 58-yard pass from Lavatai to Brandon Chatman. Like the touchdown pass to Velez, this play was also set up by the threat of the outside run. The defensive back covering Chatman was caught flat-footed looking at the slotback in motion. Because the DBs were in man coverage, there was no safety help over the middle.

The Mids went three and out on their next three possessions.

One the first drive, you can see how the defense stopped respecting the threat of the quarterback run, slow-playing the pitch. On the second drive, the Mids were knocked off schedule when Lavatai missed a read on the midline. On the third drive, the Mids tried a misdirection play that worked in the first quarter, but Memphis wasn't fooled.

With the offense stalled, the coaches put in Blake Horvath to get a spark. And it worked at first, with the sophomore scrambling for 29 yards on his third play. However, the Mids had to settle for a field goal. On second down, the Mids again had trouble figuring out which linebacker to block, which was particularly egregious since they had an extra lineman on the play side of the formation. After that, they tried running an inside handoff with jet sweep motion. The play went for big yards in the first half, but didn't work here.

On the next drive, Horvath lost a fumble. That play was preceded by another missed read on the midline.

Lavatai returned to the game after that for the final drive, which fell just short on a fourth-down conversion deep in Memphis territory.

One other note on quarterbacks... Here are two plays that show Horvath's potential. Both are triple option plays. In the first, Lavatai is the quarterback and gets a keep read. He makes the right read, but he doesn't take the right running lane. If he ran outside at the pitch read, forcing him to commit one way or another, he could have picked up decent yardage. Instead, he gets stopped at the line of scrimmage. Later in the game, Horvath has an identical situation but picks up a first down.

Can the game slow down enough for Horvath that he makes better decisions and earns the coaches' trust? The answer to that question will go a long way toward determining how much of this offense's potential is realized this season.