What a difference a week makes! A week ago last Saturday Army football reached an all-time low for the Monken era, when they were outplayed by one of the worst teams in the FBS. One week later Army upset the #17/25 ranked team in college football, arch-rival Air Force, making Army likely favorites to recapture the coveted Commander-in-Chief’s trophy when they face Navy next month. Army defeated to Top 25 team for the first time since 1972 and held the potent Air Force offense to its lowest production of the season.
Gloom and doom turned to euphoria for Army fans at West Point and across the world. What has been a dismal season now appears salvageable, and Offensive Coordinator Drew Thatcher and his assistants may have slipped out of the crosshairs of fans gunning for his immediate dispatch at the end of the season.
Defensive Coordinator Nate Woody and his stalwart corps of defenders redeemed themselves as well, bouncing back from what has been a lackluster season to turn in an incredible performance. Goats turned to heroes and Army fans across the world are singing On Brave Old Army team and shouting Beat Navy with great gusto this weekend.
Last Saturday’s game will rank with the 1964 and 2016 wins over Navy and top the 2017 shutout of Air Force in Colorado Springs as the most memorable games in the modern era of Army football.
The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly
In stark contrast to last week's game against UMass, the Good dominated our assessments of performance in virtually every aspect of the game, leaving little Bad and no Ugly to report.
The Good
Plus 6 in Turnover Margin: Forcing 6 takeaways while avoiding any turnovers was undoubtedly the key factor in Army’s success on Saturday. It was the most turnovers forced by Army defense since the Rice game in 2017, and it equaled the number of turnovers lost by AFA the entire season prior to this game.
Rushing Offense: From a rushing standpoint, the offensive line had one of their best games of the season, allowing the Army offense to run for 213 net yards against one of the top rushing defenses in the nation. Air Force defense has allowed a paltry 81.2 rushing yards per game and an average of less than 2.75 yards per carry. The Army RBs, led by Bryson Daily averaged 4.2 yards per rush in the game.
Rushing Defense: The Rushing Defense has been poor for most of this season, but they held the top ranked AF running game to a season low 155 yards. As Head Coach Jeff Monken noted in his post game interview, Nate Woody is one of the best defensive coordinators in the country in defending against the triple option, and the Army defenders executed his defensive plans with a performance we’ve been missing all season. The linebacker corps led by Leo Lowin, Jimmy Ciarlo, and Jackson Powell played their best game of the season.
Pass Defense: The defense limited AF to 10 completions in 24 attempts with 2 interceptions for a dismal Pass Efficiency rating of 61.4 compared to their season rating of 183.2 which ranks them 3rd in the country this season. Larrier had not been intercepted all season before Saturday’s game. He was not nearly as accurate as we’ve seen him, but the Army pass rush contributed to that as well.
Special Teams: Special teams, which had an off night against UMass last week, played a key role in the win over AF. Quinn Maretski was at his best with 3 field goals in 3 attempts to go with 2 for 2 in PATs. Cole Talley prevented AF from returning any kickoffs by booting all 5 of his kickoffs well into the end zone. Cooper Allan, who has been hot and cold all year had one of his better days punting with an average of 39 yards and a long of 52 with 1 of his 6 punts putting AF inside their own 20.
The Bad
Penalties: In what seems to defy logic, Army went from being the best team in the country at avoiding penalties to being a magnet for yellow flags in this game, dropping them from 1st to 5th in FBS ranking for Fewest Penalties this year. Army collected a season-high 11 penalties for a total of 119 yards, including what many fans regarded as rather dubious interpretations of the rules by the officials. Meanwhile, Air Force maintained their second-place ranking for fewest penalties, but their 6 penalties for 55 yards was well above their season average but allowed Michigan to overtake them in the rankings.
Passing Offense: Bryson Daily’s 4 completions in 9 attempts are not going to improve his chances for getting into the Davey Obrien competition, but at least the staff kept the ball on the ground enough to limit any ill effects, and Daily avoided throwing any passes that offered a better chance for AF defenders than for his targets to catch. In fact one of the highlight plays for the offense was the swing pass he threw to Tyrell Robinson for a 23 yard first down that deprived AF of an opportunity to play catchup in the 4th quarter. If we had a category for neutral the passing game would probably belong there. Not too bad, but not too good.
The Ugly
Nothing Ugly to report in this game
Notable Performances
Offense
Offensive MVP:
• Joe’s Pick: QB Bryson Daily - 36(!) carries for 170 yards including the 64-yard touchdown run that got it all started and another touchdown to essentially put Air Force well behind the 8-ball and give Army a 17-0 lead at the end of the first quarter. Maybe just as important, Daily took care of the football and didn’t turn it over. If open receivers weren’t there, he tucked it and ran instead of forcing bad throws.
• A.M.’s choice: If you didn't see the game, then you missed the obvious. QB Bryson Daily
• Gordon’s Pick: Daily for all the reasons Joe mentioned. His career-high 36 carries and 170 yards couldn’t have come at a better time. Monken explained why Daily got so many of the carries in the game.It was to add an extra block by the running back.
Honorable Mention: Joe says “We don’t normally do special teams but Quinn Maretzki was a clutch 3/3 on field goals that kept this game from being closer than it needed to be.” I agree. He was a major offensive weapon in the game.
Top PFF Rating on Offense: Josh Lingenfelter received a rating of 72.0 followed closely by Daily with a 71.5.
Defense
Lots to choose from in this game.
Defensive MVP:
• Joe’s Pick: LB Leo Lowin - this was the game we were all waiting for from Army’s best defensive player. Lowin had 12 total tackles (9 solo), 2 TFL’s, 1 sack, 2 forced fumbles and a fumble recovery. He was all over the field and a menace to the Falcons offense all day.
• A.M.’s Pick:.If you didn't see the game, then you missed the obvious. LB Leo Lowin, probably had the best game of his Army football career. By the way, he also almost had an INT. "Work on those hands, Leo." {smiling}.
• Gordon’s Pick: Another vote for Lowin for all the same reasons.
Honorable Mention: Bo Nicolas-Paul His career-high 2 INT’s were huge factors in the win.
Top PFF Rating on Defense: Brett Gerena received an outstanding rating of 90.6 on his 5 snaps. Among the starters, Leo Lowin had the top rating at 79.4 followed closely by Jimmy Ciarlo with a 79.0
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