It’s a weird sort of pseudo-bye week for the Mids. Navy doesn’t play tomorrow. They do play a game next Wednesday, however, so the team’s regular routine was just bumped over a few days while the coaching staff went out recruiting. As the team’s schedule has moved over a bit, so has mine. The Wednesday game has left a gap in my regular rotation of recaps and previews. To fill that void, I thought that maybe we could take a look at some of the basics of Paul Johnson’s spread option.

How often do we hear Coach Johnson critique a quarterback after practice, saying something along the lines of, “He needs to learn to make the right reads?” Or when fielding a question about why electric runners like Karlos Whittaker or Shun White aren’t getting more playing time, how many times have you heard, “He’s a great runner, but he needs to learn where to go when he doesn’t have the ball?” In his press briefings on the Monday after a game, it’s not unusual to hear Coach Johnson talk about the defensive alignment that Navy’s opponent used, followed up with a comment about how the players should have known where to go since they’ve seen it before.

We hear things like this all the time. And while it’s easy to grasp the concept of carrying out an assignment, understanding the details of these assignments isn’t exactly intuitive for the fan. So let’s take a look at our bread & butter play– the triple option– as we run it in our base spread formation, and talk about what our players need to read from the defense that lines up across from them.

We’ll start by talking about the formation itself:

This is our base formation in an offense that PJ simply calls the “spread.”  It has two receivers split wide, two slot receivers (A-backs), and a fullback (B-back) lined up behind the quarterback with his feet 5 yards from the line of scrimmage.

While the base formations look the same, Paul Johnson’s offense is not a true “flexbone” offense. “Breaking the bone” is something wishbone offenses have done for decades by moving one or two running backs closer to the line of scrimmage. The “flexbone” term itself was born in the late 70s. Ken Hatfield devised his version of the wishbone offense, which he called the “Flexible Wishbone,” while serving as Florida’s offensive coordinator under Doug Dickey. By moving one or both running backs closer to the line of scrimmage, those players could be more effective in the passing game than they would be coming out of the backfield. The added threat of the pass also kept defenders from overpursuing, since that could lead to disaster by way of play action. Even as the formation evolved, though, the “flexbone” offense was still rooted in wishbone principles. That meant power running: frequently bringing in a tight end, using a fullback that was as much of a lead blocker as a runner, and running halfbacks between the tackles.

Paul Johnson’s offense is different. His goal is not to overpower the defense, but to stretch it out. The tight end is virtually nonexistant in his offense, and the slotbacks almost never run between the tackles. His plays are designed to make a defense respect both inside and outside running possibilities equally in addition to the same passing threat that comes with having two slot receivers.  To that end, the ideal fullback in this spread offense is not the same kind of player as a wishbone fullback. Instead, he should be more like a traditional tailback– a perimeter threat as well as an inside runner. Navy fans are used to the bruiser types lining up behind the quarterback the last few years, but this has been the exception rather than the norm in Paul Johnson’s career. Gerald Harris from PJ’s first stint at Georgia Southern, Roderick Russell and Adrian Peterson from PJ’s second time around at GSU, Travis Sims and Jamal Farmer at Hawaii, and Omar Nelson and Tim Cannada from his Navy OC days– none of these guys were prototypical wishbone fullbacks.  Even Kyle Eckel was used as a tailback by the Patriots on Monday night. If you have a B-back that is a true inside-outside threat, then defenses can’t stop him by clogging the middle of the field. And that’s what is at the heart of the Paul Johnson running game: opening up running space by spreading out the defense.

The base formation in the spread is balanced, which is the first step in stretching the defense. The balanced formation forces the defense to line up with a balanced look as well. By sending a slotback into tail motion just before the snap, the formation becomes unbalanced faster than the defense can adjust. This creates a numbers advantage on the side of the ball to which the play is being run. We hear that a lot– “numbers advantage.” This is the quarterback’s first read at the line of scrimmage when running the triple option.

To make the read, the quarterback assigns numbers to defenders aligned on each side of the ball. The numbers are assigned based on their position relative to the B gap. “Gaps” simply refer to the space between the offensive linemen; the A gap is between the center and guards, and the B gap is between the guard and tackle.

Numbering begins at the B gap, progressing to the outside and back. The count is to three to account for the three potential ball carriers in the triple option. Everyone else either has a blocker assigned to them or is lined up beyond 5 yards from the line of scrimmage. The first down lineman lined up on or outside the B gap is #1. The next closest player lined up outside or stacked behind #1 is #2. If there is another player outside or behind #2 and within 5 yards of the line of scrimmage, that player is #3. To illustrate this, let’s look at how Air Force frequently lined up against the Navy offense last week:

Air Force runs a base 3-4 defense. Against Navy, they brought their outside linebackers up to the line of scrimmage to present a 5-man front. On the left side of the ball in the illustration, the defensive end is the first player lined up on or outside the B gap. The outside linebacker is #2, and the cornerback, who is within 5 yards of the LOS here, is #3. On the right side of the ball, the DE and LB are #1 and #2 as well, but the safety creeping down in run support is #3. There is a 3-count to both sides. Because there is no numbers advantage, the quarterback would move on to his next read, which would be to run the play to the wide side of the field.

Numbers dictate more than just which side of the field to run the play. They also determine blocking assignments and who the quarterback’s keys are. Because of this, every player– not just the quarterback– needs to recognize the numbers. Whoever is #1 becomes the quarterback’s read key, determining whether the QB keeps the ball or gives it to the B-back. #2 becomes the quarterback’s pitch key. Those two players go unblocked. The playside A-back blocks #3.

Now, let’s take that and apply it to what we saw on Kaipo’s 78-yard TD run.

On that play, #1 played the fullback dive. Kaipo made his read, kept the ball, and moved on to his pitch key, the outside linebacker (#2). As the pitch key, #2 was also left unblocked. Instead of playing the quarterback, though, #2 went to play the fullback as well, leaving the quarterback uncovered. Kaipo read this and turned upfield. The free safety read the option and began to move forward in run support. But by the time he saw that Kaipo had the ball, it was too late. When a runner as fast as Kaipo gets a full head of steam, there’s no way that a safety will be able to see him, stop, turn around, and accelerate fast enough to catch him. 78 yards later and the crowd gets an Anchors Aweigh serenade.

Now, take a look at the way that Army is lined up in the first photograph:

Army has used a 4-4 defense against Navy every year since Paul Johnson arrived, and they’re lined up that way here. On this particular play, the corners are lined up beyond 5 yards from the line of scrimmage, and are therefore unnumbered. The middle linebacker on the left is also unnumbered because he is lined up over the guard, and therefore inside the B gap. Here, the quarterback reads a 3-count to the right and a 2-count to the left. This is a numbers advantage, and the play should be run to the left side.

#1 and #2 are again left unblocked as the quarterback’s keys. The playside A-back, though, does not have a #3 to block. His responsibility on this play is to carry out a “load” block. This means that he heads straight upfield and looks for the first unnumbered playside linebacker. If that linebacker is moving in the direction of the play, the A-back will block him. If that linebacker is moving away from the play or is playing the fullback dive, then the A-back will move on to block the safety. The wide receiver is responsible for blocking the corner.

These are the basic reads for the triple option out of our base formation. This only addressed how players evaluate the defensive alignment; once the ball is snapped, the quarterback has a whole new set of reads on his keys that he must carry out to know where the ball should go. The blocking schemes that the offensive line uses are different on plays that are run to a 2-count side than plays run to a 3-count side, which adds to the importance of the quarterback making the right call before the snap. While these are the basic blocking assignments, the coaches can tinker with them. Blocking schemes are usually at the heart of Paul Johnson’s halftime adjustments.

Confused yet? Keep in mind that this entire post was only about one play as it is run out of one formation. This barely scratched the surface. Players have a lot to learn if they want to be effective in this offense. It’s funny sometimes to hear some people call the offense simple, while others describe it as complex. They’re both right. It’s simple in the sense that on any given play, each player has a very specific job to do based on his read. It’s complicated because there are a lot of different reads to make in a lot of different situations. Either way, players need to master the mental game before they can use their physical ability.

— Navy has sold 22,634 season tickets, breaking last year’s record of 20,206. Nearly 67% of the seats at Navy-Marine Corps Stadium are occupied by season ticket holders. Pretty soon we’re going to have to stop saying that PJ is worth his weight in gold. I wonder if gold is worth its weight in PJs.

— Bill Wagner talks some more about the injuries to Deliz and Sovie.

— Wagner also scratches his curiosity itch that was caused by a comment made by Coach Johnson at one of his practice Q&As. NAPSters are populating a lot of football rosters out there. I’m not being self-serving on this one, I swear.

— Read this. Be proud.

The transcript of Paul Johnson’s Monday press conference says a lot, but there are some things that aren’t conveyed in print. A clearly agitated PJ held his practice Q&A with reporters amidst a backdrop of whistles and screaming assistant coaches conducting conditioning drills. Coach Johnson noted that he saw a whopping 62 efforts in the film of the Rutgers game. An “effort,” for the purposes of player evaluation at Navy, is a play by an individual where a coach determines that the player doesn’t go at full speed from snap to the whistle. To give you a feel for how bad a 62-effort game is, PJ says that by the end of last year the number of efforts per game was in the single digits. Compounding the problem in PJ’s mind was that this performance came against a top 25 team, which one would think would be a huge motivator. Apparently, that wasn’t the case. Not in PJ’s eyes, anyway, and he conducted his practice accordingly. It isn’t a very good time to be a Navy football player; Paul Johnson has a way of delivering a message very effectively.

Knowing this, Navy fans are probably expecting a much better performance from the Mids on Saturday. That might happen, but Navy isn’t playing in a vacuum. They have a good football team waiting for them.

Remember at the end of the trial in the movie A Time to Kill, when Jake Brigance asks the jury members to close their eyes while he tells them a story? I’m going to do the same here, only you have to keep your eyes open because you need them to read. OK, that didn’t come off as well as I thought it would… Bah, screw it.  Just pretend that you’re closing your eyes. Pretend that while your eyes are closed, I tell you about a football team. This football team is coming off of a 38-16 win against a conference opponent. They average nearly 400 yards of offense per game, including 250 through the air. They have yet to turn the ball over after two games. They are in the top 25 in total defense, giving up only 279 yards per game thus far. This team features a quarterback who is on the watch lists for both major quarterback awards, was named by The Sporting News as his conference’s preseason player of the year, and has thrown for 5 TDs and no INTs over his first two games. The team also features a wide receiver who had 210 all-purpose yards and 2 TDs in his last game. This team’s TE stands at 6-6, is on the Mackey Award watch list, and was named by The Sporting News as the 10th best TE in the nation. Can you see this team? Can you? Now this is the part where you open your eyes in shock and confusion when I tell you that this team is Ball State.

Yes, Ball State. Of course, you already knew that, since they’re next on the schedule and named at the top of this post. But you get my point. If this team was called anything other than Ball State, they’d be fairly highly regarded right now. As Navy fans, I think most of us understand that it’s tough to shake off perception after losing for so long. We know we’ve become a pretty good team, though, and we expect to win each week. Ball State fans are starting to feel the same way. And why wouldn’t they? They won 3 out of their last 4 games to end the 2006 season, with the loss coming in a very close game at Michigan. The Cardinals had a hiccup against Miami (OH) after a 56-yard punt return set up Miami’s winning TD with 17 seconds left, but they dominated Eastern Michigan. They certainly expect to be one of the better teams in the MAC this year, and have high hopes of becoming bowl-eligible for the first time since they won the conference in 1996.

I don’t want to play up statistics too much, because we all know that statistics are as much an indicator of who you’ve played as they are of how you’ve played. Anyone can cherry-pick stats to reassure themselves of their team’s greatness. Air Force fans do it all the time. But while numbers never tell the whole story, the stats I mentioned certainly don’t do anything to dismiss the observation that regardless of how good Miami and Eastern Michigan are, Ball State is playing some pretty good football right now .

On the flip side, Navy is hurting, especially defensively. Let’s pull out the ol’ stat book again. When I previewed Rutgers, I said that Buffalo “might be the worst team in I-A.” This is a team that has gone 3-20 over the last two years, so if they aren’t the worst they’re at least in the conversation. Coincidentally, Buffalo has also played the same two teams that Navy has this year in Rutgers and Temple. So how does Navy stack up to Buffalo statistically? In total defense:

61 Buffalo  352.00 ypg
69 Navy     374.50

Buffalo has given up 22 fewer yards per game. A scoring defense comparison doesn’t yield a better result:

56 Buffalo    22.5 ppg
89 Navy       30.0

That’s Buffalo, people. I don’t mean to disparage Turner Gill’s team. My point is that this is a Buffalo team that is undergoing a MAJOR rebuilding effort. At Navy, we like to think that we have advanced past that point. After two games, though, the defense hasn’t played like it, and they’re playing a Ball State team that is more than capable of taking full advantage. But that’s not all…

Q: What do you get when you take a struggling defense and remove both the team captain and the best linebacker for the rest of the season?

A: Problems. Big problems.

PJ dropped a bomb in is press briefing yesterday, and Bill Wagner reported it on his blog. Jeff Deliz and Clint Sovie are both going under the knife today and are out for the year. Now a young defense trying to turn things around has to do so without its two biggest leaders. Are you concerned yet? You should be. This is a huge game for the Navy defense. It isn’t surprising that they struggled against Rutgers and their bona fide Heisman candidate. If they turn around and struggle against Ball State though, then it starts to look like a pattern. A young squad without its leaders can lose confidence quickly, and before you know it things start spiraling downward. PJ has said that this defense has the athletic ability to be successful. Now they have to get it done between the ears.

Ball State runs to keep defenses honest. Their bread and butter is a passing game led by quarterback Nate Davis. Once again, the fate of the Navy defense is going to be determined up front. Can anyone break through the offensive line to apply some pressure? Ball State has only given up 3 sacks in their two games, but Miami and EMU were able to get enough pressure on Davis that he’s only completed 51% of his passes. If Navy can do the same, then they should have a chance to win. But with Ball State RB MiQuale Lewis averaging almost 20 yards a catch, you don’t want to have to send in too many to generate that pressure; it would leave the defense susceptible to the screen. Sometimes it seems that nothing kills Navy quite like screen passes.

Now let’s take a trip in the way-back machine and think about the 2005 Navy season. Lamar Owens struggled over the first half of the season in the passing game. After a loss to Rutgers in which Lamar threw two interceptions and was sacked 5 times, a frustrated Paul Johnson was asked how he could solve this problem. PJ replied that he would simply not throw the ball anymore, which drew some chuckles from those of us who read the transcripts from his press briefings. But PJ was serious. The next week, Navy attempted only 3 passes while rushing for 418 yards in a 49-21 rout of Tulane. Today, we have another loss to Rutgers after throwing three interceptions, and an exasperated PJ wondering why he even calls pass plays. Sound familiar? I think the game plan on offense will be a lot like that Tulane game: back to basics. Ball State was ranked 103rd in rushing defense a year ago. By the end of this game they’ll know if they’ve turned that around or not.

This is a huge game for both teams. Ball State wants to avoid a 1-2 start with games on the road at Nebraska, at Illinois, and at Indiana all left to play on their schedule. Navy is finally playing in front of the Brigade and needs to make a statement to themselves that they can bounce back after a performance that Coach Johnson called “embarrassing.” Questions get answered Saturday night.

— I’d like to give a quick tip of the cap to the “Voice of the Cardinals,” Morry Mannies. This is his 52nd year calling games for Ball State. That is about as awesome as it gets.

Well, that sucked. It was tough to watch Friday night as Rutgers took down Navy, 41-24. It’d be one thing if I felt that Navy gave their best effort and just came up short to a better team. But while Rutgers was clearly the better team, Navy’s effort was far from what it is capable of. At least I hope so.

Anyway, I’m having a hard time writing a summary of the whole thing, so I’m just going to do this in conversation form.

OK, so what happened?

I have no idea. I know what my impressions were from my chair, though. I thought the team looked intimidated. Rutgers shot themselves in the foot with penalties on their first drive, and that one punt was the last time they weren’t in control of the game. The offense came out after that and looked completely unsure of itself, something I’ve never seen in a Paul Johnson team before. They settled down eventually, but not until after they’d given Rutgers some great field position a couple of times. The defense had enough of a challenge ahead of it without the offense giving Rutgers a head start.

The offense really looked like they had mentally checked out. Delay of game penalty? Reggie catching a kickoff on the sideline & falling out of bounds? It just didn’t look like a PJ-coached team out there.

So what was wrong with the defense?

The Rutgers offensive line is what was wrong with the defense. They dominated the game, opening up huge holes for Ray Rice. Rice had almost a 3 yard gain on every play before any Navy defender even touched him. Mike Teel could have stopped to tie his shoe in the middle of a play if he wanted to. Buddy Green would send 5, 6, 7 guys in, but it didn’t matter. We couldn’t stop Rutgers when we rushed 2 guys and we couldn’t stop them when we brought 7. Losing Sovie and Deliz sure didn’t help matters.

So can the defense be fixed?

Probably not.

WTF do you mean, “probably not?”

Look, sometimes you just don’t have the horses to hang with top 15 teams. We play against bigger offensive lines all the time, and “big” doesn’t necessarily mean “good.” But Rutgers wasn’t just big, they were big and very athletic. They pushed our front seven wherever they wanted them to go.

We still missed a lot of tackles, too. You’d hope that would be one thing that’s correctable, but it hasn’t happened so far. The 2005 team also missed a lot of tackles early on, but seemed to get it together by the end of the season. Here’s hoping that history repeats itself.

So are we doomed to get pushed around the rest of the year?

No. Athletic big men are the most rare commodity in football. Not everyone has them. Over the rest of our schedule, only Pitt, Notre Dame, and Wake Forest really have the same type of linemen as Rutgers, with Rutgers being the best of the bunch. I wasn’t sure about Wake Forest, but after watching their game against Nebraska I’m convinced that we’ll have the same kind of problems with them. They were a lot more physical than I thought they’d be.

What about the secondary?

They missed tackles like everyone else, but if you don’t get any pressure on the quarterback it wouldn’t matter if your defensive backfield consisted of Darrell Green, Ronnie Lott, Mel Renfro, and Night Train Lane. Receivers will get open.

We’re scheduled to play Rutgers for a long time. Is it going to be this way for the next seven years?

No. Look at all the freshmen and sophomores we had playing on defense: Nate Frazier, Andy Lark, Kyle Bookhout, Tony Harberer, Ross Pospisil, Matt Nechak, Jesse Iwuji, Wyatt Middleton… By the end of the game we only had two seniors left on the field. The defense will get better. Maybe Ray Rice will turn pro this year too. That’ll help.

Kaipo didn’t look that great.

He sure didn’t, not that anyone else on the offense did either.

If there was one word to describe Kaipo’s performance, it’d be “tentative.” He seemed unsure of himself, which contradicts the complete confidence he shows in practice. Then again, in practice he isn’t constantly running for his life.

This might sound wishy-washy and vague, but Kaipo seems to be struggling to find his identity. Every Navy QB under PJ had a calling card. Candeto was the guy that knew the offense inside & out. Polanco was the big-play guy, especially with his arm. Lamar Owens was the super-quick guy. Brian Hampton was the quarterback who ran like a fullback. Kaipo is…? He certainly has the most straight-ahead speed of the bunch, but only rarely does he really have a chance to show it. He is physically bigger than last year, putting on 10-15 pounds of muscle, but doesn’t seem to have figured out how to apply that strength and run with any power.

Not to mention the interceptions.  

Yeah, they were bad. I don’t think they were all the result of bad decisions, though. The first one was the result of an ridiculously athletic defensive play; if Josh Meek can make that block, the DE is in no position to react to the ball. That play– the quick hitter to the slot– is all about timing, and Kaipo has no choice there but to count on that block being made. He can’t wait to make sure that the DE was cut down. Any QB probably would’ve thrown an INT there. The second interception looked like Kaipo was trying to throw it away, and the ball slipped. The third interception was the worst. It looked like Reggie was open there for a second, but Kaipo held on to the ball too long which gave the defender time to close and make the play. That one hurt. Holding onto the ball too long was something Kaipo did against Temple a couple of times, too. If PJ passes again all year (which isn’t a given the way he sounded in the postgame press conference), that will be something they work on.

Also, does anyone else think that maybe Kaipo has small hands? Is that why his throwing motion is a little awkward? To compensate for not being able to grip the ball well? Just a thought.

So why don’t we sit Kaipo down to give him time to look for that “identity” and bigger hands?

Let’s not be crazy. It was one loss, and it came to a top 15 team. Kaipo had a bad game, but he won’t be the last quarterback to have a bad game against Rutgers this year. Besides, nobody else on offense played well either. You don’t want to bench the whole team, do you?

The problem with being a quarterback is that everyone else’s mistakes end up making you look bad. Missed blocks? QB gets crunched. Can’t get open? QB can’t complete a pass. It all reflects on the QB, whether it’s his fault or not. Yes, Kaipo made his fair share of mistakes too. But there are 22 guys on the field. It doesn’t all boil down to the quarterback. It’d be no different if Jarod Bryant was in the game. You’d just have a different QB in there running for his life.

If you say so. So were the refs as bad as they were against Temple?

Can a blogger be fined by the ACC? No comment.

So what now?

Well, there’s good news and bad news.

I’m a Navy fan, so I *heart* pain. What’s the bad news? 

The bad news is that opposing coaches have a lot of film to look at to help them figure out how to beat the Navy offense.

Then what’s the good news?

The good news is that none of those opposing coaches coach Rutgers, and if they try what Rutgers did they’ll get crushed. This game was so frustrating to watch because Rutgers played a lot of the game in a straight man-to-man defense. With this offense, you PRAY that the defense lines up in man-to-man. When that happens, you motion the slot one way to get his man to follow, then run the play the opposite way. Pull a guard to take care of the extra man and give you a numbers advantage, and you should have only one guy left to cover both the quarterback and the pitch. PJ did just that, but Rutgers was so fast that most of the time the pulling lineman never got to his man. That, and Rutgers did an excellent job shedding cuts the entire game, allowing them to run to the ball. All the Stanford fans who whined about cut blocks two years ago should have watched this game.

What’s the bottom line?

The bottom line is that Navy has now played the best team on its schedule. They fought back from a bad start to make it a game again, but made mistakes and ultimately lost.

If we’re going to beat a top 25 team, it’s going to have to be a complete game. The offense can’t turn the ball over. The defense needs to force punts once in a while so that the offense doesn’t have to be perfect. While nobody left on the schedule is as good as Rutgers, there are still some good teams left to play. We’ll have some more chances to get it right.

The Cleveland Clinic has this to say about the condition known as dissociative amnesia:

Dissociative amnesia occurs when a person blocks out certain information, usually associated with a stressful or traumatic event, leaving him or her unable to remember important personal information. With this disorder, the degree of memory loss goes beyond normal forgetfulness and includes gaps in memory for long periods of time or of memories involving the traumatic event.

Because of this affliction, some of you might not remember that Navy actually played Rutgers last year. The 34-0 thumping at the hands of the Scarlet Knights could certainly be classified as a “traumatic event.” Brian Hampton almost lost his leg, Rutgers blocked two punts, and their defense held the Navy offense to only 113 yards rushing. Navy crossed midfield once, getting all the way to the Rutgers 41 in the second quarter. Navy’s longest running play was 20 yards, and it came from a linebacker on a fake punt. So, to state the obvious, Navy’s offense had a bad day. It was clear that after Brian Hampton was hurt, the offense had the life knocked out of it. Nobody knows if Navy would have won the game if Brian was able to play, but I think it’s safe to say that Navy would have at least played a whole lot better. Greg Schiano’s defensive gameplan at that point was to simply blitz the living hell out of Kaipo, and it worked pretty well on the wide-eyed sophomore backup.

Lost in the abject misery of that game is that Navy’s defense actually played pretty well. They held Ray Rice to less than 100 yards rushing and forced three turnovers. Yes, Rutgers scored 34 points, but that was in large part because they got tremendous field position from a lack of Navy offense and two blocked punts. Rutgers scored six times, but the average length of their scoring drives was only 37 yards. Their average starting field position in the game was their own 49 yard line. The Navy defense held Rutgers to 10 points in the first half, but by the end of the game was just worn out from being on the field so much.

The largest crowd in Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium history turned out to see last year’s game. I’m not sure how many will show up on Friday, but with the demand for Rutgers tickets lately I’m sure the crowd will also be large, loud, and lively. The game that crowd will see, though, will be a lot different than last year’s Category 5 suck storm.

If you watched Rutgers’ game against Buffalo, you might not agree with me. Yes, Buffalo might be the worst team in I-A, but there was no denying that Rutgers looked good anyway. Ray Rice picked up where he left off last year, running for 184 yards and three touchdowns. Easily the best running back Navy will face this year, Rice looked like the poster boy for a “Don’t let arm tackles happen to you” campaign. As dominant as he was, though, Rice didn’t have the most impressive game. That honor belonged to wide receiver Tiquan Underwood, who did his best Lance Alworth imitation by rolling up 221 receiving yards on 9 catches– in the first half. Underwood had 10 of QB Mike Teel’s 16 completions. Teel has made tremendous progress himself. The junior was a different player over the last three games of 2006. Over the first ten games of the year, Teel threw for 7 touchdowns and 12 interceptions while completing only 52% of his passes. Against Syracuse, West Virginia, and Kansas State, he completed 65% of his passes with 5 touchdowns and no interceptions. After throwing for another 328 yards against Buffalo, it looks like Mike Teel hasn’t lost a step from his impressive Texas Bowl performance.

The one thing that struck me about the Rutgers passing game against Buffalo was that out of Teel’s 16 completions, none were to a tight end and only two went to Ray Rice out of the backfield. That’s not the Rutgers offense we’ve seen the last few years with TE Clark Harris and FB Brian Leonard. Navy’s defensive gameplan against Rutgers back then was simple: stop the run, and prevent the long pass play. They did a decent job of both. The problem in those games, though, was that having the defensive backs sit back and prevent the long ball meant that linebackers were often left responsible to cover Harris and Leonard one-on-one underneath. Those two guys were a tough matchup for any linebacker, not just Navy’s, and it showed; Leonard had over 100 all-purpose yards in the 2005 game, while Harris had 5 catches for 63 yards last year. It isn’t always a good idea to read too much into one game, but it seemed that Rutgers’ offense was a lot different against Buffalo without those two players.

Navy’s gameplan this year will be the same. Without Harris and Leonard, the defense actually matches up better against Rutgers in 2007 than in years past. However, matchups don’t mean a thing without execution. Navy missed 28 tackles against Temple. A performance like that against Rutgers will turn the game into a Ray Rice for Heisman infomercial. Was that the real Navy defense we saw last week, or can their mistakes be corrected? If the Navy defense is to have any chance at all in this game, it has to be the latter. Stopping Rice is one key. The other is putting pressure on Mike Teel. Teel showed over the last three games of 2006 that he can’t be counted on to make mistakes on his own anymore. Not coincidentally, Teel wasn’t sacked in any of those games either. Navy’s defense needs to force Teel into making bad decisions; given enough time, Tiquan Underwood and Kenny Britt will get themselves open.

It’s a tall order, and I’m not completely sure it’s one that Navy will be able to fill. I think Navy’s defense will improve on last week’s effort, but Ray Rice will make you pay for even a few missed tackles. And while the defensive line looked pretty good against an underrated Temple offensive line, Navy lost its best pass-rushing linebacker in recent memory to graduation. Who’s going to fill that role? That question wasn’t answered last week. It’ll have to be if Navy expects to keep the Rutgers offense in check.

On defense, Rutgers has a reputation for being fast and aggressive. They lived up to that reputation against Buffalo. They might have lived up to it a little too well; their aggression bordered on recklessness, as demonstrated by the defense’s four offside penalties. Recklessness might be something you can get away with against Buffalo, but if Rutgers plays that way against a Paul Johnson offense it will be eaten alive. The key to defending option plays is discipline; one missed assignment, and a 3 yard gain becomes a 30 yard gain. Last year, Schiano was able to blitz just about everyone to overwhelm the quarterback. That won’t work this year. Whatever progress Mike Teel has made since the last game, Kaipo has improved even more. The deer in the headlights look is gone, and PJ will be able to exploit the holes left by blitzing linebackers.

PJ’s challenge this week is how to use Rutgers’ speed and aggressiveness against them. That means a lot of counter option plays, play-action passing, and draws, plays that we didn’t really see against Temple. Expect also to see PJ dip into the ol’ bag of tricks, with at least one reverse. If PJ really feels like digging into the playbook, we might also see some screen passes.

Greg Schiano has always made a priority of stopping the fullback against Navy. I suspect that he does this because as long as he can stop the run up the middle, he can rely on the speed of his linebackers and secondary to react, get outside, and limit the damage on the perimeter. The way to beat this is to get the ball to the perimeter faster than defenders can get there. PJ does that by using toss sweeps and quick passes to A-backs and wide recievers. Once the defense adjusts to these plays, PJ can then use toss sweep motion to open up holes for the fullback inside.

Speaking of opening up holes, the offensive line faces a unique challenge this week. For once, Navy won’t be outsized. What the Rutgers d-line lacks in size, though, they more than make up for in speed. DT Eric Foster is only 265 pounds, but he’s some of the fastest 265 pounds you’ll ever see. Quickness is also the strength of the Navy offensive line, and the interior linemen will need it to keep Foster in check. With Antron Harper moving to center, I think they’ll be able to do it. But the challenge doesn’t end there. The biggest problem with a fast defensive line is that if the option is slow to develop, the backside DE can track down the quarterback from behind. It’s a problem we’ve had for years with Notre Dame. The backside tackle’s responsibility is usually just to chip the DE and move on to a linebacker. If the option moves at the speed it’s supposed to, that isn’t a problem. Any hitch in the execution, though, and a fast DE will make you pay. Rutgers does that as well as anybody.

So, will Navy be up to it? Offensively, I think they will. After getting shut down against Connecticut in 2002, Huskies coach Randy Edsall made some comments that hinted that he thought he “solved” Paul Johnson’s offense. PJ never forgets that sort of thing, and he lit up the scoreboard the next time Navy and UConn met. While Greg Schiano hasn’t said anything close to that, the media certainly has. That’s enough to motivate PJ. There’s nothing more exciting than a Paul Johnson gameplan when he has a little extra motivation. On the flip side, the defense has a lot to deal with. I think that they will improve over last week, but the kind of improvement they’d need to shut down Ray Rice is a pretty big jump for one week. I think that the game is going to be a shootout.

The New York media loves hyperbole. Anything good is portrayed as the OMG BEST EVER!!!, while anything that isn’t up to par is treated as a disaster. Rutgers is a solid football team. As such, the local media has them slotted somewhere between LSU and the St. Louis Rams. They aren’t that good. They are the best team on Navy’s schedule, though, and it’s going to take a great game for Navy to beat them.

A great game, but by no means an impossible game.

See you tomorrow!

As I mentioned on Friday, I’m not very much fun to watch a Navy game with. I’m a bit of a melodramatist while the game’s in progress. During last year’s UMass game– a 21-20 win, mind you– I remember thinking that the season was lost and there was no chance that Navy would get to Charlotte for the Meineke Car Care Bowl. Obviously, that wasn’t the case. And despite the irritation I felt at times while watching the Temple game, that probably won’t be the case this year, either.

Something else I remember thinking last year– this time, during the Connecticut game– was that never has such a dominating performance been so frustrating. “Dominating” might not be the first word that comes to mind when you look back at the Temple game, but statistically it was. Navy outgained Temple 439-273, including a 361-74 edge on the ground. Kaipo and Shun White both ran for 100+ yards. Navy only punted once all night, and that was after a 3rd down play that should have been called pass interference. So why didn’t it seem like Navy was dominating as much as the stats reflect?

The obvious answer is that the offense turned the ball over twice. The first fumble was the result of a missed block by Reggie, giving a Temple cornerback a clean shot at Zerb as he caught the pitch from Kaipo. The second fumble was by Adam Ballard, who dropped the ball as he was fighting for extra yards. Both turnovers had a huge impact. Zerb’s fumble was recovered at the Navy 12 and set up a Temple touchdown. Ballard’s fumble was on the first drive of the second half as Navy crossed into Temple territory and led to a field goal for the Owls. Both plays were a huge momentum shift on a rare night where Temple actually had fans at the game.

Joe Bellino said during the radio broadcast that he thought that PJ was holding back the offense. We all know that PJ is very conscious of what he’s putting on film, and with Rutgers coming up this week I’m sure that it’s a possibility. Temple deserves credit, though. They are clearly a better team than they were a year ago. They have more freshmen and sophomores on their two-deep than most schools have on their scout team. Maybe the Mids went into the game thinking that. If that’s the case, Temple played well enough that they won’t make that mistake again. 

OK, that’s enough gushing over a defense that gave up 30 points and 361 rushing yards.

Defensively, Navy didn’t exactly impress. Temple running backs had some sizable holes to run through, and their receivers found themselves in wide open spaces way too often. That’s going to happen occasionally with the soft zone that Navy uses to eliminate big plays. If you’re going to sit back in zone coverage, though, you had better tackle well. On Friday, Navy did not. Particularly annoying was making Temple quarterback Adam DiMichele look like the second coming of Fran Tarkenton. Navy was actually able to get some pressure on him once in a while (thanks in part to an excellent push from Nate “Not Deacon Jones” Frazier), but he either covered himself with lard before the game or Navy just did a horrible job of tackling him. When you play with a “bend but don’t break” philosophy, it’s important to make the most of every sack opportunity. The whole idea behind the Navy defense is that if you limit the big play and make the offense take snap after snap on the way down the field, eventually they’ll make a mistake. If the defense can’t capitalize on those mistakes, they won’t stop anyone. 

All in all, it was a comfortable win, but with enough mistakes that the coaches can have a lot to work on in practice this week. Not that this staff wouldn’t be doing that anyway.

Some odds & ends:

-In the radio pregame show, Navy Deputy A.D. Eric Ruden said that Navy has topped 20,000 season ticket sales. We’ve come a long way since the days of having to use the “Great Annapolis Tailgate” to get people to come to Navy games.

-The officiating in the game was terrible. Bad calls went both ways, but the biggest outrage was watching Temple’s offensive linemen and tight ends literally tackle Navy linebackers all night. Take a look at the two pictures here and here. Do you notice the blockers engaged with arms around the defender, like a big ol’ bear hug? That, ladies and gentlemen, is called “holding.” If we’re taking the same officiating crew with us to Rutgers next week, then we’ve got problems.

-About the only thing as bad as the officiating was whoever was calling the plays for Al Golden’s offense. Temple offensive coordinator George DeLeone is the senior man on their coaching staff, but if he was calling the plays on Friday night they sure didn’t reflect that. When PJ calls his game, he makes it clear that he’ll keep doing the same thing until the defense proves that they can stop it. If Temple had taken the same approach, the game might have been closer. It seemed at times like Temple could have nickel and dimed their way down the field all night with their short passing game. But as soon as they’d get a little momentum that way, Temple would run some kind of sweep or swing pass or something that Navy would promptly stuff. It isn’t always the players that make mistakes when you limit big plays and force the offense to make long drives down the field. Sometimes it’s the coaches.

Birddog Game Balls

-Paul Johnson: PJ was given an actual game ball for his 100th win. He’s getting a Birddog game ball for outcoaching Al Golden so badly that it’s almost embarassing. It wasn’t just playcalling, it was game management. The best example came in the 2nd quarter. On 4th & 1 from the Navy 37, Johnson left the offense on the field. Golden was caught off guard, and had to call his final timeout of the half to set his defense. Not having a timeout left had a huge impact on Navy’s next drive, when Golden was unable to challenge a very questionable pass from Kaipo to Zerb for a 21-yard gain. That play put the ball on the Temple 30, and the drive ended in a Navy touchdown.

Golden’s staff is one of the youngest in I-A. On Friday, it showed.

-Greg Sudderth: I like giving a game ball to the guy who throws the best block, and this week it’s Greg. If he’s always as angry as he looked when he mauled some poor Temple defender on Kaipo’s 44-yard TD run in the first quarter, then I hope he seeks counseling. After the season.

-Shun White: It isn’t just that he ran for 122 yards; it’s how he did it. Shun averaged 15 yards a carry by combining power and some awesome moves. Shun knew when it was time to run through guys and when it was time to run around them. Defenses are going to key in on Reggie and Adam Ballard this year, and Shun’s going to get the ball because of it. He made the most of it on Friday, and that’s a good sign.

-Matt Harmon: Matt had three field goals, including a 43-yarder and a 23-yarder from a tough angle. His kickoffs were pretty good too, including one touchback.

-Matt Wimsatt: Seven tackles, a sack, and a game-ending interception. That’s a solid night’s work.