A regulation football game lasts 60 minutes.

Your opinion of Navy's performance on Saturday is almost certainly dependent on that fact. If football games lasted 57 minutes, then the criticism we'd be hearing this week after Navy's clash with Air Force would be deafening. Navy couldn't move the ball! Too many penalties! Gave up a fourth-quarter lead! Clearly, there is something wrong with the team.

But no, football games do not last 57 minutes. They last 60, and those precious three minutes completely recast the very same events that would have otherwise drawn so much ire. After so many Midshipmen stepped up to make incredible plays on that final possession-- Chance Warren, C.J. Williams, Tazh Maloy, Mychal Cooper, and of course, Malcolm Perry-- the entire narrative of the game was changed. Now, when Navy fans look back on their team's 34-25 win over the Falcons, they talk about Malcolm Perry's arm. They revel in the Mids' smothering run defense. They see emerging stars in Cooper and Diego Fagot. They praise the fortitude of the team in putting together one last drive.

Objectively, there is truth in both the good and the bad.

Maintaining objectivity is difficult in an inherently emotional endeavor such as sports fandom. When you win, everything is awesome; when you lose, there are no silver linings. The feelings produced by a positive or negative result act as a filter for any indicator that might suggest that things aren't as good or as bad as they seem. In truth, any game is a combination of good and bad; you just hope that there's enough good for you to walk away with a victory. This is especially true of service academy games.

When we analyze games around here, we usually follow a certain routine. We look at each team's game plan and the back-and-forth of adjustments throughout the game. Service academy games have a different pattern. It’s repeated to the point of cliche, but both teams really do know each other so well that it’s difficult to move the ball. It isn’t usually because of complex defensive schemes, though. While both defenses pick their spots to run certain stunts, what slows down the offenses of both teams is the individual technique of well-coached players.

Navy and Air Force used similar defenses. The Falcons switched between odd and even fronts, but both teams used their inside linebackers to shade toward the playside B and C gaps. What made it so effective for Navy was the discipline of Fagot and Paul Carothers.

On this play, Air Force tried to run off tackle, hoping to cut inside of a scraping Fagot. But Fagot stuck to his gap and made the stop.

Here, Air Force tried to run a draw play, but Carothers stayed in his gap and wasn’t fooled.

Air Force tried to adjust by using an outside release for the playside tackle and bringing the slotback inside as a lead blocker on Carothers. Fagot, however, remained unblocked.

On this play, Navy mixed it up a bit. Fagot showed that he was going to shoot the gap, and Air Force ran off tackle to beat it. They were unable to block Carothers, though, who tracked the play down from the backside.

Air Force’s linebackers did similar things to the Navy offense. On this play, look at how the pitch key was able to remain uncommitted to both the keep and the pitch, stringing out the play and giving the inside-out pursuit the chance to catch up.

Navy tried to use misdirection with the fullback trap, but Air Force linebackers were too disciplined to fall for it and maintained their assignments.

It wasn’t just the linebackers, either. On this play, the safety beats the cut block of the slotback and forces the ballcarrier to the sideline.

Navy’s defensive line also played well, especially Jackson Perkins. Here, he is able to hold his ground against the block of the tackle to get to the fullback on an inside zone:

On this play, Perkins knocks the tackle off of his feet, preventing him from blocking Fagot, who tracked down the quarterback.

Perkins was so dominant that as soon as he left the game with an injury, Air Force started running the outside zone at his replacement, Denzel Polk.

Navy adjusted by firing the corner, which was the end of that.

As good as both defenses were against the option, the offenses had to find other ways to get jump-started. For Navy, that meant taking to the air. The Mids attempted to throw from the start, but when Perry didn’t see any open receivers, he was forced to scramble. That finally changed at the beginning of the second quarter, when Perry found Cooper on a post route for 38 yards. Air Force still had pretty good coverage on the play, but with the safety rotating to cover the slotback, it left Cooper one-on-one with the cornerback.

Navy went right back to Cooper on the next play, only this time they used a little bit of sleight-of-hand. The Mids lined up in a heavy formation, with Cooper as the eligible “tackle” on the weak side. Both slotbacks lined up behind him, leaving three eligible receivers on that side of the formation. The defense, however, only had two defensive backs to cover them. When the two slotbacks ran drag routes over the middle, nobody covered Cooper on the wheel route.

The Mids went back to the air on their next drive. This time, Perry connected with C.J. Williams over the middle. Again, Air Force had decent coverage on the play, but Perry just delivered the ball where only Williams could catch it.

Navy tried to pass into the second half too, but they ran into the same problem that they had at the beginning of the game; Perry ended up scrambling with the exception of one incomplete pass to Ryan Mitchell and Williams’ superhuman grab on the game-winning drive.

Williams might have had the most spectacular play of the afternoon, but it was far from the only example of outstanding individual effort. That’s part of what makes service academy games so special; with so much familiarity between the teams, the difference often comes down to which team has more of those players making more of those plays. On Saturday, it was Navy.

There was David Forney recognizing the run blitz and peeling off of his double-team to pick it up:

There was C.J. Williams getting two players with one block:

There was Malcolm Perry cutting inside an unblocked safety:

There was Tazh Maloy doing just enough to slow down the defensive end, giving Perry time to deliver the ball:

Some of these plays might not show up on the stat sheet but can make the difference between winning and losing.

Most people wouldn’t think of this game as a complete performance, but in a way it was. When the offense got off to a slow start, the defense kept things under control. When the defense had trouble stopping the Air Force passing attack, the offense came through with one more drive at the end of the game. This was a total team effort; all of the team’s goals are still on the table because of it.