September 30, 2024 • 16 mins
Welcome to the third edition of The Navy Blitz!
Today, we will break down the Mids’ convincing win over the University of Alabama-Birmingham. The offense put up another 40+ point performance, while the defense returned to form and managed to contain one of the conference's more talented quarterbacks.
We'll also take a look at Navy's offensive resurgence by the numbers. And trust me, some of what you learn will totally blow you away. So stick around! We've got a lot of ground to cover as we take a look at how the Mids avoided a trap to pick up their first road win of the season.
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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
Coming up.
In this third edition of theNavy Blitz we will break down
the mids convincing win over theUniversity of Alabama
Birmingham.
First I'll look at the historybetween the two teams, including
last year's contest, and we'llalso talk about how the Blazers
(00:36):
look so far this season.
And finally we'll get into thegame itself.
The Navy defense bounced backfrom a tough afternoon last week
against Memphis.
Defense bounced back from atough afternoon last week
against Memphis.
So we'll talk about what theydid to keep the Blazers off
balance for most of the game,and meanwhile the offense
continues its strong performance, led by junior quarterback
Blake Horvath.
Among other things, I'll pointout one aspect of the Navy wing
tee attack that has been the keyto their offensive output these
(00:56):
first four games.
So please don't go anywhere.
All right, it's great to haveyou guys with us.
Thanks so much for dropping in.
I really appreciate you takingthe time.
You know, after last week's bigwin over.
Memphis.
Navy's first road contestagainst Alabama-Birmingham had
(01:17):
all the markings of a classictrap game.
They just knocked off the teamfavored to win the conference
and in the process the offenseput up 56 points that featured
three touchdowns resulting fromexplosive plays, and it was one
of the most impressive offensiveperformances in quite a while.
But looking ahead to UAB, mysuperstitious nature was on full
alert.
I don't mind telling you that Ifelt like the Blazers were much
(01:39):
better than their record showed.
They played Arkansas tough intheir previous game and in fact
they led by 14 early in thecontest.
And even though they ended uplosing by 10, UAB showed that
they could hang with theRazorbacks for long stretches on
both sides of the ball.
It turns out that the Blazers'pass defense is pretty good.
They were ranked third in thecountry going into the Navy game
, so the Mids would definitelyhave to account for that.
But the Blazers' run defensewas a little suspect, so my
(02:10):
guess was that Coach Kronickwould look for different ways to
take advantage.
On offense, uab is led by theirquarterback, Jake Zeno.
Now, he doesn't necessarilypile up a bunch of yards, but he
is extremely accurate.
So far this year he hascompleted over 70% of his passes
and that ranks him at number 14in the country.
This is a guy who had a chanceto go to some other Power 5
schools, but he decided to stayin Birmingham and he has really
matured.
Zeno makes really gooddecisions with the ball and he
(02:31):
can run with it at any time.
The Blazers also underwent asignificant upgrade on the
offensive line by bringing inseveral transfers, so you had to
think that the passing gamewould be more of a factor than
last year, when the Mids cameaway with a 31-6 win.
Now that game, which happened tobe the first meeting between
the two teams, was closer thanthe score indicated.
The mids were hanging on to a10-6 lead entering the fourth
quarter and at the time theywere right in the middle of an
(02:51):
80-yard drive that wouldeventually chew up nearly 13
minutes of game clock.
They pushed the lead to 17-6 ona dabble for a final touchdown
and on their very nextpossession, xavier Arline scored
from 50 yards out with aboutfour minutes left.
The mid's final touchdown was adefensive score.
It came on a 97-yard pick sixby Rayuan Lane, and except for
the fact that it was 11 yardslonger than the one he had last
week.
It looked almost exactly thesame.
(03:12):
He read the quarterback's eyesand jumped the route from the
inside, and then, once he caughtit, he broke for the sidelines
and it was pretty much clearsailing from there.
So that does it for the briefhistory between the two teams.
Now let's see how the Blazershave done so far this year.
Uab got off to a 1-2 start.
They beat Alcorn State to openthe season, and then there was
this really bad loss atLouisiana- Monroe.
(03:33):
I'm not really sure whathappened there, but there wasn't
much of anything that wentright for the Blazers in that
game.
And, like I said, even thoughthey lost to Arkansas, uab did
do some things against theRazorbacks.
That really had me concerned.
And with that in the back of mymind, I remembered another
scenario where the Mids had justwon a big game and then they
came out completely flat thefollowing week against a team
they should have easily beaten,and you guys may remember this
(03:54):
too.
Back in 2010, the Mids rolledover Notre Dame 35-17, and that
game still ranks in my personaltop five of the best Navy games
I've ever watched.
In fact, I still pull up theYouTube highlights occasionally.
And then the very next week theMids lost to a very mediocre
Duke team at home.
They dug themselves a prettydeep hole thanks to the running
attack getting completely shutdown.
I swear they didn't even looklike the same team that took
(04:16):
apart the Irish.
By the time the offense woke upin the fourth quarter and
started playing, it was way toolate and they ended up losing 34
to 31.
So I'm not gonna lie, this UABgame made me a little bit
nervous, but, as we saw, I wasjust worried over nothing.
The team put together a solidperformance to move to 4-0 on
the season.
So let's take a look at how themids picked up their first win
on the road.
(04:37):
We can start with the defense.
You remember that last weekagainst Memphis, coach Newberry
was really focused on not givingup the explosive plays.
So the defense played a littlebit more conservatively,
especially when the lead reached19 points.
The bad news was that theTigers took advantage by running
the ball when the mids rushedthree and dropped eight into
coverage, and if you put thattogether with a handful of
missed tackles, that 19-pointlead got cut to five in less
(04:59):
than seven minutes.
Against the Blazers, thedefense returned to form.
Now Jake Zeno is not the kind ofguy who slings it all over the
field, even though he does havethe arm to do it.
Last week against Arkansas hewas 23 of 32 for 235 yards Good
numbers, but not necessarilyeye-popping compared to what
some college quarterbacks areputting up these days.
But Zeno did toss threetouchdowns in the process, so
(05:21):
there was no doubt he knew howto get his team into the end
zone.
Coach Volker's plan was to makeZeno feel the pressure early,
and on the Blazers' very firstpossession he was sacked by
Landon Robinson and UAB turnedit over on downs.
That's what got things rollingfor the defense.
They went on to sack Zeno twomore times, both courtesy of
Justin Reid, and on top of thatthey registered eight tackles
for a loss.
Reid got three of them andColin Ramos was right behind him
(05:43):
with two.
Rayon Lane led the team with 12tackles overall.
I think the mids' pass defensewas pretty good, just like it
was in last year's UAB game.
The longest play was a67-yarder in the fourth quarter,
and that was the result of abusted coverage.
If you take that play away,zeno was 13-21 for only 135
yards.
So I'd say that the defense waspretty successful, executing
(06:09):
Coach Volker's game plan.
Oh and, by the way, I did wantto mention that long pass that
Zeno completed in the fourthquarter.
Now, I don't know exactly whathappened on the coverage there,
but the one thing I do rememberwas Rayon Lane just getting on
his horse and running thatreceiver down from the other
side of the field and heactually punched the ball loose,
forcing a fumble, but it wentout of bounds and the Blazers
retained possession, but stillyou got to admire that kind of
Offensively.
The plan was to send a messagestarting with the very first
(06:30):
drive.
The one thing that the Mids hadnot yet done this season was
score on their very firstpossession, and it only took
them seven plays to address thatissue.
There was a pass interferencecall that got the Mids to the
UAB 25, and then, two playslater, Horvath scored from 20
yards out, making a couple ofdefenders miss along the way, to
put the Mids on the board first, and then, after forcing a UAB
(06:52):
punt, the Navy offense took overon their own 14-yard line.
Now, what I liked about thisdrive was that they took almost
eight minutes to score, and thatmakes it their longest drive of
the season in terms of time andwhen Alex Tecza scored from the
six, the Mids chalked upanother touchdown in the red
zone.
Now, if you happened to seeNavy's first offensive play last
week against Memphis, you hadto figure that their third
touchdown in Saturday's game wasbound to happen eventually.
After missing a wide-openNathan Kent in the Tigers game,
(07:15):
there was no way Horvath wasgoing to let that happen two
times in a row.
He took the snap from his own23-yard line on the second play
of the drive.
As he went back to throw he sawKent get behind his defender
and he launched a beautiful passthat traveled at least 50 yards
in the air.
Kent caught it in stride andhis sprinter speed did the rest,
because seconds later he was inthe end zone and Navy had a
21-3 lead at halftime.
(07:35):
So I think it's fair to saythat Blake Horvath more than
made up for missing Nathan Kentlast week on that pass against
Memphis.
And like I said before, horvathcan definitely make the long
throws.
It's just a matter ofconsistency and that pass he
delivered to Kent was one of thebest I've ever seen him make.
Navy's fourth touchdown of thegame was another lightning
strike on a perfectly executedscreen pass.
Horvath did a nice job sellingthe play to the right, before
(07:57):
coming back to the left with anice throw to Heidenreich.
It looked like it was going tobe just a modest gain at first,
that is until Navy guard BenPurvis basically separated the
UAB defender from his cleats.
Heidenreich proceeded to outruneverybody to the end zone,
giving the mids yet anothertouchdown on an explosive play.
Daba Fofana's 16-yard run gavethem their third of the game, so
the offense has scored at leasttwo touchdowns on explosive
(08:18):
plays in each of their firstfour contests.
It's pretty clear that with theversatility of the Wing T
offense, this group ofplaymakers can score from just
about anywhere on the field.
So let's stay with that thoughtfor a minute.
What is the biggest reason whythe Mids have been so successful
executing this offense?
I think the first thing toacknowledge is that Coach Cronic
knows the types of players hehas and he's coached them up to
(08:40):
the point where they fit thesystem really well.
But schematically, it's becausethe offense has been able to
Wing-T's main the main objective, and that is to attack the
perimeter.
The UAB game provides us with areally good example of what I
mean.
I went back through all eight ofthe Mids' possessions to find
out how many of their totalyards, either rushing or passing
, came on the perimeter.
So let me go ahead and definethat.
(09:00):
First, for the running plays,I'm referring to any gains that
happen outside the tackles.
Now there were a couple of runsby Horvath where he started to
turn up field around the midline.
If he broke it to the outside Icounted that as an attack on
the perimeter.
If he stayed between the hashmarks it wasn't included.
And for passing plays I countedanything out in the flat but
not down the sidelines, in otherwords not down the field.
(09:22):
So here are the final numbersthe mids had 452 yards of total
offense and 234 of them came ontheir perimeter.
That's just a little over half,and it was that success on the
perimeter that allowed CoachKronach to really mix things up.
The UAB defense couldn'tconsistently shut anything down
on the outside, so they alwayshad to be aware of that threat
and that allowed the offense toattack in other places.
(09:44):
If you look at Dabo Fofana's 16yard touchdown run up the
middle, it worked, partlybecause of the success the Mids
were having running to theoutside On the play.
The two snipes started inmotion to the right and two of
the UAB linebackers went withthem, leaving the middle of the
field open After the left sideof the offensive line sealed off
their guys.
Fofana only had to break onetackle once he got past the line
of scrimmage, and he did thatwith no problem.
(10:06):
So the Navy offense's abilityto get some big yards on the
perimeter really helped open upthe rest of the field.
Horvath had another efficientday throwing the ball too.
He was 9 of 11 for 225 yards,and his two best passes of the
day were the touchdown to NathanKent and the 23-yarder to
Heidenreich, where he dropped itin right over the top of a
defender from across the field,and that's what led to the Mids
last touchdown.
Before I move on to this lastpiece, I did want to share one
(10:29):
comment that Blake Horvath hadin response to something Bill
Wagner from the Capital Gazettementioned.
Wags told him that it'sbelieved to be the first time in
Navy football history that aquarterback has completed two
touchdown passes of 70 yards ormore in the same game.
You'll recall that the one toKent was for 77 yards and
Heidenreich's catch and run wentfor 74.
So here was Horvath's response,and I think it gives you a
(10:52):
pretty good idea of what thisNavy team is all about.
He said and I'm going to goahead and quote here so I don't
mess it up but he said all thecredit goes to Nathan Kent, eli
Heidenreich and the offensiveline.
When you're throwing to anOlympic caliber sprinter and
have all day to throw on thefirst one and on the second pass
, I threw it one yard to Eli andhe did the rest, with the help
of Purvis, destroying the guy.
They made my job easy.
I mean, I think the main thingwe're seeing here and I've heard
(11:15):
it in other interviews too isthat, no matter what, these
players are always passing alongthe credit to the next guy.
I mean, they realize it's goingto take all of them working
together to be successful, sothat's pretty cool to see.
Okay, I wanted to finish thingsup by sharing some numbers that
compare how this Navy team hasbeen performing so far this
season compared to last year.
Some of them are just updatesto what you may have already
(11:35):
heard me mention already, butI've also got some new metrics
that I think are really going toget your attention.
We'll start with an update onthe red zone stats and then
we'll dig a little deeper.
The mids got to the red zonethree times in the UAB game and
they scored touchdowns everysingle time.
So now they're a perfect 14 for14 in the red zone on the
season and even though there area handful of schools that have
(11:56):
had more trips inside the20-yard line, navy is the only
one to come away with atouchdown every time.
All the other teams have atleast one field goal.
But check this out those 14 redzone touchdowns the Mids have
scored in four games matches thenumber they scored all of last
year.
That's pretty wild.
And here's some more touchdownnumbers for you.
In 2023, the team scored 27touchdowns.
16 of those came on the groundand they got 10 more through the
(12:18):
year, and that last one was theRayon Lane pick six I mentioned
earlier.
Now, after four games, the Midshave already matched that
number of rushing touchdowns,and they're only two touchdown
passes away from the 10 they putup last year.
That's pretty impressive anyway you look at it.
Of course, all of this meanslots more points on the board
and as a team, navy has scored184 points through four games.
It took them 10 games to hitthat number last season.
(12:40):
Now I don't expect the team tokeep piling up points like this
the rest of the year.
They do have several toughgames left on the schedule.
But think about this for aminute After four games in 2023,
the mids were averaging 20points per contest.
Things got a little tougher asthe season wore on and they
finished the year at 17.7 pointsper game.
So how does that compare to thefirst four games of 2024?
Well, it turns out that theteam is averaging 25 points a
(13:04):
game by halftime.
Okay, by halftime.
I mean, are you kidding me?
That's just an incredibleturnaround.
Again, it's not likely that themids can keep this up when you
look at the teams they stillhave left to play.
But here's my point.
This kind of offensiveproduction means the defense
doesn't have the same kind ofpressure on them that they did
last year.
Remember, if an opponent put up20 points, the chances were
that the mids were going to windup on the wrong end of that
(13:26):
score.
They only had one win where theteam they played had more than
20 points, and that was againstNorth Texas.
Navy won that one 27-24.
Looking at the defense's getsix goal hitting that number
usually meant a win, but itwasn't a guarantee.
Last year's Memphis game is agood example.
The defense forced four threeand out possessions and got two
turnovers, but still lost byfour.
On the other hand, there wasonly one win out of the five
(13:47):
that Navy got last year wherethe defense didn't reach their
get six goal, and that wasagainst North Texas, where they
got five.
Against UAB, saturday, thedefense only got three, and that
includes the interception byJustin Ross right at the end In
the Memphis game.
Last week, the Mids got five.
So that's two consecutive gameswhere not getting six didn't
keep the team from winning.
Of course, I'd prefer to seethem exceed that number every
(14:08):
time, but as productive as thisoffense is, the chances of the
team winning without the defensegetting six are much better.
So those are just a few numbersto show you how much improved
this Navy team is over last year.
I really like the way they'vemaintained their focus and right
now the big thing is just tostay healthy.
So next week the Mids have AirForce on the road.
That's going to be a tough one,because they haven't won there
(14:28):
since 2012, when Kenan Reynoldswas a freshman.
The Falcons are 1-3 so far thisyear, but we all know that
records don't matter in rivalrygames like this.
Navy will be looking to snap afour-game losing streak and the
offense hasn't done much duringthat time, only putting up 26
points.
But this is a new year and I amconfident that Coach Cronic and
Coach Volker will come up witha game plan that will give the
team a really good shot atwinning for the first time since
(14:50):
2019.
It's just a matter of the midsgoing out there and executing it
.
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
of these games, feel free totext the show directly and I'll
share your comments on the nextpodcast.
Let's be sure to send everyounce of positive energy this
(15:15):
week to the mids as they preparefor Air Force.
Of course, that game representsthe first leg of the
Commander-in-Chief's trophy,which Navy has not won in five
years.
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.
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.
(15:36):
Talk to you soon, everybody.
Until next time.
This is Karl Darden.
Go Navy Beat Army.
Thank you.
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
Coming up.
In this third edition of theNavy Blitz we will break down
the mids convincing win over theUniversity of Alabama
Birmingham.
First I'll look at the historybetween the two teams, including
last year's contest, and we'llalso talk about how the Blazers
(00:36):
look so far this season.
And finally we'll get into thegame itself.
The Navy defense bounced backfrom a tough afternoon last week
against Memphis.
Defense bounced back from atough afternoon last week
against Memphis.
So we'll talk about what theydid to keep the Blazers off
balance for most of the game,and meanwhile the offense
continues its strong performance, led by junior quarterback
Blake Horvath.
Among other things, I'll pointout one aspect of the Navy wing
tee attack that has been the keyto their offensive output these
(00:56):
first four games.
So please don't go anywhere.
All right, it's great to haveyou guys with us.
Thanks so much for dropping in.
I really appreciate you takingthe time.
You know, after last week's bigwin over.
Memphis.
Navy's first road contestagainst Alabama-Birmingham had
(01:17):
all the markings of a classictrap game.
They just knocked off the teamfavored to win the conference
and in the process the offenseput up 56 points that featured
three touchdowns resulting fromexplosive plays, and it was one
of the most impressive offensiveperformances in quite a while.
But looking ahead to UAB, mysuperstitious nature was on full
alert.
I don't mind telling you that Ifelt like the Blazers were much
(01:39):
better than their record showed.
They played Arkansas tough intheir previous game and in fact
they led by 14 early in thecontest.
And even though they ended uplosing by 10, UAB showed that
they could hang with theRazorbacks for long stretches on
both sides of the ball.
It turns out that the Blazers'pass defense is pretty good.
They were ranked third in thecountry going into the Navy game
, so the Mids would definitelyhave to account for that.
But the Blazers' run defensewas a little suspect, so my
(02:10):
guess was that Coach Kronickwould look for different ways to
take advantage.
On offense, uab is led by theirquarterback, Jake Zeno.
Now, he doesn't necessarilypile up a bunch of yards, but he
is extremely accurate.
So far this year he hascompleted over 70% of his passes
and that ranks him at number 14in the country.
This is a guy who had a chanceto go to some other Power 5
schools, but he decided to stayin Birmingham and he has really
matured.
Zeno makes really gooddecisions with the ball and he
(02:31):
can run with it at any time.
The Blazers also underwent asignificant upgrade on the
offensive line by bringing inseveral transfers, so you had to
think that the passing gamewould be more of a factor than
last year, when the Mids cameaway with a 31-6 win.
Now that game, which happened tobe the first meeting between
the two teams, was closer thanthe score indicated.
The mids were hanging on to a10-6 lead entering the fourth
quarter and at the time theywere right in the middle of an
(02:51):
80-yard drive that wouldeventually chew up nearly 13
minutes of game clock.
They pushed the lead to 17-6 ona dabble for a final touchdown
and on their very nextpossession, xavier Arline scored
from 50 yards out with aboutfour minutes left.
The mid's final touchdown was adefensive score.
It came on a 97-yard pick sixby Rayuan Lane, and except for
the fact that it was 11 yardslonger than the one he had last
week.
It looked almost exactly thesame.
(03:12):
He read the quarterback's eyesand jumped the route from the
inside, and then, once he caughtit, he broke for the sidelines
and it was pretty much clearsailing from there.
So that does it for the briefhistory between the two teams.
Now let's see how the Blazershave done so far this year.
Uab got off to a 1-2 start.
They beat Alcorn State to openthe season, and then there was
this really bad loss atLouisiana- Monroe.
(03:33):
I'm not really sure whathappened there, but there wasn't
much of anything that wentright for the Blazers in that
game.
And, like I said, even thoughthey lost to Arkansas, uab did
do some things against theRazorbacks.
That really had me concerned.
And with that in the back of mymind, I remembered another
scenario where the Mids had justwon a big game and then they
came out completely flat thefollowing week against a team
they should have easily beaten,and you guys may remember this
(03:54):
too.
Back in 2010, the Mids rolledover Notre Dame 35-17, and that
game still ranks in my personaltop five of the best Navy games
I've ever watched.
In fact, I still pull up theYouTube highlights occasionally.
And then the very next week theMids lost to a very mediocre
Duke team at home.
They dug themselves a prettydeep hole thanks to the running
attack getting completely shutdown.
I swear they didn't even looklike the same team that took
(04:16):
apart the Irish.
By the time the offense woke upin the fourth quarter and
started playing, it was way toolate and they ended up losing 34
to 31.
So I'm not gonna lie, this UABgame made me a little bit
nervous, but, as we saw, I wasjust worried over nothing.
The team put together a solidperformance to move to 4-0 on
the season.
So let's take a look at how themids picked up their first win
on the road.
(04:37):
We can start with the defense.
You remember that last weekagainst Memphis, coach Newberry
was really focused on not givingup the explosive plays.
So the defense played a littlebit more conservatively,
especially when the lead reached19 points.
The bad news was that theTigers took advantage by running
the ball when the mids rushedthree and dropped eight into
coverage, and if you put thattogether with a handful of
missed tackles, that 19-pointlead got cut to five in less
(04:59):
than seven minutes.
Against the Blazers, thedefense returned to form.
Now Jake Zeno is not the kind ofguy who slings it all over the
field, even though he does havethe arm to do it.
Last week against Arkansas hewas 23 of 32 for 235 yards Good
numbers, but not necessarilyeye-popping compared to what
some college quarterbacks areputting up these days.
But Zeno did toss threetouchdowns in the process, so
(05:21):
there was no doubt he knew howto get his team into the end
zone.
Coach Volker's plan was to makeZeno feel the pressure early,
and on the Blazers' very firstpossession he was sacked by
Landon Robinson and UAB turnedit over on downs.
That's what got things rollingfor the defense.
They went on to sack Zeno twomore times, both courtesy of
Justin Reid, and on top of thatthey registered eight tackles
for a loss.
Reid got three of them andColin Ramos was right behind him
(05:43):
with two.
Rayon Lane led the team with 12tackles overall.
I think the mids' pass defensewas pretty good, just like it
was in last year's UAB game.
The longest play was a67-yarder in the fourth quarter,
and that was the result of abusted coverage.
If you take that play away,zeno was 13-21 for only 135
yards.
So I'd say that the defense waspretty successful, executing
(06:09):
Coach Volker's game plan.
Oh and, by the way, I did wantto mention that long pass that
Zeno completed in the fourthquarter.
Now, I don't know exactly whathappened on the coverage there,
but the one thing I do rememberwas Rayon Lane just getting on
his horse and running thatreceiver down from the other
side of the field and heactually punched the ball loose,
forcing a fumble, but it wentout of bounds and the Blazers
retained possession, but stillyou got to admire that kind of
Offensively.
The plan was to send a messagestarting with the very first
(06:30):
drive.
The one thing that the Mids hadnot yet done this season was
score on their very firstpossession, and it only took
them seven plays to address thatissue.
There was a pass interferencecall that got the Mids to the
UAB 25, and then, two playslater, Horvath scored from 20
yards out, making a couple ofdefenders miss along the way, to
put the Mids on the board first, and then, after forcing a UAB
(06:52):
punt, the Navy offense took overon their own 14-yard line.
Now, what I liked about thisdrive was that they took almost
eight minutes to score, and thatmakes it their longest drive of
the season in terms of time andwhen Alex Tecza scored from the
six, the Mids chalked upanother touchdown in the red
zone.
Now, if you happened to seeNavy's first offensive play last
week against Memphis, you hadto figure that their third
touchdown in Saturday's game wasbound to happen eventually.
After missing a wide-openNathan Kent in the Tigers game,
(07:15):
there was no way Horvath wasgoing to let that happen two
times in a row.
He took the snap from his own23-yard line on the second play
of the drive.
As he went back to throw he sawKent get behind his defender
and he launched a beautiful passthat traveled at least 50 yards
in the air.
Kent caught it in stride andhis sprinter speed did the rest,
because seconds later he was inthe end zone and Navy had a
21-3 lead at halftime.
(07:35):
So I think it's fair to saythat Blake Horvath more than
made up for missing Nathan Kentlast week on that pass against
Memphis.
And like I said before, horvathcan definitely make the long
throws.
It's just a matter ofconsistency and that pass he
delivered to Kent was one of thebest I've ever seen him make.
Navy's fourth touchdown of thegame was another lightning
strike on a perfectly executedscreen pass.
Horvath did a nice job sellingthe play to the right, before
(07:57):
coming back to the left with anice throw to Heidenreich.
It looked like it was going tobe just a modest gain at first,
that is until Navy guard BenPurvis basically separated the
UAB defender from his cleats.
Heidenreich proceeded to outruneverybody to the end zone,
giving the mids yet anothertouchdown on an explosive play.
Daba Fofana's 16-yard run gavethem their third of the game, so
the offense has scored at leasttwo touchdowns on explosive
(08:18):
plays in each of their firstfour contests.
It's pretty clear that with theversatility of the Wing T
offense, this group ofplaymakers can score from just
about anywhere on the field.
So let's stay with that thoughtfor a minute.
What is the biggest reason whythe Mids have been so successful
executing this offense?
I think the first thing toacknowledge is that Coach Cronic
knows the types of players hehas and he's coached them up to
(08:40):
the point where they fit thesystem really well.
But schematically, it's becausethe offense has been able to
Wing-T's main the main objective, and that is to attack the
perimeter.
The UAB game provides us with areally good example of what I
mean.
I went back through all eight ofthe Mids' possessions to find
out how many of their totalyards, either rushing or passing
, came on the perimeter.
So let me go ahead and definethat.
(09:00):
First, for the running plays,I'm referring to any gains that
happen outside the tackles.
Now there were a couple of runsby Horvath where he started to
turn up field around the midline.
If he broke it to the outside Icounted that as an attack on
the perimeter.
If he stayed between the hashmarks it wasn't included.
And for passing plays I countedanything out in the flat but
not down the sidelines, in otherwords not down the field.
(09:22):
So here are the final numbersthe mids had 452 yards of total
offense and 234 of them came ontheir perimeter.
That's just a little over half,and it was that success on the
perimeter that allowed CoachKronach to really mix things up.
The UAB defense couldn'tconsistently shut anything down
on the outside, so they alwayshad to be aware of that threat
and that allowed the offense toattack in other places.
(09:44):
If you look at Dabo Fofana's 16yard touchdown run up the
middle, it worked, partlybecause of the success the Mids
were having running to theoutside On the play.
The two snipes started inmotion to the right and two of
the UAB linebackers went withthem, leaving the middle of the
field open After the left sideof the offensive line sealed off
their guys.
Fofana only had to break onetackle once he got past the line
of scrimmage, and he did thatwith no problem.
(10:06):
So the Navy offense's abilityto get some big yards on the
perimeter really helped open upthe rest of the field.
Horvath had another efficientday throwing the ball too.
He was 9 of 11 for 225 yards,and his two best passes of the
day were the touchdown to NathanKent and the 23-yarder to
Heidenreich, where he dropped itin right over the top of a
defender from across the field,and that's what led to the Mids
last touchdown.
Before I move on to this lastpiece, I did want to share one
(10:29):
comment that Blake Horvath hadin response to something Bill
Wagner from the Capital Gazettementioned.
Wags told him that it'sbelieved to be the first time in
Navy football history that aquarterback has completed two
touchdown passes of 70 yards ormore in the same game.
You'll recall that the one toKent was for 77 yards and
Heidenreich's catch and run wentfor 74.
So here was Horvath's response,and I think it gives you a
(10:52):
pretty good idea of what thisNavy team is all about.
He said and I'm going to goahead and quote here so I don't
mess it up but he said all thecredit goes to Nathan Kent, eli
Heidenreich and the offensiveline.
When you're throwing to anOlympic caliber sprinter and
have all day to throw on thefirst one and on the second pass
, I threw it one yard to Eli andhe did the rest, with the help
of Purvis, destroying the guy.
They made my job easy.
I mean, I think the main thingwe're seeing here and I've heard
(11:15):
it in other interviews too isthat, no matter what, these
players are always passing alongthe credit to the next guy.
I mean, they realize it's goingto take all of them working
together to be successful, sothat's pretty cool to see.
Okay, I wanted to finish thingsup by sharing some numbers that
compare how this Navy team hasbeen performing so far this
season compared to last year.
Some of them are just updatesto what you may have already
(11:35):
heard me mention already, butI've also got some new metrics
that I think are really going toget your attention.
We'll start with an update onthe red zone stats and then
we'll dig a little deeper.
The mids got to the red zonethree times in the UAB game and
they scored touchdowns everysingle time.
So now they're a perfect 14 for14 in the red zone on the
season and even though there area handful of schools that have
(11:56):
had more trips inside the20-yard line, navy is the only
one to come away with atouchdown every time.
All the other teams have atleast one field goal.
But check this out those 14 redzone touchdowns the Mids have
scored in four games matches thenumber they scored all of last
year.
That's pretty wild.
And here's some more touchdownnumbers for you.
In 2023, the team scored 27touchdowns.
16 of those came on the groundand they got 10 more through the
(12:18):
year, and that last one was theRayon Lane pick six I mentioned
earlier.
Now, after four games, the Midshave already matched that
number of rushing touchdowns,and they're only two touchdown
passes away from the 10 they putup last year.
That's pretty impressive anyway you look at it.
Of course, all of this meanslots more points on the board
and as a team, navy has scored184 points through four games.
It took them 10 games to hitthat number last season.
(12:40):
Now I don't expect the team tokeep piling up points like this
the rest of the year.
They do have several toughgames left on the schedule.
But think about this for aminute After four games in 2023,
the mids were averaging 20points per contest.
Things got a little tougher asthe season wore on and they
finished the year at 17.7 pointsper game.
So how does that compare to thefirst four games of 2024?
Well, it turns out that theteam is averaging 25 points a
(13:04):
game by halftime.
Okay, by halftime.
I mean, are you kidding me?
That's just an incredibleturnaround.
Again, it's not likely that themids can keep this up when you
look at the teams they stillhave left to play.
But here's my point.
This kind of offensiveproduction means the defense
doesn't have the same kind ofpressure on them that they did
last year.
Remember, if an opponent put up20 points, the chances were
that the mids were going to windup on the wrong end of that
(13:26):
score.
They only had one win where theteam they played had more than
20 points, and that was againstNorth Texas.
Navy won that one 27-24.
Looking at the defense's getsix goal hitting that number
usually meant a win, but itwasn't a guarantee.
Last year's Memphis game is agood example.
The defense forced four threeand out possessions and got two
turnovers, but still lost byfour.
On the other hand, there wasonly one win out of the five
(13:47):
that Navy got last year wherethe defense didn't reach their
get six goal, and that wasagainst North Texas, where they
got five.
Against UAB, saturday, thedefense only got three, and that
includes the interception byJustin Ross right at the end In
the Memphis game.
Last week, the Mids got five.
So that's two consecutive gameswhere not getting six didn't
keep the team from winning.
Of course, I'd prefer to seethem exceed that number every
(14:08):
time, but as productive as thisoffense is, the chances of the
team winning without the defensegetting six are much better.
So those are just a few numbersto show you how much improved
this Navy team is over last year.
I really like the way they'vemaintained their focus and right
now the big thing is just tostay healthy.
So next week the Mids have AirForce on the road.
That's going to be a tough one,because they haven't won there
(14:28):
since 2012, when Kenan Reynoldswas a freshman.
The Falcons are 1-3 so far thisyear, but we all know that
records don't matter in rivalrygames like this.
Navy will be looking to snap afour-game losing streak and the
offense hasn't done much duringthat time, only putting up 26
points.
But this is a new year and I amconfident that Coach Cronic and
Coach Volker will come up witha game plan that will give the
team a really good shot atwinning for the first time since
(14:50):
2019.
It's just a matter of the midsgoing out there and executing it
.
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
of these games, feel free totext the show directly and I'll
share your comments on the nextpodcast.
Let's be sure to send everyounce of positive energy this
(15:15):
week to the mids as they preparefor Air Force.
Of course, that game representsthe first leg of the
Commander-in-Chief's trophy,which Navy has not won in five
years.
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.
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.
(15:36):
Talk to you soon, everybody.
Until next time.
This is Karl Darden.
Go Navy Beat Army.
Thank you.
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