Something that is frequently discussed among Navy fans– at least those of you unfortunate enough to have wandered onto this dark and confused slice of the internet– is the idea of a “complete game.” Navy has done a whole lot of winning over the last several years, but sometimes it seems as if one particular unit carried the others to victory. Perhaps the defense won the game in a low-scoring slugfest. Maybe the offense would win a shootout. Then again, there are games like Air Force last year where Navy’s special teams kicked four field goals and blocked two punts to lead the Mids to the win. Rare is the glorious afternoon where all three units play at the top of their respective games, making the Mids look as if they could give the Washington Redskins a run for their money. Those are the games we live for.

The corollary to that, of course, is that sometimes we’re going to see complete losses– games where something goes wrong in all three phases. Saturday’s 27-24 loss to Temple could be described in such a way. Not that you can’t point to good things on both sides of the ball. Vince Murray rushed for 115 yards. The defense finally forced a couple of turnovers. Special teams almost had a banner day, with Joe Buckley nailing his lone field goal attempt, David Wright scooping up a botched punt for a touchdown, and Craig Schaefer recovering a fumbled punt return to set up another Navy touchdown. But as they giveth, they also taketh away, and in the end the game that people remember will look a lot different from the picture painted by those superlatives.

We’ll start with special teams. Things were looking good after Wright’s touchdown gave the Mids the lead with 1:55 left in the second quarter. After a stagnant first half, a little momentum going into the break can do wonders for a team’s attitude. Any momentum gained on that play, however, was lost almost immediately. Temple’s James Nixon returned the ensuing kickoff 100 yards for a touchdown, turning a 10-7 Navy lead into a 14-10 advantage for the Owls as the teams headed into their locker rooms. Navy had only given up two shaky kickoff returns all season; one to open the Ohio State game, the other at the beginning of the game against Rice. Both were returned to about midfield. Other than that, kickoff coverage hasn’t been much of an issue. In fact, the Mids have given up 20 yards or less per return in the majority of their games thus far. Obviously, that wasn’t the case on Saturday. Temple is particularly strong on kickoff returns, having led the nation with 26.6 yards per return last year. They haven’t slowed down in 2009, ranking 6th with 28.45 yards. Navy, on the other hand, entered the game short-handed on special teams. Ricky Dobbs, Marcus Curry, and Jordan Stephens might have been the names that caught your eye on the injury list, but another pair of names probably flew under your radar: Jordan Eddington and Tra’ves Bush. Eddington and Bush happen to be the team’s two leading tacklers on kickoff coverage, and their absence was felt last week. Does that excuse giving up a 100-yard KO return? No, but it does suggest something other than a systemic problem for the coverage unit. It also demonstrates just how valuable every member of the team really is, and how you can’t take any player’s contributions for granted.

As momentum-killing as Nixon’s return was, though, the Mids were still able to fight back to take the lead at the beginning of the 4th quarter. Unfortunately, the kickoff return was only the beginning of Navy’s problems. First and foremost was the utter collapse of what had been a very stout run defense. Temple superfrosh Bernard Pierce rewrote the record book, running for 267 yards and two touchdowns. Pierce was the Temple offense. Looking back at the game preview, we got two things right. One, Vaughn Charlton’s arm isn’t going to lead anyone to the promised land. Temple’s beleaguered quarterback completed only 5 of 17 passes for 37 yards and two interceptions. That’s not the kind of stat line that usually accompanies victory. It wouldn’t have on Saturday, either, except for the other thing we got right from the preview: Navy has problems defending zone blocking schemes.

What on earth is it with zone blocking that makes it the kryptonite to what has otherwise been a super run defense this year? Shoot, why limit the scope to only this year? Navy has always had problems defending against it. I’d be lying if I said I knew the reason why, although I have a hypothesis. Take a moment, if you will, to consider THE GRAPHIC:

Yes, there it is in all of its master-of-the-obvious splendor– the weekly reminder that Navy is indeed a small team. With reliability that makes Old Faithful jealous, it appears at least once during every Navy broadcast. If you’re like me, you usually just roll your eyes whenever you see it and mumble something along the lines of  “same as every other week.” And that’s true; with the exception of the other service academies, the Mids don’t have the bulk of their opponents. While the tendency is for us to dismiss the size difference as simply business as usual, there are occasions where it might be a bit more significant– specifically, with teams that like to run the zone stretch. Lining up across from someone and pushing him backwards isn’t that easy; even smaller players can dig in and get leverage. To really be able to push them around, you need to get them moving laterally. That’s exactly what the zone stretch play does; the line moves together in one direction, while the running back runs to the hip of the playside tackle. A patient ballcarrier will be able to make a cut toward any hole in the defense that might open up. If no running lane develops, his “cut” is to keep running off tackle. As the defensive line is getting manhandled, linebackers are unable to fly to the ball the way they usually would. Doing so would open up the cutback lanes that the running back is looking for. It’s usually a moot point when the Mids take on the zone stretch anyway, since the d-line is unable to draw the double teams to keep blocks off the LBs in the first place.

Even if I’m right– and I could very easily be full of crap– it still doesn’t fully explain 267 yards. My first question was why the safeties weren’t more active in run support. Against Pitt and their freshman phenom Dion Lewis, Wyatt Middleton was second on the team with 9 tackles. Emmett Merchant and Kwesi Mitchell combined for 17 tackles against Western Kentucky, who also relied heavily on zone blocking. Against Temple, the safeties combined for only 5 tackles, and spent most of the game lined up fairly deep. That seems ridiculous when there’s a running back having a record day against you… Or does it? Perhaps the correct statement is that it seems ridiculous after a running back had a record day against you. In this case, hindsight might need to be corrected a bit to get to 20/20. While Pierce did run for 267 yards, 109 of those yards came on two plays. Temple never actually put together an extended touchdown drive; both of their TDs were on runs of 40+ yards. In fact, having the safeties play deep almost won the game for Navy, with Wyatt Middleton finding himself in position to grab two interceptions. Both of those INTs were in the second half, with one leading to a Navy touchdown while the other probably should have assured a win, coming with 6:30 left in the game. This tells me that the Mids’ defensive problems weren’t because of scheme, but rather the result of individual breakdowns on Pierce’s two big runs.

That was certainly the case with Pierce’s game-winner, a 41-yard rambler down the left sideline. Before the play, there appeared to be a bit of confusion between Tyler Simmons and Tony Haberer. After the snap, the source of that confusion was revealed– both players ended up covering the same gap. As a result, neither took the outside lane, and there were enough blockers to handle what few defenders were left out there.

A rare, but costly, mistake.

There were times when a safety was brought down in run support. Whenever Temple would line up with two tight ends and a split end on the same side of the formation, either Wyatt or Emmett would line up closer to the line of scrimmage. Temple would either try to throw deep to take advantage of 1-on-1 coverage with no safety help, or just run the other way, making the safety a non-factor in the play.

I don’t think that anyone would argue that Navy’s defense performed well on Saturday, but upon closer inspection, maybe it wasn’t quite as bad as we first thought. On the other hand, WTF 267 YARDS! There’s a finite amount of space between my ears, and if this game knocked out some fond childhood memory of my dog or Legos or something, I’m going to be really pissed.

Finally, we come to the offense. Vince Murray shouldered the load for the Mids once again, carrying the ball 33 times for 115 yards. To many fans, though, that’s not a good thing. At the beginning of the year, everyone said the problem with the Navy offense was that they weren’t getting any production out of the fullback. They said that the fullbacks were too small and couldn’t “move the pile.” That has apparently been tossed out the window. Now, the complaint is that the fullback is getting the ball too much, that Ivin Jasper is too conservative, and that this would never happen if Paul Johnson was still here.

Shouldn’t we have advanced past this point by now? Apparently “conservative” is defined as “not getting the ball to the slotbacks enough.” Sometimes I wonder what on earth people have been watching for the last eight years. Shouldn’t we all know by now how the offense works? If not the specific Xs & Os, at least the general concepts? Haven’t we been told over and over again that it’s the defense that determines who carries the ball ? Of course we have. On Saturday, the fullbacks and quarterbacks combined for 87% of Navy’s carries. That would never happen in a Paul Johnson team! Really? Against Maryland in 2005, they combined for 81% of Navy’s carries. Against Air Force that same year, it was 82%. Against UMass in 2006, it was 86%. Tulsa? 94%! In these games, was Paul Johnson being “conservative,” or do you think that maybe it was a result of what the defense was giving up?

There is a reason why Vince Murray carried the ball so many times against Temple, too. The Owls lined up with 4 men on the line of scrimmage. In doing so, they frequently left the center uncovered. Coach Jasper just gave the ball to the fullback straight up the middle. The fullback hits the hole so quickly that the guards could pass inside of the defensive tackles to get to the second level.

Maybe “conservative” means that Coach Jasper didn’t pass enough. Well, did you see Kriss Proctor’s passes? Did you really want to see more of them? Thank goodness Mario Washington was wide open on the first pass Proctor threw, because even that wasn’t exactly pretty. On the first play of the game, the corner covering Mario blitzed. The safety on the other side of the field followed the tail motion in the direction of the play. When the Mids came out to start their second drive, Coach Jasper had Mario run a crossing pattern to the area that the tail motion safety vacated. With Temple firing the corner again, nobody was around to cover him:

Proctor’s other passes were underthrown pretty badly. One actually ended up drawing a pass interference penalty. The other was intercepted.

You’d think that running up the middle on almost every play would open up the toss sweep, but it never really did. Remember, the toss sweep is sort of like a screen play; the object is to suck defenders into the backfield while getting the ball behind them and into the hands of a fast runner in space. The linebackers never lined up on the line of scrimmage, though. That, plus safeties creeping up with the knowledge that the Mids probably didn’t want to risk passing again, meant that they’d probably be able to stuff the toss.

The toss isn’t the only way to get the ball outside, though. Another way is to show a triple option look, but use the fullback as a blocker. Use the guard to block the would-be dive key, then option off of the same pitch key. After being unable to convert on a few 3rd and short-yardage situations, Coach Jasper tried this. Unfortunately, the guard couldn’t maintain his block, and the defensive end blew up the play.

Navy moved the ball well enough for most of the game. In the end, though, the inability to convert on these 3rd & 4th downs were what made all the difference. Coach Jasper tried running the quarterback sneak, but it didn’t work. He tried handing to the fullback off tackle. Didn’t work. He tried the midline. Didn’t work. He tried the triple so that the QB could read his way outside, and that didn’t work. He tried to force the ball outside on a double option, and THAT didn’t work. In every instance, there was either a bad block or a missed assignment. There wasn’t much else to try. Convert on any one of these plays, and the Mids probably win the game.

Extra Points

– Clock management has been a bit confusing to me at times this season, although I’m not nearly as critical of it as some of the things I’ve read. Most of the complaints this week have centered around the use of timeouts. Now, maybe I’m in the minority here, but I think timeouts are THAT valuable, especially in the first half. So if Coach Niumat wants to call timeout to get his team on the same page before a big 3rd down play, that sounds like a fine idea to me. In the second half, one timeout was spent when Kriss Proctor had trouble checking to the right play. That’s a good use of a timeout. Another was used when Proctor was sacked with 2:29 left in the game. Again, that’s a good time to call timeout. The second timeout was spent when as Coach Niumat tried to run down the clock before punting with 4:19 to play. That’s the only one I didn’t really like.

The problem for me wasn’t the idea that Coach Niumatalolo would let the play clock run down just to call a timeout before punting. That’s a common tactic. The only problem I had with it is that he did it with more than 4 minutes left to play. That is a LOT of time, especially in the college game. At that point, running the clock down actually hurts the Mids. With their drive starting with 4:13 remaining, Temple didn’t even need to run a hurry-up offense. If running the clock down before punting doesn’t put the other team in extremis, then there’s really no value in doing it. Think of it like basketball. If you get the ball in a tie game with about a minute left, you want to shoot the ball as soon as possible so that you’ll have time for another possession if your opponent uses the full :35 on the shot clock. It’s the same concept here.

Of course, none of the timeouts really affected the outcome of the game, so this is all just rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic.

The Temple recap is taking a while. It’s a long one.

Hey Ausiello,
Write another e-mail to
Graham Watson this week.

I regrettably direct your attention to this post on the blog, “Temple Football Forever.” It was brought to my attention earlier this week, and at the time I didn’t give it much thought. Dumb stuff posted on the internet is hardly a new phenomenon, after all, and I’m not one for blog-on-blog e-beef. That changed, though, when the guy edited his original post to include a link to a comment made here after last year’s game. If he’s going to involve my site as part of his spectacle of stupid, then it warrants a response. Contrary to the loquacious nature of most of my posts here, I’ll keep it short. (Crap, I’m failing already.)

If you’re anything like me, then your general appearance after reading such profound literature looked something like this:

I mean, it’s understandable that a Temple fan might be a tad bitter about his team’s collapse in last year’s game. But this? This is a manifesto for the maladjusted. I’m not sure what the best part is. We have:

1. The complete lack of understanding of the nature of college football scheduling, leading to tin foil hat-worthy conspiracy theories. Buyout terms are included as part of a contract, not paid when terms are violated, and are exercised fairly often. That’s no help in the quest for victimhood, though.
2. The idea that Navy, who needed the scheduling change in part to be able to play in front of 100,000 Ohio State fans, sought to change the schedule so as to avoid playing in front of 17,000 Temple fans.
3. The e-hit he puts out on some random Navy fan he apparently thinks is a fixture in Annapolis.

The Middies have a fan who blows whistles when Navy ballcarriers are seemingly stopped, yet the fan never gets kicked out of the stadium and game officials feign deafness around him.

Seriously? This is a regular occurrence? This fan sits at Navy games, looks for Navy players in distress, and blows whistles when they’re in trouble? Really? I mean, that would be awesome if it was true. That’s sort of like a superhero. That would mean that there’s a Navy fan that actually cares about the outcome of the game more than the length of TV timeouts. I hope one day to meet this person.

The pièce de résistance of the post is the author’s description of the effect this mythical superfan had on the game. Here is the play in question… Be sure to watch the whole thing, because you need to hear the ref explain the penalty flag:

OK, so let’s break down what our Lone Gunman said, and compare it to reality:

He’s the guy who blew a whistle three times while Temple defenders stopped a ballcarrier on fourth and goal, only to see the guy get off the ground and run into the end zone with the officials signaling touchdown and Temple coaches yelling, “what the fu*k?”

Let’s say there was a whistle from someone in the stands. I’m not sure if there was or not, let alone one blown three times, but we’ll go ahead and assume that there was. So who is it that got up off the ground, exactly? Eric Kettani is the fullback that received the pitch and ran it into the end zone. He was never on the ground, and was hardly even touched. Ricky Dobbs is the quarterback, but he isn’t who scored. He didn’t touch the ground either, at least not while he had the ball (more on that in a sec). This was the only 4th & goal of the game, so our esteemed blogger isn’t referring to another play. If you think he might’ve simply mixed up the down & distance, he didn’t. Here’s every play Navy ran in regulation, so you can see for yourself if you’re so inclined.

Then, we have this gem:

Temple players stopped tackling the Navy guy for fear of being called for a penalty, only to see the Navy guy score after the whistle.

I don’t get it. Did the guy get up off the ground? Or was he never down in the first place, since the Temple players stopped tackling him? Clearly the first description of this play was just made up in the dude’s head, so we’ll press on with the second. According to this guy, Temple players stopped tackling Ricky Dobbs after hearing a whistle, “for fear of being called for a penalty.” In reality, not only did they not stop, but they actually were called for a penalty! And for throwing Ricky to the ground!

Watch the video again. Can you point to anyone that looks like he heard a whistle to you? Anyone who stopped playing? Hell, Navy players have good hearing, what with all the DOD medical requirements and such. Do any Navy players looked like they stopped playing, or is it a special whistle only Temple players can hear?

To recap: nobody was ever on the ground, and not only did Temple defenders not lay off the quarterback, but they were flagged for throwing him down. Reality bites. Don’t drink and blog, kids.

DOBBS WATCH ‘09

I don’t presume to speak for all Navy fans, but if there was one thing we were all hoping at the beginning of this season, it was for an end to the weekly quarterback injury shuffle. So much for that. While Ricky Dobbs was able to participate in some light drills in practice this week, the coaches were reluctant to have him go full speed. Instead, they’re targeting next week’s trip to South Bend for Ricky’s return, which means for the second week in a row, Ivin Jasper will be tossing the keys of his offense to Kriss Proctor.

I’ve seen a lot of chatter this week about how this is a great idea, since Notre Dame is a more important game than Temple. Really? I couldn’t disagree more… Not about the part that it’s a good idea, but about to the relative importance of the two games. Notre Dame is more critical to play from a big-picture perspective, considering the financial, visibility, and recruiting benefits, but the program sees these benefits whether the team beats Notre Dame or not. Navy will probably never be favored to beat Notre Dame without a fundamental change in the framework of college football; the Irish just have a completely different kind of program. Temple, on the other hand, is more of a fair fight. Taking care of business against comparable opposition makes it possible for Navy to schedule “reach” games like Notre Dame and Ohio State without jeopardizing their annual goals of a winning season and a bowl berth. Given a choice, I’d much, much rather have Navy closer to 100% against Temple than Notre Dame. Navy isn’t the kind of team than can afford to put anything less than their best lineup on the field every week.

The question, then, is whether Ricky at 75% is better than Kriss Proctor at 100%. After the sophomore did an admirable job running the offense against Wake Forest, the answer would seem to be “no.” It’s not that Proctor played a mistake-free game, but his mistakes were of the variety that can be corrected over the course of a week– stuff like dropping back too deep on QB draws and not holding onto the damn ball. When it came to recognizing defensive alignments, checking to the right plays, and reading his keys, Proctor was fine. Not perfect, obviously, but neither is Ricky. This confidence in Kriss’ ability allows the coaches to take their time with Ricky instead of rushing him back before he’s ready, making his injury a nagging problem for the rest of the year. A repeat of the 2008 QB-go-round is something nobody wants. Dobbs will be dressed for the game, but only as an emergency backup. If a repeat of last year’s 4th-quarter masterpiece is to take place, it will be by the hand of a different artist.

Of course, one would hope that this year’s contest doesn’t come down to last-minute heroics. With both teams showing significant improvement this season, though, one can’t rule out the possibility. As a program, everything seems to finally be coming together for Temple. The Owls were once the punching bag of the Big East, compiling a record of 30-124 in the 14 years they were a member of the conference. The school was paid about $2 million per year by the Big East, thanks mostly to bowl and television revenue. The annual ballet of futility that was Temple football, without any apparent plan to improve the situation, gave Big East presidents the impression that the school was just using the conference for cash rather than making an effort to improve the overall product. Feeding that impression was the fact that Temple was the Big East’s lone football-only member, with its other sports– most notably basketball– remaining in the Atlantic 10. In an effort to consolidate money and improve the on-field product, the league’s school presidents decided that 2004 would be Temple’s last in the Big East. The problem, though, is that they made this decision in 2001. Temple head coach Bobby Wallace was now the captain of a ship without a rudder, unable to tell recruits about the long-term future of the program. Nobody wants to commit to uncertainty. To compensate, Wallace was forced to rely on players that weren’t concerned with the long term– junior college transfers. Wallace only had to sell them on two years in most cases rather than four, and could offer immediate playing time. From 2002-2005, Wallace brought in 45 JUCO transfers, more than half of the 86 total recruits he signed during that period. It worked to a limited extent; it isn’t as if the Owls were completely devoid of talent. It’s no way to build a program, though. As a group, JUCO transfers drop out of school at a higher rate than other recruits. Temple was not immune to this phenomenon, and was in fact penalized last year by the NCAA for low APR scores. On a more fundamental level, the importance of having players in your system for 4+ years cannot be understated. Navy fans have seen this first hand, not only at our own school, but in opponents like Wake Forest. Wallace resigned after the 2005 season.

Temple chose Virginia defensive coordinator Al Golden to lead the Temple football charge into its new MAC home. Golden, who became the second-youngest head football coach in Division I-A, was seen as the energetic spark that the program needed to recruit the kind of players needed to build a program. It took a few years, but it would appear that the move to a new coach and a new conference have been a success. A traditionally Midwestern league, the MAC isn’t the most natural fit geographically for Temple, and is made up of mostly rural and suburban schools that don’t look much like Temple’s downtown Philadelphia campus. What it offers, though, is a chance for the Owls to compete against athletic departments and budgets that are much more comparable to their own. After suffering through a 1-11 debacle in Golden’s first year, Temple has gradually improved each season, and now sits at 5-2 for the first time since Wayne Hardin coached the team in 1981. That record includes a 4-0 mark in the conference, putting Temple on track for a berth in the MAC championship game and the potential for the program’s first conference title since 1967, when they were still in the NCAA’s small-college division.

The Owls are led by running back Bernard Pierce. Representative of the kind of player with which Temple is trying to build their program, 6-0, 212-pound freshman is in the top 15 in the nation in rushing, averaging 109 yards per game. After struggling through season-opening losses to Villanova and Penn State, Golden decided to put the offense on Pierce’s shoulders. He responded with 116 yards on 20 carries against last year’s MAC champ, Buffalo. Temple hasn’t lost since, and extended their winning streak to 5 games with a 40-24 pounding of Toledo last week. Pierce carried the ball 40 times, gained 212 yards, and scored three touchdowns. He is the alpha and omega of the Temple offense, and stopping him will be a challenge for the Mids. It’s a challenge they’ve risen to once before. Pierce is the third-leading rusher in the country among freshmen. Leading that category is Pitt’s Dion Lewis, who the Mids were able to hold to only 79 yards. In fact, after the first drive of the game, Lewis was a non-factor. Unfortunately, quarterback Bill Stull was, completing 17 of 24 passes for 245 yards and a touchdown in leading the Panthers to a win. Navy’s game plan will undoubtedly be to force Temple QB Vaughn Charlton to do the same. After throwing for 317 yards in the loss to Villanova, Charlton hasn’t thrown nearly as much since then, averaging only 128 ypg and completing a mere 51% of his passes during the winning streak. Stopping the run and forcing the pass sounds like a good idea, but it’s a lot easier said than done. While the Mids were able to stop Lewis, Pitt’s straight-ahead, north-south running attack is a lot different from Temple’s 3-receiver, spread-out scheme that uses more zone blocking. Western Kentucky and SMU both had some success running the ball against the Mids with a similar philosophy. On the other hand, they also brought other weapons to the table; WKU with the legs of QB Kawaun Jakes, and SMU with the run & shoot passing game. For Temple, it’s Pierce or bust.

Pierce gets the headlines, but Temple’s defense is no slouch. They’re 33rd nationally, allowing a shade over 319 yards per game, and 15th against the run. Navy were able to move the ball well enough last year, gaining 293 yards on the ground and averaging 5 yards per carry. Like the Wake Forest game, Navy was hampered by a slew of little things; Temple simply prevented the big play, didn’t overpursue, and waited for the Mids to make a mistake. Usually, the offense complied. The majority of the game was spent running to the strong side of either the heavy formation or the unbalanced line, with the extra blocker helping the tackle block the middle linebacker. You’ll recall that several of Navy’s opponents that lined up in a 4-3 (Duke and Pitt, for example) liked to pinch the playside tackle to allow the MLB to get to the quarterback. Temple never really tried to, though, and it worked. Well, for 51 minutes, anyway. One wonders if Golden is confident enough with last year’s game plan to try it again. With improved play from both tackles making extra blockers less necessary in 2009, he’ll face a different look from Ivin Jasper this year.

This is a big game for both teams. For Temple, it’s simple; win, and they’re bowl-eligible, guaranteeing their first .500 or better season in a quarter century. On the cusp of their first bowl in 30 years and being in serious contention for a conference title can mean a significant boost in attendance, too, increasing revenue for a cash-strapped athletic department and putting them on the radar screen of mainstream Philadelphia sports. NO PRESSURE, GUYS. For Navy, one loss could turn into two pretty quickly with a trip to Notre Dame next week. With a 6-2 record, the Mids have a shot at a 10-win regular season; lose to Temple, and they’ll have to go through South Bend to get it. Not that beating Notre Dame is impossible, but you’d rather not have to.

Toward the end of last year as it became apparent that Navy would face Wake Forest in the Eaglebank Bowl, I kind of got the feeling that the Demon Deacons didn’t mind the matchup. There were plenty of stories in Washington and Annapolis newspapers about Navy’s efforts to avoid a rematch, even analyzing what recourse the school might have available under the terms of the bowl contract. Not so on the Wake side; everything out of Winston-Salem seemed to indicate that the Deacs were just happy to be there. That’s usually the case with rematches; the team that lost the first game always wants that shot at redemption. After Wake Forest fell to Navy at home last September, there’s no doubt that Jim Grobe’s squad was looking for exactly that. The Deacs, after all, won the ACC in 2006, finished 9-4 with a Meineke Car Care Bowl win in 2007, and came into their contest with Navy at 3-0 and ranked #16 in both polls, having taken out Florida State the week before. After struggling throughout most of its history, the program had every reason to now consider itself a regular ACC contender and top 25 team. So when Navy walked out of Groves Stadium with a win, it wasn’t just a setback to Wake; it was an embarrassment. Forget that Navy is a perennial bowl team that just beat Rutgers the week before. Serious contenders for the ACC crown aren’t supposed to lose to service academies, right? Riley Skinner apparently doesn’t think so, which is why “It’s tough to take losing to this team two years in a row.”

Wake Forest did win the rematch at RFK, 29-19. Whether they got the redemption they were seeking, though, is a matter for some debate. Navy was ahead for most of the game, and took a 19-14 lead into the 4th quarter; while Wake was the better team that day, they were not so much better as to demonstrate that the result of the first contest was a fluke. So when I read John Feinstein’s comments describing Saturday’s 13-10 Navy victory over Wake as “about one step short of miraculous,” I’m not completely sure I agree.

He’s right in a macro sense. Every once in a while we’ll see a Keenan Little-type of guy that has an offer to Wake Forest, but chooses Navy for the Aerospace Engineering. That isn’t exactly the norm, though; Navy doesn’t beat Wake Forest for very many recruits. Results over the years have reflected this, as Saturday’s win is only Navy’s third in ten tries against Wake Forest since 1991. With three starters out due to injury, including the team’s two leading rushers, history certainly did not favor the Mids. It doesn’t hurt to be reminded of this, if for no other reason than to help us savor the win that much more. On the other hand, in the limited scope of the Ken Niumatalolo era, the win becomes less of a miracle and more of an affirmation of what we already know: that Navy is a good football team.

A homecoming crowd of 31,907 passed through the gates of Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium, but only a handful remained after the monsoon started in the second quarter. Those that did witnessed yet another tremendous defensive performance. Buddy Green’s crew held Wake Forest to 308 total yards and allowed the Deacs to enter Navy territory only three times. A lot of people seem mystified that Wake was so dedicated to running the ball, but I’m not sure why. I guess it depends on your point of view. Wake fans see the game plan in the context of this season, where Riley Skinner had a string of 4 consecutive games of 280+ yards passing before being shut down against Clemson. If Skinner is the strength of this offense, they say, then why didn’t offensive coordinator Steed Lobotzke use him more? Well, because running the ball is what worked the last time. The biggest difference between Navy and Wake Forest’s first and second meetings in 2008 was Lobotzke’s shift to the ground game in the Eaglebank Bowl. The Deacs ran for 239 yards while throwing only 11 passes that day, as opposed to 43 yards rushing and 40 passes in the first meeting.

There is a template for stopping Riley Skinner. Don’t blitz; rush 3 or 4 guys, leaving one or two LBs/linemen back to cover anything that might sneak out of the backfield. Focus on covering shorter routes, and force Skinner to make a bad throw downfield. That was the plan that Buddy used in the first game, and it led to four interceptions. That’s what Clemson did to Wake Forest two weeks ago. And that’s what Navy did on Saturday:

The difference for Navy this year is that the defense is that much better against the run, thanks mostly to its veteran linebacking corps. Tony Haberer and Ross Pospisil led the charge, registering 8 tackles apiece. One could argue that the weather played a large factor as well, but if that’s the case it just makes Buddy’s game plan even better. Cover the passes that Skinner could make, don’t worry as much about the passes that the wind will knock down, and don’t leave yourself vulnerable to screen passes by blitzing. I’m sure it was frustrating for some people to watch since it seemed like Skinner had all day to throw, but there’s no arguing with results; the Wake Forest senior completed only 13 of 25 passes for 173 yards.

Navy’s offense didn’t appear to be in for a much better day, with Ricky Dobbs, Marcus Curry, and Mike Schupp all missing the game due to injury. The story of the game was supposed to be how well Kriss Proctor filled in for Ricky, but by the time the final whistle blew, Vince Murray had stolen the show. The sophomore junior fullback is a completely different player now than he was a month ago, keeping his pads down and his head up, reading the defense, and hitting the holes his blockers create for him. Murray finished the game with 27 carries for a career-best 173 yards. The offensive line also deserves a great deal of credit. Boo Robinson is one of the best defensive tackles in the country, and at 6-2, 295, he is projected to go as high as the fourth round of next year’s NFL draft. He was a non-factor in this game, as was fellow senior DT John Russell, thanks to Curtis Bass, David Hong, and Osei Asante.

One play that Murray was able to take particular advantage of was the FB trap. Usually the trap play has been run using twirl motion, but over the last few weeks Coach Jasper has run it using counter option motion.

The blocking is the same; all that has changed is the motion in the backfield. It’s been very successful. I’m not sure why the switch was made, although I have my guesses. The counter option isn’t always the most graceful of plays. It’s designed to get the ball to the perimeter, but the quarterback frequently finds himself forced back inside by linebackers that diagnose the play and aren’t fooled by the counter motion. Take a look at the first play in the video. By running the FB trap using this motion, the fullback can take advantage of the space vacated by overzealous middle linebackers. By forcing the linebacker to respect the possibility of a fullback dive, it’s eventually going to make the counter option itself more effective. In the meantime, the middle of the field has become Vince Murray’s playground.

Not to be overlooked is the welcome return of Alex Teich. Alex ripped off a 31-yard run of his own, although it was clear that he wasn’t close to running at full speed yet. Teich is already averaging 5 yards per carry for the year. As he gets healthier, Navy’s fullback tandem will be even tougher to stop.

Defensively, I was a little surprised at how Wake Forest lined up. The Deacs put four men on the line of scrimmage, with three linebackers. They almost always rotated the linebackers so that they cheated to one side of the formation. This created a numbers advantage to the opposite side, and the Mids spent most of the game running away from the cheating LB:

Sometimes it was two linemen in the count, sometimes it was a lineman and the cornerback– but always a numbers advantage. It’s not like the Wake Forest staff is unaware of how the option works; half of them came from the Air Force Academy. The only reason I can think of why they’d line up this way is that by doing so, they’d know which way the play is going to be run, giving their linebackers a head start before the play even began. I *think* this is how they lined up in the Eaglebank Bowl, but I couldn’t really tell– the television camera angle at RFK was very shallow. Regardless, without last year’s stars it wasn’t terribly effective, as the Mids pounded out 338 yards on the ground.

The Wake secondary spent most of the game in a cover 2 or cover 4, with nobody stepping up to show run support. There were a few exceptions, though, where one of the defensive backs would enter the count. When that happened, Kriss just audibled and ran the play the opposite way.

On the first play, check out the block that Jeff Battipaglia threw to spring Kriss. I suppose the best way to maintain a block is to make a guy have to climb over you. Awesome. On the second play, notice that both the corner and safety from the same side of the field are stepping up in run support. For all the talk of how much the weather might have limited Wake’s offense, it did just as much damage to Navy’s. The wide receiver is completely uncovered on that play, but the Wake staff apparently didn’t feel like Navy was ever going to put the ball in the air. And they ultimately didn’t, even though they tried to.

So if the defensive game plan was so crummy, why didn’t the Mids score more points? For starters, with two teams determined to run the ball, the clock didn’t stop much. This was a very quick game. Navy only had 10 possessions. Throw out the drives focused on running out the clock at the end of each half, and that’s 8 possessions. Navy scored on three of them, and would have scored on a fourth if it wasn’t for Proctor’s fumble inside the Wake 5. The other 4 drives ended with a bad chop block penalty, sacks, or the occasional missed read by Proctor (not that there were too many of them).

Navy is now 6-2, the team’s best start since 2004. One more win, and the Texas Bowl is secured.

Extra Points

– I’m having a hard time deciding which was more awesome: Joe Buckley’s 50-yarder, or the 41-yarder into the wind?

– Someone at CBS College Sports is listening. They did a MUCH better job with the camera work this week, avoiding the unnecessary zoom in favor of getting all 22 players into the shot as much as possible. Hope = restored. Now, about the “red zone” graphic…

As the saying goes,
Defense wins championships…
And beats Wake Forest.

Sometimes I feel guilty waiting until Friday to put out the game previews. I didn’t usually write them so late in the week over the last two years, but this season I decided to change things up. It’s mostly because I’m lazy; procrastination just comes naturally to me. Then again, there is a practical reason to wait until the last minute as well. A lot can change over the course of a week. What you thought you knew on Monday can become a pile of useless goo by Friday. Such is the case with this week’s Navy-Wake Forest game, as Navy quarterback Ricky Dobbs was unable to practice all week and will not play on Saturday. Sophomore Kriss Proctor will get the start for the Mids.

After watching Ivin Jasper have to juggle three quarterbacks in 2008, the one thing Navy fans were looking forward to this year was a little bit of stability at the position. That hope was doomed before the season even started, as a crack in Ricky’s right kneecap that appeared while he was in high school was more or less a ticking time bomb that was re-injured against SMU. Well, ”ticking time bomb” might be a bit melodramatic… Ricky did finish the game against SMU, after all. Nevertheless, he’s out this week, and maybe longer– I don’t think cracked kneecaps heal in a week. So in steps Proctor, bringing with him the dark, gray cumulonimbus of the unknown.

Well, not completely unknown. With his team up 42-7 after one drive in the second half against Rice, Coach Niumatalolo replaced Ricky with Proctor, and the offense didn’t miss a beat. Kriss finished with 82 yards and three TDs in less than one half of play, including the game’s longest run of 29 yards. Of course, all this came against Rice, which is not only a terrible team this year, but also didn’t have a very good defensive plan to take on the Navy offense. Proctor probably couldn’t have had an easier debut; on its own, there really isn’t that much we can tell about Proctor from the Rice game. Fortunately, there is context. Kriss didn’t come into the spring as the clear-cut #2 quarterback; it was a three-way battle between Proctor, Mike Stukel, and Kameron Smith. It didn’t take long for Proctor to rise to the top of the heap, though. With the advantage of having played in a similar option offense in high school, his option reads and feel for defenses came more naturally than the other two. Proctor’s high school background has led some, including Coach Jasper, to draw comparison between the last Chosen One of Navy quarterbacks, Kaipo. I’m not sure if those comments are just meant to be a confidence booster to his young sophomore, but I cringed a little when I read them. Kaipo has been described, and rightfully so, as the best option quarterback Navy’s ever had. I hope the comparison doesn’t lead to ridiculous expectations on the part of fans… Anything short of those expectations, and we end up with really annoying blog comments. And we can’t have that. With Wake Forest coming to Annapolis, let’s hope the comparison is valid– one thing Jim Grobe’s defenses have done as well as any Navy opponent is give the quarterback a variety of different reads and alignments to deal with.

If you’re sick of Wake Forest, I don’t think anyone would blame you. Familiarity breeds contempt, they say, and this will be Navy and Wake’s third meeting in a little more than a year. Navy beat then-#16 Wake in Winston-Salem last September, with the Demon Deacons winning the rematch in the Eaglebank Bowl two months later. This year’s Wake Forest team, though, is a lot different than the 2008 squad.

I’m not sure people truly realize just how good Wake Forest’s defense was last year. Four players from that defense were taken in last year’s NFL draft. Aaron Curry, who won the Butkus Award as the nation’s top linebacker, was the #4 overall selection. Curry was also the fastest linebacker at the NFL combine. The second-fastest linebacker at the combine was fellow Deac Stanley Arnoux, who was drafted in the fourth round by the Saints. Two picks earlier, the Saints took Wake Forest safety Chip Vaughn. Alphonso Smith was named a first-team All-American by the Associated Press and taken in the second round by the Denver Broncos. That’s a once-in-a-lifetime defense for most schools, and it showed. Wake Forest was 16th in total defense last year, giving up less than 297 yards and only 18 points per game while leading the nation with 37 takeaways. Not surprisingly, removing four NFL-caliber players from one defense has taken its toll. Through seven games, Wake has averaged 364 yards and 24 points per game; significant increases over a year ago. Without last year’s stud linebackers, the two leading tacklers on the team– Cyhl Quarles and Brandon Ghee– are both in the secondary.

Offensively, Wake Forest is a bit of a mystery. While teams always know what they’re going to get when they play Navy, Wake has found itself in a bit of an identity crisis for the last two years. The loss to Navy was a turning point of sorts for the 2008 squad. Up until that game, the offense was geared toward making the most of Riley Skinner’s arm. But after throwing 4 interceptions against the Mids, Jim Grobe seemed to favor the running game. In the four weeks up to and including the Navy game, Wake Forest averaged only 85 yards per game on the ground. After losing to Navy, they averaged 138 yards per game, capped off with 239 rushing yards in the rematch with the Mids. The dedication to the running game has carried over into 2009, as the Deacs actually employed wishbone and wing-T plays and formations in their season opener, a 24-21 loss to Baylor. They continued to run the ball, with 383 yards in wins over Stanford and Elon over the next two weeks. Then came Boston College. Facing a 24-10 deficit in the fourth quarter, Wake Forest started throwing again, tying the game with 11 seconds to play before falling in overtime. Skinner threw for 361 yards the following week against North Carolina State, and followed that up with 360 more yards in a win against Maryland. It appeared that Wake Forest was back to being a passing team again.

That came to a screeching halt last week at Clemson, where the senior quarterback threw for only 97 yards and two interceptions in a 38-3 blowout loss. A glimpse at the differing defensive schemes between the Terps and the Tigers might explain why. Riley Skinner has always completed a high percentage of his passes– 67% for his career, a rate he is matching in 2009. It’s an impressive statistic, but like all statistics it needs to be placed in context. The Wake Forest passing offense is one of those “extension of the running game” schemes; short, controlled passing, with plenty of screens and swing passes. When Maryland blitzed on almost every play, it played right into Wake Forest’s hands. Clemson, on the other hand, blitzed very little. They relied on their front four to get pressure on Skinner, and had one linebacker spying on the quarterback to keep him from scrambling for yardage while everyone else was in coverage. With all the short routes covered, Skinner was sacked 5 times and completed only 11 of his 24 pass attempts. Can Navy’s 4-man rush do the same thing? It’s a tall task; Clemson averages nearly 3 sacks per game compared to Navy’s 1. The end result might look very similar to the SMU game; no sacks, but just enough to keep the offense within striking distance.

Wake Forest is a small, private school– the kind of school that one would think Navy would match up well against. History, however, disagrees. Of the nine games that the two schools have played against each other since 1991, Navy has won only two of them. You can’t underestimate their talent. They’ll be especially motivated this week, since the Navy game is almost a must-win for bowl eligibility given the difficulty of the remainder of their schedule. The Deacs have lost their last 5 games on the road, but Navy is without their rocket-armed quarterback. If you know how this one’s going to turn out, you’re one step ahead of me.

“These kids are unbelievable. Just when you think they can’t one-up themselves, they pull out another big win. Our kids are very resilient. Our kids are fighters. Even when the odds are stacked against them, they continue to plug away.”

Ken Niumatalolo summed things up nicely following Saturday’s dramatic 38-35 comeback win over SMU in Dallas. The old Navy football cliche of “these kids will never give up” certainly rang true, as the Mids overcame a 21-7 halftime deficit. Vince Murray led the way on the ground with 141 yards and 2 TDs. Ricky Dobbs added 89 yards and 2 TDs of his own. Ram Vela and Tyler Simmons paced the defense with 7 tackles apiece. SMU running back Shawnbrey McNeal led the Mustangs with 131 yards rushing, while Bo Levi Mitchell completed only 19 of 41 passing attempts for 200 yards.

What would turn into a miserable first half started out well enough. The Navy defense held SMU’s run and shoot to a 3 & out on their first possession. The Mids took over at midfield, and six plays later had a 7-0 lead. On the Mustangs’ second drive they turned to their own ground game, marching 79 yards on ten plays, seven of which were running plays. Now tied at 7, the Mids started their second possession in good field position after the SMU kickoff went out of bounds. They were able to move the ball once again, driving to the SMU 27 before facing a 4th & 1. It was there that everything sort of went to hell.

Coach Niumatalolo decided to go for it, as he often does– usually successfully. Not this time, though. Ricky was stopped for no gain, and Navy turned the ball over on downs. When the offense got the ball back after an SMU punt, they were backed up to their own 11-yard line. Two straight false start penalties killed this drive, forcing Navy to punt and giving SMU the ball at midfield. Five plays later, it was 14-7 SMU. Yet another Navy penalty on the ensuing kickoff forced the Mids to start the next drive from their own 7. On the first play of the drive, Pete Fleps hit Bobby Doyle, forcing a fumble that was recovered by SMU in the end zone. It was a tie game 16 seconds earlier; now, it was 21-7 SMU.

It could have been worse. With the Mids unable to move the ball for the remainder of the second quarter, SMU’s next two drives started at the Navy 40 and their own 42, respectively. But good defense from Navy– and less than accurate passing from Bo Levi Mitchell– kept SMU from doing any more damage. Once again, the Navy defense was able to carry the load while the offense got its act together. Mercifully, the half ended.

It’s not as if SMU was doing anything unusual to stop the Navy offense. As suspected, the whole 4-man front, same-schemes-as-last-year crap was a total smokescreen. SMU came out with a 5-man front. On the first drive, they even looked a little bit like Air Force. Scheme-wise, anyway. The safeties played in a cover 2, with the playside safety stepping up in run support. At first, the pitch key also stepped into the backfield to cover the pitch.

This forced the quarterback inside, where he was met by a linebacker. That’s where SMU’s plan differed a bit. They had both inside linebackers dancing back and forth around the line of scrimmage on almost every play. Only one of them usually blitzed. The other would key on the quarterback. Coach Jasper called the counter option, with the pulling guard blocking the linebacker spying on the QB. On the first play, the WR blocks the run support safety. The playside A-back, Cory Finnerty, gets just enough of a cut on the cornerback to spring Marcus Curry. The second play in the clip is the same play, run during the doldrums of the second quarter. Here, the pulling guard misses the linebacker, and the play is blown up.

It was that kind of self-destruction that kept the Navy offense from gaining any momentum in the second quarter. The execution was much better after halftime. Here, you can see the playside tackle release outside of the give key to block the inside-out linebacker pursuit. The other inside linebacker gets caught up in traffic and can’t reach the pitch. The playside A-back blocks the run support safety. Notice in the second play how confused the pitch key looks.

As the second half progressed, the playside DE would vary between inside and outside techniques when lined up on the tackle. To counter this, Coach Jasper made a really cool blocking adjustment. He ran the triple option, but had the fullback run off tackle. The outside LB that was once the pitch key became the give key (#1), while the cornerback went unblocked as the pitch key (#2). The wide receiver would block the run support, while the playside A-back took care of linebacker pursuit.

Subtle changes and better execution helped the Mids generate 301 of their 399 yards of total offense in the second half.

Defensively, I think this was a better game than it might appear at first glance, with 35 points sitting on the scoreboard. Obviously, the defense wasn’t responsible for 7 of those points. They did give up 376 yards, but that is about average for SMU. Buddy Green’s game plan took away most of SMU’s short passing game, forcing them to either throw long– which Bo Levi Mitchell wasn’t able to do with any accuracy– or run. The Mustangs were able to run the ball a bit, thanks to Miami transfer Shawnbrey McNeal. But McNeal only had 15 carries. Consistently running the ball just isn’t what SMU’s offense was designed to do. If you’re forcing June Jones to run the ball, then you’ve won the battle.

Some stream of consciousness stuff–

– Matt Mike Walsh was dominating at nose guard against Rice, but had a much tougher go of things against a legitimate all-conference contender like SMU’s Mitch Enright. Hopefully one of the regular nose guards will be available to play against Wake Forest and their senior-laden group.

– The maturation of Vince Murray continues to happen right before our eyes. Murray’s career-high 141 yards rushing were highlighted by a 52-yard scamper in the second half off of a designed handoff. Take a lok at these plays. In the first, the playside guard was unable to lay a block on the linebacker, and the play looked like something out of the Air Force game. On the second play, the guard makes that block. With the safety keying on the motion slotback, it vacates the middle of the field, and Murray runs wild. It’s the third play that’s my favorite, though. Here, Murray keeps his head up and is able to cut back to avoid traffic and make his way to the end zone.

– The flag for a face mask was picked up at the end of Murray’s long run. Just one of several ridiculous calls by the officials on the day. After the whistle on this kickoff, an SMU player executes a throw on Bo Snelson that would be good enough to validate Judo class. The call? Personal foul on Snelson.

You’ve got to be kidding me.

– I’m fairly confident that the television broadcast was produced by the Hebron High School A/V club. Holy crap. I’ve seen better television productions of Slamball broadcasts. I can tolerate clueless homers in the booth up to a point, but when you’re cutting away from game action to show Bill the Goat in the front lean & rest, then you suck.

Another pet peeve… I own an HDTV, bought back when Navy signed their deal for home games to be shown on HDNet. The best part of owning an HDTV to me isn’t the clear picture– it’s the wide screen. It allows me to see all 11 players on each side of the ball. Now, there was obviously nothing remotely high definition about Saturday’s television coverage. Still, an unfortunate trend in football games recently, HD or not, has been to zoom in so tightly to the ball that you can’t see what is happening away from it. This wasn’t unique to this game; it has been a problem with CBS College Sports, too. There is so much more to football than just the ballcarrier. Good broadcasts try to make you feel like you’re at the game, not make you feel like you’re at the game with a telescope.

– Speaking of the horrible TV coverage, it’s time to retire another cliche. No more references to the lack of “quick strike” ability of the Navy offense, please. All 5 of Navy’s scoring drives in regulation took less than 4 minutes. The old myth of “just get up by a couple scores early on this offense and they can’t play catch-up” that people use as “analysis” gets disproven over and over again. Between Temple and Notre Dame last year, and Ohio State, Louisiana Tech, and SMU this year, Navy has shown a remarkable ability to put themselves in a position to win after falling behind. Then again, people still think this is the three-yards-and-a-cloud-of-dust wishbone. Because they’re idiots.

A tale of two halves.
The first was an epic fail.
Second? Poetry.