It was just a few weeks ago that only 4 opponents remained from the original 12 teams on the 2020 football schedule for Army West Point. The Ivy League, MAC, and Patriot League conferences had all canceled fall sports as well as independents UConn and UMass. Assistant Athletic Director, Bob Beretta, had to scramble to find replacements, and the Blue Raiders of Middle Tennessee State became the first of the replacement teams Army West Point will face this season. For MTSU, Army was the third team they had scheduled to play in their opening game as the COVID pandemic created chaos with football scheduling throughout the country.

There were no MTSU fans in the stands for game day, and the only Army fans allowed were the 4000 members of the Corps of Cadets, who were tactically dispersed and socially distanced around the lower tier stands, providing the illusion of a much larger crowd. Across the way, in the section normally reserved for visiting fans, the cadets had placed photos of the Army player's friends and relatives. It was clearly not a normal football day at Michie Stadium, but it was probably the largest crowd to view a football game on this first Saturday of the season and a glorious football day at West Point.

With only three weeks to prepare for the triple option, the Blue Raiders were not expected to thwart Army West Point’s ground attack, and that turned out to be the case, as the Black Knights scored on every one of their possessions. The closest that MTSU came to stopping the ground game all day was in the second quarter when Army was faced with a 4th and 7 at the MTSU 27, and Coach Monken sent out kicker Landon Salyers to kick a 44-yard field goal. The attempt was successful, but MTSU was called for roughing the kicker, giving Army a first down and the opportunity into its third touchdown of the day rather than settle for 3 points. Two of Army’s six offensive possessions started in MTSU territory but the Black Knights also put together two long drives of 85 and 99 yards as well as two reasonably long 75 and 71-yard drives. A pick-six defensive TD by linebacker Jon Rhattigan accounted for the only other score in the game.

While we fully expected the offense to move the ball well, we were pleasantly surprised to see how well the Black Knight defense handled the Blue Raider offense led by quarterback Asher Ohara. Ohara had rushed for over 1000 yards last season and passed for over 2,000 yards. With only three weeks to prepare for the game, defensive coordinator Nate Woody fielded a swarming defense that held Ohara to 18 net yards rushing and 46 yards passing on the way to the first shut out at Michie Stadium since a 55-0 pasting of Fordham in 2011 and the first opening day shutout since Amy beat Colgate 30-0 in 1993.

The Blue Raiders squandered a golden opportunity to put points on the board at the end of the 2d quarter, on a drive that saw more changes of momentum than one would normally expect to see in an entire game. After an official review negated what appeared to be a scoop and score by defensive back Cedric Cunningham, MTSU drove the ball to a first down on the Army 2 yard line with 34 seconds left on the clock. But a mishandled snap set them back 12 yards to the Army 14, and MTSU inexplicably failed to use their two-time outs to stop the clock, allowing time to run out in the half.

Active Defense: As noted above, the defense far exceeded our expectations for the game, holding the Blue Raiders to a total of 184 yards, while shutting down their primary offensive weapon, Asher O’Hara. The Blue Raiders had only 75 yards rushing and 109 yards passing, mostly on high percentage short passes by backup QB Cunningham. MTSU converted just 3 of 9 third downs and the Black Knight defense registered 5.0 TFLs and 1 Sack.

Plus 4 in Turnovers: The team that wins the turnover battle usually wins the game as well, and Army’s defense forced 4 turnovers, all of which were converted to scores. A fifth apparent turnover was reversed on review when the reviewing official ruled that an MTSU receiver did not have possession, negating the scoop and score by Cedric Cunningham. The Black Knight aggressive tackling created four turnovers, and the Black Knight offense maintained good ball security the entire game to avoid any turnovers despite running more than twice as many plays.

Ball Control Offense: The fact that Army West Point scored on each of its 6 offensive possessions speaks for itself. In the process, they chewed up 35:29 on the game clock, limiting MTSU’s opportunities. Ten Army running backs combined for 340 yards with only two TFLs and Army converted 13 of their 15 third downs and 1 of 2 fourth downs (the other was the FG attempt).

Offensive Line Play: Many observers have attributed the decline in Army’s offensive production in 2019 to problems with the offensive line; so it was encouraging to see the improvement in the performance of the offensive line in Saturday’s game. Sophomore Connor Bishop had a solid debut at center, a position that suffered last season from having 4 different starters. Connor was flanked on each side by a group of veteran linemen who executed superbly throughout the game. Equally encouraging was the performance of the second-team offensive line that spearheaded the 99-yard touchdown drive in the third and fourth quarters.

Special Team Play: The Kickoff team did a good job of containing kick returns by the Blue Raiders. One of the game highlights was a clothesline tackle by Kemonte Yow that dropped the MTSU return man on their 12-yard line. Only one of the MTSU kick returns got past the 25. Army had only one opportunity to return a kickoff, but slotback Tyrell Robinson returned it to the 29-yard line. The PAT team was a perfect 6 for 6 and the FG team successfully converted the 44-yard attempt that was negated by the roughing call.

Too Many Penalties: We can expect a certain amount of sloppiness in the first game of the season, but the 7 penalties for 74 yards gave up nearly as many yards MTSU gained rushing in the game. As is usually the case, some penalties were more excusable than others, and we did agree with the commentators that the holding call on Julian McDuffie was somewhat suspect. The Delay of Game call on Nolan Cockrill was one that we haven’t seen before, but it’s clearly one that could have been avoided. Army had only one false start, which is not bad for the opening game.

There's nothing ugly when you win, 42-0.

It’s a bit unfair to single out individuals in what was a great team effort by all the players, but we’ll stick to our tradition of noting a few particularly good performances.

• Freshman SB Tyrell Robinson established himself as a breakout player of the 2020 season by rushing for 94 yards in 9 attempts. We were duly impressed with his speed and elusiveness in escaping tackles on the sweeps.

• Senior FB Sandon McCoy was the go-to guy at the goal line, scoring the first three touchdowns on short runs of 1, 2, and 4 yards to lead the Black Knights in scoring. McCoy finished third in rushing yards with 50 yards in 15 carries.

• Junior QB Christian Anderson did a good job of distributing the ball to the running backs, Anderson was not particularly impressive running the ball except for his 24-yard touchdown run for Army’s fourth score. That one run accounted for nearly half of his 51 rushing yards. Anderson completed 2 of his 4 pass attempts, one of which was a nifty quick pass to freshman WR Isaiah Alston for an 18 yard first down that got Army out of the hole on a third and 7 situation on the Army 18. That’s the kind of pass play we haven’t seen much of in recent years, and it was a good debut for Alston who appears poised to challenge Cam Harrison as a leading receiver.

• Sophomore QB Jemel Jones looked better than Anderson carrying the football in his season debut on the 99-yard fourth-quarter drive, and we think he’s likely to challenge Anderson for playing time. On that drive, Jones gained 33 yards in 5 carries for a 6.6 average.

• Junior safety Cedric Cunningham led the defense with 7 total tackles, including 2.0 TFLs and the only Sack of the game. Cunningham also forced a fumble and had that scoop and score that was negated by the officials.

• Senior linebacker Jon Rhattigan tied with junior Julian McDuffie for second in total tackles with 6 and scored on a 43-yard runback of an interception, displaying his residual running back skills from high school. He also had a fumble recovery. Rhattigan is another choice for breakout player in 2020. McDuffie looks to have earned himself a spot in the starting lineup with his performance. Marquell Broughton and Caleb John are two more DBs who demonstrated that they are ready for prime time.

The University of Louisiana Monroe is scheduled to travel to West Point for the second game of the season next week. ULM suspended football practices on Aug 21 in response to 9 positive test results for COVID, and they postponed their opening Sunbelt game with Troy, but as of now, we expect them to make an appearance at West Point. This could present a challenge to the health protocols established by West Point to maintain the bubble they have worked so hard to establish. As with everything else this year, we can only hope that any lingering safety issues will be resolved in time for next weeks game.