The Delaware Debrief

In the preview for the Delaware game, I wrote that it was a must-win for the Mids. That wasn't exactly true. It's college football. Upsets happen, including the FCS vs. FBS variety. Losing hurts badly, but it doesn't have to sink an entire season, even with a rebuilding team like Navy.

The more important thing for Navy wasn't whether or not they won; it was how they played. Not to downplay the importance of winning here, but in terms of demonstrating that the team's problems of the last two years were just an aberration driven by pandemic forces beyond the program's control, the one thing that absolutely could not happen was for the offense to come out of the gate looking like nothing had changed. They had to click. If preparation was normal this year, the offense had to look normal. Sure, the team is still young, so maybe you'd see some blunders here and there. Fair enough. On the whole, though, the offense— the program's calling card for the last 20 years—had to do something to inspire a little bit of hope.

They did not.

Instead, the Mids turned the ball over on their very first play from scrimmage, leading to a Delaware touchdown that put the Mids behind only 20 seconds into the game. They'd add three more fumbles after that, losing two of them.

Those turnovers were Ken Niumatalolo's focus when he talked about what his team needed to fix this week.

"We've got to take care of the ball first and foremost," he said. "Our biggest emphasis is taking care of the rock, going to the right people, and then we go from there. We had some young B-backs in there who may have been a little bit anxious. Hopefully, a game under their belt will help them. But we've got to take care of the rock."

To Niumatalolo's point, Navy probably would have won the game if they didn't commit those turnovers. Delaware's only consistent plays were questionable pass interference penalties. The Mids were absolutely dominant defensively, limiting the Blue Hens to only 202 total yards. Navy recorded 12 tackles for loss, including five sacks, and allowed their opponents to convert only two third downs in 13 tries.

But while the turnovers might have been the difference in the game, they aren't the real story. Even if Navy might have won without the turnovers, the final score would have been something like 10-7. That feeling in your gut wouldn't be any different. Again, the most important takeaway from this game was going to be the performance of the offense, one way or the other. Sadly, rather than showing that the dysfunction of the last two years is in the past, the Mids exhibited all the same traits that, by this point, have come to define them.

Delaware's game plan was a bit of a mystery heading into Saturday since there wasn't much history to study. In the end, they spent most of the game lined up in a 3-3-5 with both the middle and playside safeties following the pitch. Occasionally they moved a safety up to linebacker depth to look more like a 3-4. It's become one of the more common looks that Navy sees, especially since joining the American. The coaches had plenty of answers, but none of them mattered. The difference in the game wasn't the Xs and Os but rather the Mids' inability to execute the basics.

The fumbles were the obvious mistakes, but there were so many more.

There were missed reads, like this one.

The next play was an outside zone, a logical call when the defensive end takes the fullback. Except this time, he didn't; he played outside. On an outside zone, the guard and tackle double-team the defensive end. If the DE plays outside, the guard breaks off the double team and heads to the second level. The quarterback is supposed to follow behind him. He didn't. Instead of reading the play, Lavatai guessed that his read would take him outside. He guessed wrong, and the play was strung out for a loss.

On this play, it looked like the fullback didn't catch the quarterback changing the direction of the play.

Here we see a missed dive read.

This was an inside zone play out of the heavy formation, with both tackles lined up on one side of the formation and a wide receiver in the tackle spot on the other side. The wide receiver/tackle here is supposed to duck inside the defensive end and get to the linebacker. Instead, he does some kind of hop-step stop-and-go thing, and the linebacker runs straight to the ballcarrier.

The Mids had a little success with the inverted veer, but it didn't last. On this play, the Delaware linebacker did a good job following-- and beating-- the pulling guard to the play.

There were a lot of assignment mixups too. Here, both the receiver and the slotback block the same player while another is unblocked and makes the stop.

Here, they got their assignments right, but they didn't block either of them.

The next play here is the fumbled pitch, but as bad as that was, it probably would have been blown up even if the pitch was on target. Both the slotback and the tackle block the same safety while leaving another DB unblocked following the pitch man.

Here, the guard is supposed to get in front of the nose guard, but can't. The NG makes the tackle.

(Honestly, that one is a little unfair, since that's a very difficult block to make. Nevertheless, that's the job.)

As the game wore on, the Mids changed the blocking scheme to have the slotback release inside. On this play, the guard and the slotback went to the same defender, leaving the A-gap uncovered.

On this play, we have a shotgun triple option. Based on the dive and pitch reads, it appears that Lavatai made the correct read. But why is the playside tackle blocking the dive key across the formation? Look at all the unblocked defenders that Lavatai is running into. Who is getting to the second level to take these guys on?

Here, the backside defensive end is inexplicably double-teamed by the guard and tackle. That left the A-gap unblocked, and a linebacker charged through to make the play.

And finally, we have the throwback WR screen where the guard and tackle both run to the same defender, but neither blocks him.

There was more, but how much do you need to see before you get the point?

Considering the optimism of the preseason, Saturday's game was as deflating a performance as I can remember. No game is perfect, but this stuff was happening on every drive. How was this possible? If preparation was normal this year, what exactly is being prepared? In a vacuum, maybe you could write this off as a bad day. In the context of the last two years, you cannot. And the competition only gets better from here.