A Huge Win on Senior Day
After the loss to Notre Dame that snapped Army’s winning streak last week, the Black Knights needed a big win in their final regular season game to seize home field advantage in the AAC Championship game next Friday. After Tulane lost to Memphis on Thursday, a win by Army would leave them as the only team undefeated in conference play, but the Roadrunners of UTSA were not going to make it an easy task for the Black Knights.
On top of everything that was hanging on the game’s outcome, it was Senior Day at Michie Stadium; but unlike previous years, it turns out that this would not be the last appearance at Michie for the 28 seniors being honored. With the win against UTSA the seniors will now get at least one more chance to play at Michie next Friday when Armyhosts Tulane in the AAC Championship game.
UTSA came into the game with a four-game winning streak that included a 48-27 win over North Texas and a 44-36 win over Memphis, two of the top teams in the AAC conference. The Roadrunners were on a roll. They had averaged 47 points in their last 4 games, and their defense was allowing opponents an average of 3.1 yards per rushing attempt this season; so we knew it would be a tough challenge.
Tough Yards against a stout UTSA Rushing Defense
A week earlier, Notre Dame provided a blueprint for a defensive plan against the Black Knight offense, and, apparently, UTSA took notes. The Roadrunners played 9 defenders within 5 yards of the line of scrimmage throughout the game, inviting Worley to call more pass plays than normal; so he did. For the first 10 games of the season Army had been averaging fewer than 8 passes a game, but on this day Bryson Daily attempted 17,completing 10 of them for 190 critical yards and a TD.
To show how important the passing game was to the win, 8 of Army’s 22 first downs came on completed passes. UTSA held Army to an average of just 3.6 yards per rushing attempt, but Army was able to average 11.2 yards per passing attempt.
UTSA was noticeably effective at stopping Army’s rushing attacks at the perimeter, and the statistics bear that out. Tyrell Robinson was held to a paltry 1.6 yards per rushing attempt, while Noah Short was held to 3.3 yards per carry, both numbers well below their season averages.
If further evidence is required as to how much emphasis UTSA put on stopping the run, consider that USTA’s leading tackler in the game was a cornerback, Syrus Dumas, who was credited with a career high 12 tackles, including 3 TFLs. Dumas had recorded just 19 total tackles, including 2 TFLs prior to Saturday’s game; so he was surely focusing on stopping the runs rather than covering receivers.
Army’s Defense Overcame Injuries to Secure the Win
As was the case in the Notre Dame game, several Army defenders came off the field with injuries during this game. Some of them made it back, but 20 Army players saw action on defense in this game, and one of the subs, junior safety Collin Matteson took advantage of the opportunity to snag his first career interception, which he returned 41 yards to set up Army’s final score of the game.
Another sub, Gavin Shields, tipped a UTSA pass at the Army 10 that Casey Larkin alertly snagged for an interception. He wisely slid to the ground after returning the ball 10 yards to the Army 20 rather than risking a potential turnover. The Army offense took over from there to run out the clock with two more plays from the victory formation.
The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly
This was a quality win in a game that could easily have gone the other way; so we saw a lot more Good than Bad, but we also saw a wee bit of Ugly in the mix.
The Good
Passing Defense: The Black Knight defense held UTSA to 17 completions in 28 attempts for 207 yards with 1 TD and 2 Interceptions for an Efficiency Rating of 120. The numbers were well below UTSA’s season average of 285 yards per game and efficiency rating of 135. The two interceptions were critical factors in the win as noted in the narrative above.
Critical Fourth Down Stop: UTSA must have felt very confident of a little desperate when they went for a conversion on 4th and 1 at their own 16 at the end of the third quarter, but Kalib Fortner and Max DiDomenico combined with others to stop the conversion attempt and the offense took advantage of the great field position to score the go-ahead touchdown on 5 plays.
Passing Offense: As noted in the narrative, Army’s success with the play action pass was the decisive factor in moving the chains. The Roadrunners dared Army to pass, and pass they did.With his 10 of 17 completions for 190 yards and no interceptions, Daily earned an efficiency rating of 171.12 for the day. The passing performance also gave notice to future offensive coordinators that they can’t focus entirely on just stopping the run. Tyrell Robinson scored his first TD of the season on the opening drive, while Casey Reynolds led the team with 4 receptions for 81 yards.
Time of Possession: Despite Army’s problem in running the ball, the offense was still able to dominate time of possession, controlling the clock for more than 2/3 of the total time with a TOP of 40:26.
Three Field Goals: Trey Gronotte has been a consistent place kicker all season long, but hasn’t been called on to kick many field goals with only 5 attempts in the previous 10 games. He was called on to attempt 4 field goals in this game and converted 3 of those 4, missing only on the long 47 yard attempt in the 4th quarter. He also converted both of the PATs he attempted to keep his perfect PAT record intact.
Three 4th Down Conversions on the Opening Drive: One can look at this in two different ways. The bad news is that the offense was faced with 3 fourth-down situations on their opening drive. The good news is that they successfully converted
The Bad
Rushing Offense: As noted in the narrative, UTSA was playing all-in against Army’s rushing attack, but the problem Army encountered moving the ball on the ground was still a bit disconcerting to say the least. In addition to the problems with attacking the perimeter we noted earlier, Army had trouble just as much trouble getting yards on the inside as well. Running back Kanye Udoh was held to just 16 yards in 7 carries and Jake Rendina was held to 4 yards in 3 carries.
The Lost Fumble: We were thinking of including this in the Ugly category, but we’ll cut Noah Short a little slack. The usually sure handed Short lost the handle on a short pitch from Daily, which might well have cost Army the game had UTSA not returned the favor a few plays later.
The Ugly
Costly Penalties: With a third down and goal at the half yard line, Tight-End David Crossan was called for a false start, dropping Army back to a much more difficult third down and goal at the five. An attempted pass to the end zone failed, and Army had to settle for 3 points instead of an almost certain touchdown. Equally egregious were the two unsportsmanlike conduct penalties called on Army, the type of penalties we never like to see. The total of 3 penalties for 34 yards would have been perfectly acceptable but for the nature of the offenses. Those are the type of mental errors that Army must avoid next Friday if it hopes to win the championship.
Bonus Edition - GBK's Joe Iacono's Post-Game Analysis
Notable Performances
Offense
Offensive MVP
• Joe’s Pick:.QB Bryson Daily was once again the difference in this one. He totaled 337 yards of offense (190 passing/147 rushing/2 TD’s rushing/1 passing). Daily is the clear team MVP for the 2024 season and should win some postseason awards.
• A.M.’s Choice: QB Bryson Daily, proved once again that he is one of most productive offensive weapons in the country. On Saturday, he was clutch in both is passing, as well as running the ball.
• Gordon’s Pick: Once again Daily, aka Captain America was the man who moved the offense. He had another 100 yard rushing performance in addition to passing for 190 yards, accountng for more than 3/4 of the total offense.
• PFF’s Top Ratings: Casey Reynolds topped the PFF ratings with an overall rating of 89.9, and Bryson Daily trailed slightly with a rating of 86.7. Liam Fortner had his first career reception, despite playing 320 snaps at WR this season. He has previously made his major contributions as a blocker.
Defense
Defensive MVP:
• Joe’s Pick: Lots to choose from here. I’m going with LB Andon Thomas who led the team with 14 total tackles and a key fumble recovery that set up a field goal. He was also part of the 4th down stop that gave the offense the short field that led to the go ahead TD in the 4th quarter. If we can give honorable mention, I’ll go with Casey Larkin who had a number of key tackles and the game-sealing INT.
• A.M.’s Pick: This is a hard one, but I am going with safety Casey Larkin, who is becoming such a clutch defender.
• Gordon’s Pick: Andon Thomas was all over the field while registering a game high 14 tackles, but the entire defense played very well in this game once again making a choice of one person problematic. I’ve noted several key contributors in the narrative,including Larkin.
• PFF’s Highest Ratings: Elo Modozie received the highest PFF rating on defense with an overall rating of 83.5. Gavin Shields finished a close second with an overall rating of 83.1 and a rating of 84.1 on Coverage. Shields played just 7 snaps.
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