I listened to last week's Navy Football Podcast as the gang discussed the Mids' loss to Rice. Bill Wagner addressed the game's weird circumstances, including the weather delays and the terrible playing surface. After hearing all that, Keenan Reynolds replied, "Those just sound like excuses."
Keenan was right, of course. But that's a criticism that has to come from him or Eric, not from me. They have credibility as former players and competitors who understand what it takes to win. I'm not unwilling to criticize, but I also have to know my place. I'm not going to question a team's mental toughness. There's a certain man-in-the-arena element that one should respect. There are some things you can't know unless you're in the locker room.
Still, when things go wrong, it's only natural to wonder why. And for two weeks, things went very wrong. But adversity is inevitable. To achieve your goals, you must find ways to get the job done anyway. In two games, Navy did not. Teams have to learn how to win, and it appeared the Mids had more learning to do. It was fair to be concerned about how long it would take to learn those lessons. After watching them against USF, though, it looks like some of those lessons are starting to stick. This was a tough game, especially for the offense.
In the preview, I made a few guesses about what we would see from the USF defense. I guessed that they would use an eight-man front, and they did. I also guessed they'd make multiple adjustments that would force the Navy offense to dig into their playbook. On this one, I was only sort of right.
We saw the first part of the USF plan on Navy's first play from scrimmage. The Mids ran a counter option out of the shotgun. USF was lined up in a 4-4. The outside linebacker, as the pitch key, ran into the backfield to get in the pitch lane. The inside linebackers rotated in the direction of the play. If the quarterback read the pitch key as a keep read, he'd cut inside and be met by a scraping ILB.
To adjust, the Mids first ran the triple option. The playside snipe blocked the scraping ILB. The wide receiver tried to get a two-for-one block, running to the safety and hoping the cornerback followed him. The CB didn't, but was lined up deep enough that the pitch man could still pick up a few yards.
Navy then ran a load option with the same blocking assignments but using the fullback to block the cornerback. That did the trick.
The Mids tried the load option again on their next drive, but this time, the blockers had trouble getting in front of the linebackers.
With the ILB scraping outside so aggressively, Navy tried to slow him down by running behind him with the fullback.
Navy then tested the waters running the option outside again. This time, though, USF didn't scrape the linebackers. Instead, they ran the EZ stunt, with the dive and pitch keys exchanging responsibilities. It worked out here since the DE getting blocked prevented him from getting deep enough to step into the pitch lane. But the Mids were a little lucky that was the case.
These plays show what the challenge was for the offense. USF's plan was to change between scraping the linebackers and running the EZ stunt. Neither one of them is an answer to the offense on their own, but by switching back and forth between them, the Bulls made it a guessing game for the Mids. The plays designed to work against one wouldn't work against the other.
When the Mids guessed right, everything was fine.
When they guessed wrong, they didn't go anywhere.
Even when they guessed correctly, USF wasn't easily fooled. Here's a counter option play. The idea behind running the counter option is to get the ILBs rotating the wrong way before running the play in the opposite direction. Not only did it not work here, but the scraping ILB took a more downhill track into the backfield rather than scraping outside. That made him harder for the snipe to block, and with the pitch key giving a keep read, the quarterback had nowhere to go.
USF was also individually well-trained. They didn't overpursue. Here is a power read, with the scraping linebackers following the sweep. It looked like Horvath might have had an opportunity to sneak out the back door, but the backside DB stayed home and made the stop.
All of this is why it was so difficult to sustain drives.
The Mids did capitalize on a scoring opportunity just before halftime, though. Ira Oniha's interception gave Navy the ball near midfield with 14 seconds left. In that situation, the secondary will usually back off to prevent the big play, taking some of the guesswork out of the play call. The Mids ran Alex Tecza off tackle. Eli Heidenreich blocked inside to help against a possible scrape. The outside linebacker stayed outside, which allowed Thomas Scully to move on to make a block in the secondary.
On the next play, Horvath dropped back to pass. USF was in zone coverage, with two linebackers responsible for underneath coverage. One of them, though, was too quick to decide that nobody was in his zone and came after the quarterback. Tecza came out of the backfield and caught the ball in open space. If he could outrun the other linebacker, there was a Navy receiver blocking in front of him for every secondary defender that had dropped deep.
After a few more drives of the guessing game, Navy eventually decided to stop playing along. Late in the third quarter, they decided to line up with as many blockers as they could and power their way forward.
On fourth and two, they ran a fake punt.
Horvath was sacked on the next play, though. Facing third and 19, Navy once again knew that the secondary was likely to back off, so they ran the fullback off tackle again, just as they did at the end of the first half. And it worked again, this time with Daba Fofana. Then, on fourth down, the defense was expecting power again, and Horvath beat them outside to the corner for the touchdown.
That capped a 13-play, 87-yard drive that took over seven minutes off the clock and effectively put the game out of reach.
Defensively, Navy played one of its best games of the season. USF ran for 369 yards in the second half against FAU a week earlier, but against the Mids, they only managed 60 yards. For a unit that hasn't played as well against the run this year as it usually does, this was a welcome return to form.
Navy defended USF's running game well in last year's game, too. Where they were burned was in the passing game. With quarterback Byrum Brown sidelined due to injury, though, USF isn't the deep threat they were last year. I think Navy's defense reflected that, and it helped them shut down the run game.
On USF's first play from scrimmage, the Mids were playing man cover 0 with no safety help over the top. Rayuan Lane played run support when he saw his man assigned as a blocker.
USF did have a 37-yard pass on that drive, but it was a 5-yard pass with 32 yards coming after the catch. The Mids weren't burned deep. But once USF was inside the Navy red zone, the Mids switched to zone coverage. Quarterback Bryce Archie seemed to misread the defense and didn't account for Kyle Jacob dropping back into coverage.
The Mids changed their coverages throughout the game, and I think it made Archie unsure of what he was seeing. The hesitation led to pressure; Archie was sacked four times and hurried another three.
Navy also did a good job of confusing USF's offensive line against both the run and the pass. Here, outside stunts left the defensive tackles unblocked, which stuffed the running back at the line of scrimmage.
On this play, nobody blocks Landon Robinson while the left guard blocks air.
The Mids also made some great individual effort plays. Check out Luke Pirris' athletic ability to shoot the gap in front of the pulling lineman before turning around to make the tackle:
This is Navy's run defense when it's playing its best, which hasn't always been the case this season.
One could argue that this was another lackluster game for Navy's offense, and with a stretch of a fumble and four punts after going up 14-0, I understand that concern. However, I don't share it. To me, this was one of Navy's best performances of the year.
Everyone loves seeing the Mids hang 40 on teams, but when that happens, it's usually at least partly because the other team's defensive plan wasn't very good. That wasn't the case with USF. This was a defense with disciplined players led by a coach who understands how the option works. Last year, this would have been a repeat of the ECU or Charlotte games. Instead, Navy jumped to an early lead, made the most of an opportunity at the end of the first half, and pounded out a 13-play drive in the second half to put the game out of reach. The Mids ran for 321 yards and won by three touchdowns. If you were told that would be the result before the game, you'd have been thrilled, and rightfully so.
The Mids will face other challenges in the home stretch, and the greatest of those may be this week. After winning a game like this, they don't have to rely on faith to believe they can overcome challenges. They can point to experience. This was the right game at the right time.
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