September 23, 2024 • 12 mins
Welcome to the second edition of the Navy Blitz!
Today, we'll break down Navy's huge upset of the Memphis Tigers. Among other things, you will hear where and when the defense came up with the key plays to seize the advantage in the first half to put the team in a position to win in the second half.
And on offensive, we'll talk about the one key stat that has been directly responsible for the Mids getting off to a 3-0 start.
It was a terrific win. And with this game, Navy has officially served notice as a team to be taken very seriously in the American Conference.
So stick around! I think you'll find it very interesting. As always, I welcome you comments! Send us a text!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Karl (00:14):
Hi everybody.
My name is Karl Darden and I'dlike to welcome and thank all of
you for joining us today onNavy Sports Central.
I'm your host and this is theofficial podcast of the Navy
Sports Nation where we take adeeper dive into Navy sports.
In this second edition of theNavy Blitz, I'm going to give
you all my breakdown of Navy'sgame against Memphis.
We will start with a quick lookat the history between the two
teams, as well as how the Tigershave performed so far this
(00:36):
season.
From there I'll move into thegame itself, where you'll hear
the three key things that thedefense did in the first half to
give the mids a chance to winthe game.
Then I'll get into what theoffense is doing at such a high
level that has resulted in thisdramatic turnaround.
These first three games.
There's a lot to talk about, sostick with us and we'll get
started when we come back.
All right, it's great to haveyou guys with us.
(01:04):
Thanks so much for dropping in.
I really appreciate you takingthe time.
Let's go ahead and get rightinto things.
I started looking at Navy'schances to beat Memphis almost
as soon as the Temple game wasover, and even though I didn't
go so far as to think that themids would definitely pull off
an upset.
I did give them a puncher'schance for three reasons.
First of all, they had theextra time to prepare because of
(01:24):
the bye week.
That gave the offense extratime to add in another layer of
the hybrid wing T offense thathas been so productive.
Over the first two games, coachCronic could include some plays
that the mids didn't even useagainst Bucknell or Temple.
So I'm sure part of the goalwas to make sure that the
Tigers' defense would be seeingsome things for the first time.
The second reason is, eventhough Navy had lost five
straight to Memphis, theyusually played them pretty tough
(01:46):
.
Last season the offense came upjust short inside the Memphis
10-yard line on fourth down andthe Tigers were able to escape
with the win.
Finally and this is acombination of two things Navy
was playing with a ton ofconfidence at home and their
fans were well aware of howimportant this game was to their
season.
So I had to figure that thehome crowd would be an advantage
(02:08):
.
And you put that together withthe fact that the Tigers were
probably still feeling prettygood about their win over
Florida State the previous week.
I mean, who knows, maybe theyweren't focused on the mids as
well as they should have been.
So, taking all that intoaccount, this game definitely
had the makings of an upset.
Still, that was going to be apretty big hill to climb.
The Tigers were coming off a10-win season and they were
bringing back a lot of weapons.
One of them was seniorquarterback Seth Henigan, who
some people think has a prettygood chance to play in the NFL,
(02:29):
so the Navy defense was going tohave their hands full with this
guy who had beaten them threestraight times.
On defense, Memphis wasextremely quick reacting to the
ball, and they didn't waste anytime getting there either.
They created all kinds ofproblems for the Florida State
offense in that 20-12 upset win,coming up with four sacks and
12 tackles for a loss.
I mean, that's a pretty bignumber, and the Seminoles only
(02:50):
got into the end zone once.
That's what the Mids were upagainst.
So now the question is how inthe world were they able to pull
off such an incredible win?
Let's take a look and see howeverything played out.
I'm going to get into theoffensive performance in a few
minutes, but first I'd like tofocus on three things that the
defense did in the first half.
That put the team in a positionto win the game in the second
half.
(03:11):
If you watched the game, youknow that the Mids won the toss
and elected to defer, as theyusually do at home.
Unfortunately, the Memphisoffense scored in less than four
minutes to move ahead 7-0.
And then they got the ball backafter holding the Navy offense
to a three and out possession.
So here was a chance for thingsto go sideways in a hurry.
As improved as the Navy offensehad become, it wasn't going to
be easy to come back if thedefense spotted the Tigers' 14
(03:31):
first quarter points.
That didn't happen, though.
The Mids forced a three and outof their own, and the offense
went 77 yards and 10 plays totie the score.
Within the next three minutesand six seconds of game time,
each team scored again, makingit 14-all.
Both drives were highlighted byexplosive plays, which is
something that seems to bebecoming a habit with the Navy
offense this year, and it was onMemphis' next possession that
the Mids came up with anotherthree and out on defense.
(03:52):
Here was the offense's chanceto take the lead, and they made
the most of the opportunityafter Brandon Chatman took it in
from 12 yards out.
Now Navy was in a pretty goodspot.
If they could hold Memphis onemore time before the half and
get a score of their own, they'dstart to get some separation.
The offense would also get theball to start the second half
with a chance to build on thelead even more.
Anyway, the defense wasn't ableto keep the Tigers from scoring
(04:13):
, but they still accomplishedthe next best thing by keeping
them out of the end zone.
And when Horvath's three-yardTD run made it 28-17 at halftime
, the Mids had thatall-important two-score cushion,
with a chance to add to it whenthe third quarter got underway.
So the foundation for the upsetwas laid by the defense.
In the first half they forcedtwo three-and-out possessions
and the offense followed thoseup with touchdowns.
And then they held Memphis to afield goal on their last
(04:36):
possession of the first half,allowing the offense to put up
another touchdown.
And, like I said before, thiswas huge because the Tigers were
on their heels defensively, andso if the Navy offense could
score on their first possessionof the second half, Memphis
would be three scores down.
And that's exactly whathappened.
Horvath hit Chapman on thatnicely designed 46-yard TD pass
and less than four minutes intothe second half the Mids were up
(04:56):
35-17.
But anyone who's seen Memphisplay knows they can score in
bunches, and it took them lessthan two minutes to get the lead
back down to 11.
And then, after forcing a Navypunt, they marched 95 yards in
12 plays to score anothertouchdown, making the score
35-30.
So clearly Memphis made someadjustments at halftime that
were having an impact.
It was back to a one-possessiongame and now it was up to the
(05:18):
Navy offense to keep thepressure on, and they wound up
delivering.
On the very next series, Horvathcame up with another explosive
run that led to his thirdrushing touchdown and with the
score now 42-30, the Navydefense came up big again.
After Hannigan led the Tigersto the Navy 10-yard line, he
faced fourth down.
Needing two scores to win andwith less than 10 minutes to go
(05:40):
in the game, memphis had to gofor it.
There just wasn't much of achoice.
So, on the play, one of hisreceivers did briefly come open
in the end zone, but AndrewDuhart knocked away the pass and
it fell incomplete.
And then the offense took overand, in what has to be one of
the shortest drives in Navyhistory in terms of time,
horvath scored from 90 yards out, taking only 14 seconds to do
so.
But then again, this is Memphisand I don't know what you guys
were feeling when the Tigers putup those two touchdowns to make
(06:01):
the score 49-44, but I can tellyou that I was about ready to
lose my mind.
And then, when the Tigersrecovered the onside kick with
over a minute to go in all threeof their timeouts, I could
barely watch.
This had already been anemotionally taxing game for all
the players and I just sat therewondering whether or not the
defense had one more stop leftin them.
Now I did want to take a realquick minute to skip to the
(06:23):
post-game press conference, justfor some context.
Rayuan Lane was one of thedefensive players taking
questions from the reporters,along with Colin Ramos and
Andrew Duhart.
One reporter asked him aquestion relating to.
You know how he felt going backout onto the field, knowing
that you know Memphis might comedown and score again, and he
just told her look, at no timedid I think that Memphis was
going to score.
I knew that we were going tocome up with a stop Now.
(06:45):
You'll remember that it wasLane that got knocked off the
ball while he was trying torecover that onside kick.
But rather than dwell on that,he went right back to work as
the leader of the Navy secondaryand when Henigan was looking to
connect on that second and 10from the Navy 26, lane read it
all the way.
He timed his break on the ballperfectly, picked off the pass
and took it to the house to sealthe win.
So even though the defense gaveup 27 more points in the second
(07:06):
half than they did in the first, the mids got the stops when
they needed them the most.
So hats off to them for puttingthat game away when the
pressure was on.
I did want to say one last thingbefore moving on to the offense
, regarding the Navy defense'sget six strategy.
They forced those two, threeand out possessions in the first
half and then they turned theTigers over on downs in the
fourth quarter.
So that makes three, and thenLane's interception counts as
(07:28):
four.
But it was a pick six which, asfar as I'm concerned, basically
triples the point value.
So according to my math, thedefense did reach their goal.
Of course I'm half joking, butseriously I do think that pick
sixes and those scoop and scorefumble recoveries.
All right.
Really quickly, taking a lookat individual performances,
(07:50):
colin Ramos led the defense with20 tackles, including a sack
and two tackles for a loss.
Kyle Jacob had 12 tackles andJackson Campbell was right
behind him with 10.
As a team, the Mids also hadfive pass deflections.
This Navy secondary is veryexperienced, and I think we're
just beginning to see how muchof an impact they can really
have on a game.
Now let's jump over to theoffense.
(08:11):
Obviously, it was an incrediblyproductive day.
The mids rolled up 566 yards oftotal offense, and Blake
Horvath accounted for over 400of those, but I'll bet the pass
he wishes he could have overagain was the very first one of
the game.
He rolled to his right and hadNathan Kent wide open about 30
yards downfield.
Now, if Horvath puts that inthe right place, kent easily
cruises into the end zone.
(08:32):
Unfortunately, it was too highand on the wrong side, and Kent
had to twist his body aroundjust to get his hands on the
ball, and it fell incomplete.
Horvath's accuracy out to about20 yards has really improved,
but it's not quite there on someof those longer throws.
His touchdown pass toHeidenreich was much better,
though, and so was the one toChapman to open the second half.
Horvath is definitely capableof making those throws, so
(08:53):
really it's just a question ofconsistency.
But clearly Horvath is doing amasterful job running that Navy
offense.
He's making great reads in theoption game and his decision
making is quick, precise andjust about always correct.
The offensive line did anincredible job all game holding
their blocks and creating lanesfor Horvath and Tuska to pick up
some big yards.
It was just a great effort allaround.
Now, if I had to pick myfavorite touchdown of the game,
(09:16):
it would have to be Horvath's90-yard run.
Not only are long runs fun towatch, but you got a pretty good
sense for how fast he really is.
There was this Memphislinebacker who took what looked
to be a decent angle on him justafter Horvath crossed the line
of scrimmage.
But the guy totallyunderestimated Horvath's speed
and he got left in the dustDownfield.
The guy that had the best shotat him could not shed Nathan
Kent's outstanding block andthat allowed Horvath to blow
(09:37):
right past him on his way to theend zone.
Earlier I mentioned the thingsthe defense did in the first
half to put the mids in aposition to win the game and, of
course, the offense needed toclose the deal in order for that
to happen, and they did that ina big way.
Three of their touchdowns cameon explosive plays of 39, 46,
(09:59):
and 90 yards, and they convertedon the other four opportunities
that came in the red zone.
And let me just say this ifyou're looking for one single
metric that is responsible forthe mid-3-0 start, it's the
number of touchdowns scored oncethey get into the red zone.
In 2023, the offense got intothe red zone 29 times and they
scored 14 touchdowns.
That's less than a 50%conversion rate and it ranked
near the bottom of all FBS teams.
This season, the mids havegotten into the red zone 11
(10:22):
times and they've scored atouchdown on every single
occasion.
The only other team that isperfect in the red zone, scoring
only touchdowns every time, isOhio State.
Improving on those red zonenumbers from last year was a big
priority for Coach Kronick, andso far, I think it's fair to
say that the offense hasdelivered.
Another interesting metric fromthe Memphis game was time of
possession.
This is something that'sobviously still important to the
Navy offense.
It's all about moving thechains and keeping the drives
(10:43):
going.
The more they possess the ball,the better chances they have of
winning, but in this game,memphis had the ball for over 35
minutes.
They also had 11 more firstdowns, did a better job of
converting on third down andoutgained the mids by almost 100
yards.
99% of the time that wouldtranslate into a Navy loss, but
not with this offense.
The Mids have demonstrated theability to score very quickly.
(11:05):
In fact, they've producedtouchdowns on their first play
from scrimmage on five separateoccasions so far this year, and
that currently ranks first inthe FBS.
To tell you the truth, I'm noteven sure there have been many
seasons where the offense hasscored a touchdown on their
first play in a series fivetimes.
Until now, that was a stat thatreally didn't seem worth
tracking.
So here's the bottom line.
The way I see it, coach Cronicis proving himself to be an
(11:28):
excellent game planner and playcaller, and Blake Horvath
pointed that out during thepost-game press conference.
He also stated that everysingle player that got on the
field on offense did their job,and if the Mids can continue to
do that on both sides of theball, they're going to be very,
very dangerous.
That's going to do it for thisedition of the Navy Blitz.
Thank you all so much forjoining us.
Remember, if you want to getyour thoughts out there on any
(11:50):
of these games, feel free totext the show directly and I'll
share your comments on the nextpodcast.
Next week the Mids will be onthe road for the first time this
year.
They will be taking on theUniversity of Alabama-Birmingham
, a team that I think is alittle bit better than their 1-2
record.
And just a quick reminder theviews expressed on Navy Sports
Central are my own and do notreflect those of the US Naval
Academy or Navy Athletics.
(12:11):
By the way, the music used inNavy Sports Central comes to you
courtesy of Audio Jungle.
This is a great site forpurchasing the rights to use the
music from thousands of artistsaround the world, and those
featured in the podcast will becredited in our show notes.
Talk to you soon, everybody.
Until next time.
This is Karl Darden.
Go Navy Beat Army.
Hi everybody.
My name is Karl Darden and I'dlike to welcome and thank all of
you for joining us today onNavy Sports Central.
I'm your host and this is theofficial podcast of the Navy
Sports Nation where we take adeeper dive into Navy sports.
In this second edition of theNavy Blitz, I'm going to give
you all my breakdown of Navy'sgame against Memphis.
We will start with a quick lookat the history between the two
teams, as well as how the Tigershave performed so far this
(00:36):
season.
From there I'll move into thegame itself, where you'll hear
the three key things that thedefense did in the first half to
give the mids a chance to winthe game.
Then I'll get into what theoffense is doing at such a high
level that has resulted in thisdramatic turnaround.
These first three games.
There's a lot to talk about, sostick with us and we'll get
started when we come back.
All right, it's great to haveyou guys with us.
(01:04):
Thanks so much for dropping in.
I really appreciate you takingthe time.
Let's go ahead and get rightinto things.
I started looking at Navy'schances to beat Memphis almost
as soon as the Temple game wasover, and even though I didn't
go so far as to think that themids would definitely pull off
an upset.
I did give them a puncher'schance for three reasons.
First of all, they had theextra time to prepare because of
(01:24):
the bye week.
That gave the offense extratime to add in another layer of
the hybrid wing T offense thathas been so productive.
Over the first two games, coachCronic could include some plays
that the mids didn't even useagainst Bucknell or Temple.
So I'm sure part of the goalwas to make sure that the
Tigers' defense would be seeingsome things for the first time.
The second reason is, eventhough Navy had lost five
straight to Memphis, theyusually played them pretty tough
(01:46):
.
Last season the offense came upjust short inside the Memphis
10-yard line on fourth down andthe Tigers were able to escape
with the win.
Finally and this is acombination of two things Navy
was playing with a ton ofconfidence at home and their
fans were well aware of howimportant this game was to their
season.
So I had to figure that thehome crowd would be an advantage
(02:08):
.
And you put that together withthe fact that the Tigers were
probably still feeling prettygood about their win over
Florida State the previous week.
I mean, who knows, maybe theyweren't focused on the mids as
well as they should have been.
So, taking all that intoaccount, this game definitely
had the makings of an upset.
Still, that was going to be apretty big hill to climb.
The Tigers were coming off a10-win season and they were
bringing back a lot of weapons.
One of them was seniorquarterback Seth Henigan, who
some people think has a prettygood chance to play in the NFL,
(02:29):
so the Navy defense was going tohave their hands full with this
guy who had beaten them threestraight times.
On defense, Memphis wasextremely quick reacting to the
ball, and they didn't waste anytime getting there either.
They created all kinds ofproblems for the Florida State
offense in that 20-12 upset win,coming up with four sacks and
12 tackles for a loss.
I mean, that's a pretty bignumber, and the Seminoles only
(02:50):
got into the end zone once.
That's what the Mids were upagainst.
So now the question is how inthe world were they able to pull
off such an incredible win?
Let's take a look and see howeverything played out.
I'm going to get into theoffensive performance in a few
minutes, but first I'd like tofocus on three things that the
defense did in the first half.
That put the team in a positionto win the game in the second
half.
(03:11):
If you watched the game, youknow that the Mids won the toss
and elected to defer, as theyusually do at home.
Unfortunately, the Memphisoffense scored in less than four
minutes to move ahead 7-0.
And then they got the ball backafter holding the Navy offense
to a three and out possession.
So here was a chance for thingsto go sideways in a hurry.
As improved as the Navy offensehad become, it wasn't going to
be easy to come back if thedefense spotted the Tigers' 14
(03:31):
first quarter points.
That didn't happen, though.
The Mids forced a three and outof their own, and the offense
went 77 yards and 10 plays totie the score.
Within the next three minutesand six seconds of game time,
each team scored again, makingit 14-all.
Both drives were highlighted byexplosive plays, which is
something that seems to bebecoming a habit with the Navy
offense this year, and it was onMemphis' next possession that
the Mids came up with anotherthree and out on defense.
(03:52):
Here was the offense's chanceto take the lead, and they made
the most of the opportunityafter Brandon Chatman took it in
from 12 yards out.
Now Navy was in a pretty goodspot.
If they could hold Memphis onemore time before the half and
get a score of their own, they'dstart to get some separation.
The offense would also get theball to start the second half
with a chance to build on thelead even more.
Anyway, the defense wasn't ableto keep the Tigers from scoring
(04:13):
, but they still accomplishedthe next best thing by keeping
them out of the end zone.
And when Horvath's three-yardTD run made it 28-17 at halftime
, the Mids had thatall-important two-score cushion,
with a chance to add to it whenthe third quarter got underway.
So the foundation for the upsetwas laid by the defense.
In the first half they forcedtwo three-and-out possessions
and the offense followed thoseup with touchdowns.
And then they held Memphis to afield goal on their last
(04:36):
possession of the first half,allowing the offense to put up
another touchdown.
And, like I said before, thiswas huge because the Tigers were
on their heels defensively, andso if the Navy offense could
score on their first possessionof the second half, Memphis
would be three scores down.
And that's exactly whathappened.
Horvath hit Chapman on thatnicely designed 46-yard TD pass
and less than four minutes intothe second half the Mids were up
(04:56):
35-17.
But anyone who's seen Memphisplay knows they can score in
bunches, and it took them lessthan two minutes to get the lead
back down to 11.
And then, after forcing a Navypunt, they marched 95 yards in
12 plays to score anothertouchdown, making the score
35-30.
So clearly Memphis made someadjustments at halftime that
were having an impact.
It was back to a one-possessiongame and now it was up to the
(05:18):
Navy offense to keep thepressure on, and they wound up
delivering.
On the very next series, Horvathcame up with another explosive
run that led to his thirdrushing touchdown and with the
score now 42-30, the Navydefense came up big again.
After Hannigan led the Tigersto the Navy 10-yard line, he
faced fourth down.
Needing two scores to win andwith less than 10 minutes to go
(05:40):
in the game, memphis had to gofor it.
There just wasn't much of achoice.
So, on the play, one of hisreceivers did briefly come open
in the end zone, but AndrewDuhart knocked away the pass and
it fell incomplete.
And then the offense took overand, in what has to be one of
the shortest drives in Navyhistory in terms of time,
horvath scored from 90 yards out, taking only 14 seconds to do
so.
But then again, this is Memphisand I don't know what you guys
were feeling when the Tigers putup those two touchdowns to make
(06:01):
the score 49-44, but I can tellyou that I was about ready to
lose my mind.
And then, when the Tigersrecovered the onside kick with
over a minute to go in all threeof their timeouts, I could
barely watch.
This had already been anemotionally taxing game for all
the players and I just sat therewondering whether or not the
defense had one more stop leftin them.
Now I did want to take a realquick minute to skip to the
(06:23):
post-game press conference, justfor some context.
Rayuan Lane was one of thedefensive players taking
questions from the reporters,along with Colin Ramos and
Andrew Duhart.
One reporter asked him aquestion relating to.
You know how he felt going backout onto the field, knowing
that you know Memphis might comedown and score again, and he
just told her look, at no timedid I think that Memphis was
going to score.
I knew that we were going tocome up with a stop Now.
(06:45):
You'll remember that it wasLane that got knocked off the
ball while he was trying torecover that onside kick.
But rather than dwell on that,he went right back to work as
the leader of the Navy secondaryand when Henigan was looking to
connect on that second and 10from the Navy 26, lane read it
all the way.
He timed his break on the ballperfectly, picked off the pass
and took it to the house to sealthe win.
So even though the defense gaveup 27 more points in the second
(07:06):
half than they did in the first, the mids got the stops when
they needed them the most.
So hats off to them for puttingthat game away when the
pressure was on.
I did want to say one last thingbefore moving on to the offense
, regarding the Navy defense'sget six strategy.
They forced those two, threeand out possessions in the first
half and then they turned theTigers over on downs in the
fourth quarter.
So that makes three, and thenLane's interception counts as
(07:28):
four.
But it was a pick six which, asfar as I'm concerned, basically
triples the point value.
So according to my math, thedefense did reach their goal.
Of course I'm half joking, butseriously I do think that pick
sixes and those scoop and scorefumble recoveries.
All right.
Really quickly, taking a lookat individual performances,
(07:50):
colin Ramos led the defense with20 tackles, including a sack
and two tackles for a loss.
Kyle Jacob had 12 tackles andJackson Campbell was right
behind him with 10.
As a team, the Mids also hadfive pass deflections.
This Navy secondary is veryexperienced, and I think we're
just beginning to see how muchof an impact they can really
have on a game.
Now let's jump over to theoffense.
(08:11):
Obviously, it was an incrediblyproductive day.
The mids rolled up 566 yards oftotal offense, and Blake
Horvath accounted for over 400of those, but I'll bet the pass
he wishes he could have overagain was the very first one of
the game.
He rolled to his right and hadNathan Kent wide open about 30
yards downfield.
Now, if Horvath puts that inthe right place, kent easily
cruises into the end zone.
(08:32):
Unfortunately, it was too highand on the wrong side, and Kent
had to twist his body aroundjust to get his hands on the
ball, and it fell incomplete.
Horvath's accuracy out to about20 yards has really improved,
but it's not quite there on someof those longer throws.
His touchdown pass toHeidenreich was much better,
though, and so was the one toChapman to open the second half.
Horvath is definitely capableof making those throws, so
(08:53):
really it's just a question ofconsistency.
But clearly Horvath is doing amasterful job running that Navy
offense.
He's making great reads in theoption game and his decision
making is quick, precise andjust about always correct.
The offensive line did anincredible job all game holding
their blocks and creating lanesfor Horvath and Tuska to pick up
some big yards.
It was just a great effort allaround.
Now, if I had to pick myfavorite touchdown of the game,
(09:16):
it would have to be Horvath's90-yard run.
Not only are long runs fun towatch, but you got a pretty good
sense for how fast he really is.
There was this Memphislinebacker who took what looked
to be a decent angle on him justafter Horvath crossed the line
of scrimmage.
But the guy totallyunderestimated Horvath's speed
and he got left in the dustDownfield.
The guy that had the best shotat him could not shed Nathan
Kent's outstanding block andthat allowed Horvath to blow
(09:37):
right past him on his way to theend zone.
Earlier I mentioned the thingsthe defense did in the first
half to put the mids in aposition to win the game and, of
course, the offense needed toclose the deal in order for that
to happen, and they did that ina big way.
Three of their touchdowns cameon explosive plays of 39, 46,
(09:59):
and 90 yards, and they convertedon the other four opportunities
that came in the red zone.
And let me just say this ifyou're looking for one single
metric that is responsible forthe mid-3-0 start, it's the
number of touchdowns scored oncethey get into the red zone.
In 2023, the offense got intothe red zone 29 times and they
scored 14 touchdowns.
That's less than a 50%conversion rate and it ranked
near the bottom of all FBS teams.
This season, the mids havegotten into the red zone 11
(10:22):
times and they've scored atouchdown on every single
occasion.
The only other team that isperfect in the red zone, scoring
only touchdowns every time, isOhio State.
Improving on those red zonenumbers from last year was a big
priority for Coach Kronick, andso far, I think it's fair to
say that the offense hasdelivered.
Another interesting metric fromthe Memphis game was time of
possession.
This is something that'sobviously still important to the
Navy offense.
It's all about moving thechains and keeping the drives
(10:43):
going.
The more they possess the ball,the better chances they have of
winning, but in this game,memphis had the ball for over 35
minutes.
They also had 11 more firstdowns, did a better job of
converting on third down andoutgained the mids by almost 100
yards.
99% of the time that wouldtranslate into a Navy loss, but
not with this offense.
The Mids have demonstrated theability to score very quickly.
(11:05):
In fact, they've producedtouchdowns on their first play
from scrimmage on five separateoccasions so far this year, and
that currently ranks first inthe FBS.
To tell you the truth, I'm noteven sure there have been many
seasons where the offense hasscored a touchdown on their
first play in a series fivetimes.
Until now, that was a stat thatreally didn't seem worth
tracking.
So here's the bottom line.
The way I see it, coach Cronicis proving himself to be an
(11:28):
excellent game planner and playcaller, and Blake Horvath
pointed that out during thepost-game press conference.
He also stated that everysingle player that got on the
field on offense did their job,and if the Mids can continue to
do that on both sides of theball, they're going to be very,
very dangerous.
That's going to do it for thisedition of the Navy Blitz.
Thank you all so much forjoining us.
Remember, if you want to getyour thoughts out there on any
(11:50):
of these games, feel free totext the show directly and I'll
share your comments on the nextpodcast.
Next week the Mids will be onthe road for the first time this
year.
They will be taking on theUniversity of Alabama-Birmingham
, a team that I think is alittle bit better than their 1-2
record.
And just a quick reminder theviews expressed on Navy Sports
Central are my own and do notreflect those of the US Naval
Academy or Navy Athletics.
(12:11):
By the way, the music used inNavy Sports Central comes to you
courtesy of Audio Jungle.
This is a great site forpurchasing the rights to use the
music from thousands of artistsaround the world, and those
featured in the podcast will becredited in our show notes.
Talk to you soon, everybody.
Until next time.
This is Karl Darden.
Go Navy Beat Army.
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