2021 MMQB (Western Kentucky) Sponsored by Crown Plaza (Suffern, NY)
Too Close for Comfort
It was supposed to be a close game, but after starting the fourth quarter with a 21 point lead, Western Kentucky made it a lot closer game than it should have been. After three quarters of dominant offense and an adequate defense, Army West Point faded in the final quarter and escaped with a 3 point win courtesy of the Black Knight special teams. The kickoff return team thwarted three WKU onside kick attempts and Cole Talley’s 31 yard field goal provided the final margin of victory with the only score of Army’s final three possessions.
Head Coach Jeff Monken summed things up in his post game interview, “We made enough errors in the first half to lose the game…on both sides of the ball. So, it wasn’t a real clean performance all the way through….In the first half we had three busted coverages, one for a 73-yard touchdown, one that set up another touchdown. Those aren’t things we can get away with very often. We’re fortunate we won the game doing things like that. Offensively in the fourth quarter, I think we had the chance to put the thing away twice and didn’t do it. In the first half, on the opening drive, we take it down there and fumble in the red zone. We can’t do that here. We’re fortunate to have won the game.”
I think most fans will agree with that brief summary. As usual we saw some Good things, some Bad things and in this game a few Ugly things as well.
The Good
Citing Jeff Monken again, “The bottom line is we did enough good things throughout the day and we made enough plays as a team to win. I’m proud of our team for that. We certainly have a lot to learn from this game.”
So what did we note as the Good in particular?
Another Display of Passing Efficiency: While this week’s pass efficiency rating did not quite equal the performance against Georgia State, it was another stellar performance. Quarterback Christian Anderson completed 5 of his 6 pass attempts for 77 yards and 1 TD with no interceptions, earning a Pass Efficiency Rating of 246.13, thereby preserving Army West Point’s top rating in that category in the NCAA statistics with a two game average of 326.
Balanced Rushing Offense: It’s unlikely that Army West Point will ever field what most fans consider a truly balanced offense, but by Jeff Monken standards, the offense in Saturday’s game was about as balanced as we’ve seen. Not only did they mix in enough pass plays to keep WKU from stacking against the run, but they also attacked the perimeter better than in any game we’ve seen since mid season 2020. Rushing yardage was about equally divided among QB carries (35.1%) , Fullback carries (30%) and Slotbacks (35.4%). The trio of fullbacks had 30 of the 67 carries (44.8%) but the slotbacks had better YPC average, as is usually the case. The result was that Army scored touchdowns on 5 of their first 6 possessions (not counting the 30 second possession that ended the first half). But for the fumble on Army’s first possession, WKU appeared incapable of stopping the offense through the first 3 quarters of football.
The Broughton Interception: WKU got off to a good start in their passing game, and appeared to be in control, until safety Marquel Broughton jumped a route to intercept a pass and return at the Army 29 and returned it 24 yards to the WKU 47.
Rushing Defense: In just about every interview we’ve seen with a defensive coach or player, their top priority is to stop the run, and the Black Knights did a great job in that department again this week, holding WKU to a net 42 yards in 19 attempts for an average of 2.2 yards per attempt. Unfortunately, WKU realized the futility of running the ball and went to a much better passing attack, as we’ll discuss later.
Special Teams Play: As we noted in the introduction, Special Teams play preserved the win in the fourth quarter, but they were generally good the entire game. The Place Kicking team had a flawless day with 5 of 5 PAT conversions and 1 of 1 FG conversions. Cole Talley booted one kickoff out of bounds, but WKU had no kickoff returns. The Special Teams stars of the game were the Kick Return team that recovered all three WKU onside kicks. The Punting Team was given the day off by the offense which wasn’t stopped soon enough to force a punt all day.
Ball Control: Once again, Army West Point dominated the clock with a Time of Possession of 39:38. The dominance was assisted substantially by WKU’s hurry-up passing game, but the Army West Point offense controlled the clock well until the 4th quarter.
The Bad
As might be expected from a comparison of scores for the first two weeks, we noted more Bad in this week’s game than we saw in the opener against Georgia State.
Pass Defense: WKU proved highly effective in finding and exploiting weaknesses in the Black Knight pass defense. QB Bailey Zappe, the transfer from Houston Baptist was able to complete 28 of his 40 attempts (70%) for 435 yards and 3 TDs with 1 INT (Pass Efficiency = 181.1). He was particularly effective in the 4th quarter, when the Black Knights knew full well that he was going to be passing.
Offensive Collapse in the Fourth Quarter: After looking virtually unstoppable through 3 quarters, the offense sputtered after their 5th touchdown at the start of the 4th quarter. The Black Knights were stopped on downs in their next possession and had to settle for a field goal to cap off their brief final possession. The stalled offense gave WKU to close the gap from 21 points to 3.
The Ugly
Fumble on the First Drive: After Broughton stopped WKU’s opening drive with the interception (see Good), the Black Knights marched to the WKU Red Zone in 7 plays. Army appeared almost certain to turn Broughton’s interception into an early 7 point lead, but Anthony Adkins failed to secure the football on a fullback dive and WKU turned the tables by recovering for a turnover. That turnover resulted turned a likely 7 point lead into a scoreless first quarter and was one of the factors that kept WKU in the game to the end.
Broken Coverages: We acknowledge that WKU has a potent passing game and probably would have had success passing regardless, but as Jeff Monken noted, the defense suffered from several blown coverages. One of the more obvious came when MLB Arik Smith looked to have sole responsibility for covering one of WKU’s speedy slot receivers who blew by him for an easy TD. Another obvious mistake was when a WKU receiver was left wide open for a TD in the final quarter. Clearly this is an area that should receive a lot of attention in the coming week.
Notable Performances
Our choice for Offensive MVP was a bit easier this week, but, once again, the defensive effort was spread among several players making it a tougher choice. That’s likely to be the case all season.
GBK’s Offensive MVP
Joe’s (Joseph Iacono)Pick: Christian Anderson - 5/6 passing for 77 yards; 1 TD. Ran for career-high 119 yards, no turnovers. Commanded offense superbly; made some clutch plays and great decisions in the option.
AM’s (A.M. Allan) Pick: On offense, it is hands down, Quarterback Christian Anderson, although slotback Tyrell Robinson isn't far behind him in my offensive MVP vote.
Gordon’s (Gordon Larson) Pick: Christian Anderson was my clear choice for Offensive MVP as well. Besides leading the team in rushing yards, he orchestrated the whole running game well and his efficient passing kept the WKU defense off balance. PFF doesn’t usually rate triple option quarterbacks very high, but they gave Anderson a 72.4 for the gam.
PFF’s Highest Rating: went to Tyrell Robinson with an 88.0
GBK’s Defensive MVP
AM Allan Opines: On defense, I go with Marquel Broughton. Not only on his 1st quarter INT, but the energy he brought throughout the game, although the defense was torched for an unbelievable 435 yards in the air. By the way, how can you forget that hit on the wide receiver that separated him from his helmet.
Joe chose Marquel Broughton - only had two solo tackles but did a nice job making plays in the secondary all day including a clutch INT on the first drive of the game. Also recovered 2 onside kicks in the 4th quarter (yes I know that’s special teams but still super important).
Gordon: My early choice would have been Broughton as well, but in the end I went with Julian McDuffie to add some variety. He finished 2d on the team in tackles with 5 and was a bright spot on pass defense covering some of WKUs best receivers well in the early part of the game. The pass defense suffered a bit when he left the game. I agree with Joe that Broughton’s two recoveries of onside kicks were key, but I’m not going to mix special teams performance with defense.
PFF’s Highest Rating: went to Cedrick Cunningham with a 73.4.
Other Notable Performances
• Sophomore SB Tyrell Robinson had his best rushing game of the early season with 81 yards and a TD. His attacks on the perimeter kept the WKU defense from focusing on the B-backs.
• Junior Place Kicker Cole Talley was a perfect 5 of 5 in PATs and 1 of 1 in Field Goals. Joe selected Talley as his MVP for Special Teams, and I would agree if we had an MVP category for Special Teams. But then we’d have to choose between Talley and Broughton.
• The Offensive Line performed well again with 4 OL starters among the top 6 Offense ratings by PFF for the game. Sophomore Connor Finnucane received the second highest rating from PFF with an 80.0. His classmate Jordyn Law was close behind with a 78.1, Junior Connor Bishop with a 76.3 and Senior Dean Powell 6th overall on Offense with a rating of 72.3.
• Sophomore MLB Spencer Jones led the team in Total Tackles with 6, including 1 of Army’s 3 Sacks. The focus on the air game by WKU made for a lot of tackles by the secondary.
• Junior OLB Andre Carter led the team in Sacks again with 1.5 and was third 4 Total Tackles with 4.
Next Up: Army West Point hosts UConn
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