Never have I been
so angry after such a
monumental win.

After the Rutgers game last week, I changed the channel and flipped over to the Wake Forest-Florida State game. I figured, hey, why not take another look at Navy’s next opponent? So I watched for a few minutes, but eventually I just started chuckling to myself. Who was I kidding? What was I going to learn about Wake Forest by watching them play Florida State? I mean, it’s Florida freakin’ State! Sure, they aren’t the Seminoles of years past, but it isn’t like I could notice something the Noles were doing on defense and wonder if maybe Navy could try the same thing. Florida State’s athletes can get away with things that Navy’s athletes cannot. So I watched the whole thing (minus a couple of flips over to LSU-Auburn), but it really wasn’t worth watching with a very critical eye.

Frankly, breaking down how the Deacs played against the Seminoles would sort of be missing the point. The point is that even on a bad day, they’re going to be good. After blowing out Baylor (who has THE ÜBERMENSCH Robert Griffin) in week 1, coming back to beat Ole Miss in their second game, and grinding out a win against Florida State last week, Wake Forest has opened up with wins over Big 12, SEC, and ACC teams. That’s a whole new level, folks. The Deacs are the highest-ranked team in the ACC, and if they can beat Clemson next week they’ll have the inside track to a spot in the ACC championship game and a shot at their second BCS bowl in three years. Wake Forest is the best team on Navy’s schedule, and it really isn’t close.

I doubt that’s what Navy officials thought would happen back when they scheduled this game. Any game against a BCS opponent is tough, of course. But while Navy might have expected a tough matchup, they probably didn’t expect to be facing an ACC title contender. And why would they? Success has historically been difficult to achieve at Wake Forest, a small, prestigious private school in a conference full of giant state universities. Before 2006, Wake’s last ACC title was in 1970; and even that team only went 6-5. Ah, but that was before Jim Grobe. There’s an old saying in football, that good teams either do something different, or they do it better. Navy fans can appreciate that when it comes to winning at a school where money and academic standards make it harder to recruit the same kind of player as most of the other teams on your schedule, that usually means doing something different. And that’s what Jim Grobe has done. He gets talented players at Wake Forest, but the recruiting pool at Wake is smaller than at Clemson or Florida State. You just can’t get the same quantity.  Grobe’s solution? Make up for the talent gap with experience.

Of the 44 players on Wake Forest’s two-deep depth chart, 41 have redshirted. That includes 24 redshirt juniors and seniors (including one grad student), 11 of whom make up the starting defense. Jim Grobe redshirts just about everyone, and by doing so he levels the playing field. You know how the Florida Marlins won the World Series by stocking up on players for a year or two, taking their shot, then having a fire sale to cut salary until they can afford to make another run? This is sort of college football’s equivalent. 33 players on Wake’s roster are in their fourth, fifth, or sixth year in the program. It takes time to develop his players, but sometimes you get that recruiting class or two where everyone pans out. When that happens, it’s like the perfect storm; you get talent AND experience. You have a chance to be really special. And that’s what you have with the Wake Forest defense.

Demon Deacon cornerback Alphonso Smith might be the best individual player on any team Navy plays this year. Smith was first team All-ACC and a third team AP All-American last year after leading the country with 8 interceptions (a school record). Three of those interceptions were returned for touchdowns, including a 100-yard return against Maryland. Smith is more than just a cover corner; he isn’t afraid to make a big hit, and led the ACC with four forced fumbles in 2007. Smith and fellow cornerback Brandon Ghee lock down opposing wide receivers well enough to allow the safeties to play run support. Chip Vaughn returns after leading the team in tackles in 2007. Kevin Patterson is all over the field; he’s third on the team in tackles, leads the team with 3 interceptions already, and has two forced fumbles and a tackle for loss. That secondary, combined with excellent linebackers in Aaron Curry, Stanley Arnoux, and Chantz McClinic, lead a very aggressive and very productive defense.

How productive? Wake’s defense is averaging only 101 rushing yards allowed per game. In 2007, the Deacs held their opponents to less than 100 rushing yards eight times. Florida State never even entered the red zone last week. But the most impressive thing about Wake’s defense are the turnovers. Wake Forest has forced 15 already this year– three against Ole Miss, five at Baylor, and a whopping seven last week in Tallahassee. It’s been a huge boost for the offense, which hasn’t quite played up to expectations so far.  Of the 83 points Wake Forest has scored this season, 34 have been off of turnovers. In 2007, Wake Forest led the country with eight touchdowns scored by its defense… including one against the Mids.

Offensively, Wake Forest has yet to hit its stride. The Demon Deacon offense is about running the ball and throwing quick, high-percentage passes to get the ball to playmakers in space. Quarterback Riley Skinner is connecting on an eye-grabbing 70% of his passes, but only averages about 6.5 yards per attempt since the Deacs don’t try many hard throws. D.J. Boldin leads the ACC with 6.7 catches per game. While the passing game seems to be business as usual, the running game is not. Wake is averaging less than 100 yards rushing per game, including a scant 59 yards against FSU. Then again, that’s FSU. Rutgers couldn’t run the ball either until they played Navy. Josh Adams, last year’s ACC rookie of the year, will certainly be looking to get on track the way Rutgers did with Jourdan Brooks last week.

This isn’t the first time that Wake Forest’s defense dominated Florida State before playing Navy. Last year they just held the Seminoles to 47 yards on 24 carries the week before the Navy game. Still, Navy was able to score on its first three drives of the game with Kaipo at the helm. But after Aaron Curry blitzed on a counter option play and knocked Kaipo out of the game with a crushing hit, Navy scored only once more the rest of the way while committing three turnovers. The Deacs kept things simple at first. They played a 5-man front and attacked the option from the inside out; the give key always took the fullback, the pitch key always took the quarterback, and the secondary played up in run support to take the pitch. Paul Johnson answered by mixing in play-action passes to keep the safeties honest. None of them worked, but they did put a scare into the secondary and freed things up for the slotback a little. PJ also used the counter option quite a bit, but he might have taken a drink from that well a few too many times. The counter option is a tough read for the quarterback because he starts the play with his back to the defender he’s supposed to read. If that defender blitzes, the QB only has the blink of an eye to recognize it and get the pitch off. Kaipo didn’t even have that long, as Aaron Curry is one fast linebacker. If Wake uses the same tactic, don’t be surprised to see the fullback screen a couple of times, and maybe even the double option with the fullback. And of course, more play-action for keeping the safeties in line.

Navy’s defense had no answer for Kenny Moore last year. He was all over the place, bringing in 15 catches for 181 yards. But as bad as the defense was, Wake Forest was far from their worst game. Turnovers and special teams hiccups made things worse than they had to be. Wake’s four offensive touchdowns came on drives started on their own 40 yard line or better. On the five drives the Deacs began from no closer than their own 30, the Mids held them to three field goals. Field position was crucial. That might be a concern this week, as the kickoff coverage had problems containing Rutgers. Obviously, Wake’s short passing game will make tackling particularly important as well. Fortunately, after a relatively solid performance last week, a lot of “ORs” are coming off of the depth chart for the first-string defense. This means that Buddy Green is starting to get confident that he has players on the field who can carry out assignments and make a play. It might also mean that the defensive playbook could start opening up a little more.

Navy isn’t supposed to win this game. Wake Forest is a top-15 team for a reason. But don’t be surprised if the Mids are hanging around with a shot to win it at the end of the game. Both Kaipo and Eric Kettani were caught from behind on runs last week that would’ve been long touchdowns if they were healthy. The team is getting better. Their best football is yet to come.

Because man cannot live on one blogger alone, I bring you Zach from the Wake Forest blog Old Gold & Blog to answer a few questions about this week’s game from the Demon Deacon perspective.

1) So, what’s it like being a fan of a juggernaut for once?

It’s definitely a great time to be a Demon Deacon, but this may be the first time I’ve heard the team called a juggernaut, and I think it sounds pretty good, thanks!

As a relatively young Deac, I know I don’t have as great an appreciation for it as those who’ve been around for decades of poor football. Still, it’s been an amazing ride and the best thing is that it doesn’t seem to be going anywhere. I feel like this program is officially on the map, and even though that doesn’t necessarily mean the team will challenge for a conference championship every year, I think they’ve gotten to the point where for the foreseeable future it would be a major disappointment not to go to a bowl.

Support for the team is at an all-time high, and considering things like the brand new Deacon Tower and the retention of head coach Jim Grobe, it’s clear that the school, athletic department, and alumni are all incredibly supportive of this team.

2) What are your expectations for this season?

Expectations for this season are higher than they’ve ever been. There are still some major hurdles on the schedule that have to be cleared, most notably a Thursday night home game against Clemson and a game at Miami, but I really believe we’ll see the Deacs play for an ACC Championship in December, and if they get there I don’t see why they can’t win. It’s been a great start, and I only expect the fun to continue.

3) Just how good is the Wake Forest defense?
 
I’ve never seen them play as well as they did against Florida State last weekend. Forcing seven turnovers in a game is incredible, even for a Wake defense that forces lots of them already. I think the front seven may be as good as any in the country, particularly given the considerable depth at many of those positions. Alphonso Smith is one of the flashiest, and most talented, defenders in the nation and the secondary has performed pretty well as a whole (although I was slightly concerned about them after the close game against Ole Miss). The only other slight concern I’ve had is some mistakes in open field tackling, but all things considered they’re pretty minor complaints. This defense is for real, and they only need to play close to the way they did against Florida State to have a very successful season.

4) On the other hand, the offense doesn’t seem to have clicked as well, particularly the running game. What’s wrong?

The biggest issues is the offensive line. Basically the entire unit had to be replaced after last season, and the new unit hasn’t performed up to par yet. I think they have the ability to get the job done, but they haven’t progressed quite as quickly as I would have hoped. I’d like to see some considerable improvement from this this weekend against Navy.

I can’t let the running backs totally off the hook, though. Both Josh Adams, who was last year’s ACC rookie of the year, and redshirt freshman Brandon Pendergrass are very talented backs, but I think they’ve done too much dancing around the backfield this season. They need to hit the holes faster and harder, and even if there isn’t much of a hole there I’d rather see them get in there and try to pick up a couple instead of trying to make a big play out of nothing.

One final thing I’ll point out is that much of Wake’s short passing game is really part of the running game. Wake uses very short passes to get the ball outside in a hurry, and in many ways these plays function as part of the running game. I think the coaches would tell you the same thing, and it’s part of why Riley Skinner’s completion percentage is always so high. Certainly that doesn’t mean we can ignore what the running backs do between the tackles, but it does make it more bearable.

5) When you look at Navy, what do you see as the team’s strengths and weaknesses?

I had the opportunity to watch a fair amount of Navy’s game against Duke a couple weeks ago, and as always I get a little nervous watching them run the option. I know that a well run option is going to be very difficult to stop no matter what defense is on the field against them. Had Kaipo not been hurt in the game against Wake last season, I think the game would have ended up being much closer than it ultimately was.

So, all that to say, I think the offensive scheme Navy utilizes is one of it’s greatest strengths. Ultimately, though, I think Navy’s biggest weakness is that it doesn’t have enough football talent to compete with the best teams in the country, and I think this weakness outweighs the strength of the offense. Losing Paul Johnson certainly didn’t help, either.

So there you go. Thanks to Zach for taking the time to do this. Be sure to hop over to his site, where I’ve polluted the innernets with my responses to his questions.

I’m not sure how often you get a big-game atmosphere from a matchup between a 1-2 team and an 0-2 team, but the Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium record crowd of 37,821 knew what was at stake. Both Navy and Rutgers have pretty high expectations for their seasons; expectations that include a winning record and a bowl game. Whoever lost this game would probably find those goals to be a lot harder to attain, with Navy facing games against Wake Forest, Pitt, and Notre Dame on the horizon and Rutgers potentially being 0-3 with the Big East schedule still to come. So maybe it wasn’t a game that meant anything to the average college football fan, but it was certainlty critical to the faithful gathered in Annapolis on Saturday.

With so much at stake, it was great to see the Mids rise to the occasion and top Rutgers, 23-21. The defense played their best game yet, holding the Scarlet Knights to 337 total yards. More importantly, they also limited Rutgers to converting only 5 of 11 third downs. Eric Kettani finally broke out, running for 133 yards and a touchdown despite only being at about 80%, which he revealed in his postgame TV interview. Shun White ran for 85 yards, and Tyree Barnes made two huge catches for 63 yards and a touchdown.

Lately it seemed that Navy wins have been a matter of the offense carrying the team, but the credit for Saturday’s victory goes the players on both sides of the ball. Neither side was perfect, but neither side had to be. It was refreshingly… normal. I mean, isn’t that how football is supposed to work? Can’t most teams punt once or twice without putting the game in jeopardy? Maybe Navy is finally reaching the point where going for it on every 4th & 1 isn’t a matter of necessity.

I said on Friday that Rutgers would try to get their running game back on track, and that’s what they did. This time, Greg Schiano turned to Jourdan Brooks. Brooks responded with 134 yards and two TDs on 22 carries. He was spelled occasionally by Joe Martinek, who ran for 61 yards on only 8 carries. Unlike a week ago, Navy had trouble stopping the run all afternoon. But Rutgers never tried to take advantage with play-action. Kenny Britt did have 7 catches, but his longest was 17 yards. Tiquan Underwood, the real deep threat, only caught one pass. It seemed that the Rutgers coaches didn’t want to put too much pressure on Mike Teel to make plays after he threw three interceptions against North Carolina. With the holes that Brooks had to run through, they didn’t really need to until the final drive. Actually, with two minutes left, Rutgers probably could’ve kept running the ball. But they didn’t, and Ross Pospisil made them pay.

Wyatt Middleton finished with 13 tackles, mostly because Brooks was getting into the secondary too much. Clint Sovie had 7 tackles even though he didn’t start. My guess is that he will against Wake Forest; after overrunning too many plays in the first three games, Sovie played much more under control against Rutgers and had his best game.

Offensively, Navy opened up with a bang. Shun White had 40 yards on the Mids’ first two carries of the game, prompting Greg Schiano to call timeout. After the timeout, Rutgers had a safety spy on White. Well, sort of. The safety spied on whatever A-back went into tail motion, which was usually White, but not always. Shun had 16 carries, which once again, is too many. Now to be fair, this is the kind of game where Shun probably should get a few more carries than normal. Once Navy switched to an unbalanced line with trips on the heavy side (basically the last 3 quarters of the game), it made sense for Shun to be the inside A-back, with the other slot split out wide between Shun and the wide receiver. If only one slotback is going to carry the ball, it should be Shun. But the problem is that even before Ivin Jasper changed formations, Shun was still the only slotback getting the ball. I could tell which way the play was going based on where Shun was lined up. And if some idiot blogger could see it, you know a coach will see it on film.

As strange as it may sound, the fewer carries Shun gets, the more effective he’ll probably be. While Shun averaged 20 yards apiece on those first two carries, he only averaged 3.2 ypc the rest of the game. Shun’s greatest asset is his speed. He can better utilize that speed when he gets the ball in space. He’ll get more space if the defense can’t key in on him. The other slotbacks have combined for only 12 carries, but they’re averaging 7.8 yards on each carry. Since the Towson game, Shun is actually averaging less– 7.3 yards per carry. And that includes his 71-yard run at Ball State and his 73-yard TD run at Duke. Take those away, and he’s averaging only 4.3 yards per carry. Now, I know you can’t simply dismiss those long runs like that– like I said last week, Shun is the home run threat– but it gives you a better idea of what’s happening on most drives. Is it worth sacrificing consistent yardage in order to swing for the fences? I don’t think so, but hey, maybe that why I’m sitting behind a computer while the coaches are coaching.

Anyway, this was a very entertaining game to watch if you like the coaching chess match. In this case, Ivin Jasper was Boris Spassky while Greg Schiano was the captain of the Broadneck High School chess club. Schiano just had no answer for the adjustments that Jasper made. Some were more obvious than others:

Adjustment #1: The unbalanced line. When Coach Jasper moved a tackle to one side of the formation as a “tight end,” Rutgers countered by shifting their line to line up on top of him. Meanwhile, a wide receiver came in to play tackle. But he was still an eligible receiver, so Rutgers still had a corner lined up & covering what was basically a skinny offensive lineman. That left one less player to worry about.

Adjustment #2: Running the triple option off of the midline. I may post about this later in the week.

Adjustment #3: Passing! With a safety spying on the motion slotback, it meant a lot of man coverage. The first drive of the second half capitalized on that, as Kaipo went 3-4 with 77 yards and a TD.

Along those lines, it’s a shame that Kaipo doesn’t get the appreciation he should for his passing. He makes a lot of hard throws. Maybe it’s his goofy throwing motion, but people don’t really give him credit. They think he gets lucky. But as often as he gets “lucky,” you think that maybe it isn’t luck at all? Food for thought.

Adjustment #4: Blocking. This one was subtle. The option pitch was getting blown up by the safety spying on the slotback. In the second half, the playside “tackle” (aka the wide receiver) changed up his blocking a little bit to help. He’d disengage his first block and engage the safety coming down to make the play. The first guy would end up making the tackle, but it’d usually be 2-3 yards further downfield than when the safety was running free.

One more thing– why does Rutgers block a kick almost every year against Navy? Some years it’s field goals and extra points, others it’s punts. Either way, it’s getting REALLY old.

Anyway, it was great to see a total team effort from the Mids the week before they play the best team on the schedule. At least now we know it’s possible.

A win is a win.
But a win over Rutgers?
Now that’s a GREAT win.

You’re not alone, Navy fans.

The Mids are out to an unfortunate 1-2 start, but they might not be the most disappointed team in Saturday’s game. No, Rutgers can just as easily make that claim. With losses to Fresno State and North Carolina to begin the season, Rutgers is off to an 0-2 start for the first time since 2002. For a team that’s coming off of its third consecutive bowl game and seeking consistency as an annual contender in the Big East, that’s no good. After an offseason full of controversy over just how Greg Schiano is being paid, and how their stadium additions are being funded, two losses by a combined score of 68-19 just adds insult to injury and keeps the bad vibes a-rollin’.

Rutgers got to those three straight bowl games following a simple formula. Run Ray Rice behind a talented offensive line. Use play action and throw to tight end Clark Harris or one of their sure-handed wide receivers. Play aggressive defense with speed at every position, including Eric Foster at defensive tackle. But the stalwarts of the past have moved on. Ray Rice is gone, as are some of the mainstays of the line that blocked for him. The wide receiver talent is still there with Tiquan Underwood and Kenny Britt, but Mike Teel has already thrown five interceptions this year. The once-swarming defense has given up an average of 181 rushing yards through two games, and their opponents are averaging 17 yards per completion. Something is amiss. Maybe it’s the competition. Fresno State is a good team, and North Carolina is probably on the rise under Butch Davis. Sure, but Rutgers should still be winning games like this, shouldn’t they? The wins of the past few years had to have helped on the recruiting trail, right? Of course. There’s no question that Rutgers has talent. Yet for whatever reason, it hasn’t come together yet.

Ah, but here comes Navy, the cure for what ails a slumping team. Well, a slumping offense, anyway. Going back to last year, several teams that had their share of offensive struggles found a way to get back on track against the Mids. Duke scored less than 20 points in 8 of its 12 games last year. Against Navy, they scored 43. Pitt scored 13, 14, and 14 points in the three weeks leading up to the Navy game, where they scored 45. Notre Dame was averaging 10 points per game before scoring 28 in regulation against Navy, and ending up with 44 after overtime. There’s no doubt that Rutgers coaches know this, and will be looking to get back to fundamentals.

But what, exactly, are those fundamentals? With Rice, Rutgers was running right at you. They tried the same with Kordell Young against Fresno State, but managed only 106 yards rushing. When the redshirt sophomore sat out against UNC with a sore knee, Schiano and offensive coordinator John McNulty opted to spread out a bit. That resulted in Teel and Jabu Lovelace combining for four interceptions. The offense is still trying to find something it does well. Given recent history, where Rutgers has been able to do pretty much whatever it wanted to on offense against Navy, and also given that Young is expected to return, my guess is that Schiano’s crew will try to get the running game back on track once again.

That would actually be good news for the Mids. While Thaddeus Lewis had another career day passing against Navy last week, the Mids’ defense looked surprisingly stout against the run. Third and long has been the achilles’ heel of the Navy defense, but with Teel’s accuracy problems, it might not be as bad this week. That’s if Navy can match its defensive performance against the run from last week on first and second down, which is far from a given. But it’s something, and having a little optimism about Navy’s defense is a nice feeling.

Offensively, Rutgers has always been one of the most frustrating games for me to watch every year. For all his supposed defensive genius, Greg Schiano doesn’t play a very good scheme against the Navy spread option. Rutgers is one of the few teams that actually likes to mix in straight man-to-man against the Mids:

Usually you pray that the defense plays man-to-man. By putting someone in motion, you can create a man advantage on the side the player motions away from. The only other team Navy plays that uses much man defense is Delaware. You usually see a couple plays in those games that you don’t see too much of the rest of the season. Here’s an example– the fullback option– from the 2004 game with the Blue Hens:

The motion slotback basically takes the run support safety in motion with him. When the backside guard pulls and blocks the defensive end, it leaves one person to cover both the quarterback and the fullback. The end result? A highlight.

Another play that man defense sets up is the quick pass to the wide receiver. When the slotback goes in motion and takes the safety with him, it leaves cornerback lined up on the receiver without any help behind him. One move, and the receiver can pick up a lot of yards:

The reverse can also work well against a man defense.

But the frustrating thing is that against Rutgers the last few years, none of this really mattered. The Scarlet Knights have done such a good job shedding blocks, and have gotten so much penetration into the backfield, that the offense has never had a chance to really get on track. For all the talk about lining up against huge defensive lines every week, it’s been Rutgers’ smaller, faster linemen that have given Navy the most trouble over the years. That makes this week all about execution for Navy, and unfortunately, that hasn’t really been a strength of the offense so far. But with Kaipo, Kettani, White, and tackle Andrew McGinn all expecting to finally be on the field together for the first time this year, maybe this is the game where the offense finally breaks out. It can’t come at a better time.

To achieve a sixth-straight winning record, Navy is going to need a win over a team it isn’t supposed to beat. No time like the present.

It was announced today that Navy and CBS College Sports have agreed to a 10-year extension on their broadcast contract. You already knew that because Chet (and I) told you last week. But tucked into the end of the official release is this:

During the length of the agreement, CBS College Sports Network will broadcast notable match-ups including games against Wake Forest; Air Force; East Carolina; Ohio State; Pittsburgh; Rutgers; Texas Christian University; Northwestern; Duke; Ole Miss and Syracuse.

Well that’s news. I thought we weren’t going to play ACC teams anymore, but I guess there’s a new Duke contract. Can’t wait to see when these games are scheduled.

It isn’t time to panic yet. Well, except for EagleBank Bowl officials. You guys can panic, but only because your business is at stake.

Duke took down the Mids, 41-31, on a steamy Saturday afternoon in Durham. Thaddeus Lewis and Eron Riley picked up where they left off last year, hooking up for three touchdowns. Lewis finished with 317 passing yards, 137 of those going to Riley. Tyree Barnes led Navy with 113 receiving yards, most of which came on a 68-yard throwback screen pass that went for a touchdown. Shun White ran for 112 yards and a touchdown of his own.

The game started out well enough. Not surprisingly, Duke marched down the field and scored on their first posession of the game. But even though they scored, it was clear that Navy’s defense was playing a LOT better than it had against Towson and Ball State. Instead of receivers parking themselves between zones and catching passes without a Mid close enough to spit a watermelon seed on him, these passes were actually… contested. Occasionally Duke would try to run the ball… and they couldn’t. They ran wide receiver screens… and they weren’t automatic touchdowns. Blue Devils that carried the ball… were tackled. Were we seeing things? Was this Navy?

Yessir, that was Navy. The justifiably maligned Midshipmen defense displayed what every coach, fan, and player prays for– improvement. And while the Mids did falter on that opening drive, that would be the only touchdown they would give up in the half. Yes, third down was still a problem. And yes, they did give up a pair of field goals. But trading field goals for touchdowns is the formula that has worked for Navy for five years now; don’t give up the big play, then tighten up in the red zone. The Navy defense appeared to have returned to the form that we had been accustomed to.

And for a while, the offense did too. We finally saw Kaipo take his first snaps of the season. He was rusty at first. Obviously not comfortable pushing the limits of his injured hamstring, Kaipo lacked the explosive first step he would otherwise use to catapult himself down the field. This led to an errant pitch on one play, but the more snaps he took, the more comfortable Kaipo appeared. In fact, his longest run of the day was a 10-yard plow up the middle of the field on a midline option, where he broke a couple of tackles and picked up a first down. Unfortunately, the weather and Kaipo’s lack of conditioning after being out for six weeks finally did him in, and the long-striding Hawaiian left the game due to heat exhaustion. But for a while, the Navy offense actually looked like the Navy offense again, and the Mids went into halftime with a 24-20 lead.

Oh how I wish I could just end right there, since the second half was a much different story. The offense disappeared after halftime; other than Barnes’ touchdown catch and run, Navy could only muster 62 yards. That’s pretty incredible. With two three and outs and an inexcusable turnover on downs (more on that later) to open the third quarter, the offense didn’t give the defense very much field position to work with. The defense rose to the challenge after the first 3 & out, forcing a Duke punt. But that punt was downed at the Navy 1-yard line, and after the offense again failed to pick up a first down, Kyle Delahooke’s punt only went 29 yards. Stopping a drive that started on the Navy 38 was a little too much to ask for, and Duke punched it in for 6 to take the lead for good. With the offense sputtering, the Navy defense spent a lot of time on the field and just got worn out. Duke’s average starting field position on their three TD drives in the second half was the Navy 42. Any defense, not just Navy’s, would have a hard time keeping teams out of the end zone when put in that position.

So maybe I’m the only one who feels this way, but I actually feel a little optimistic after this game. With Kaipo in the game, the offense played the way we need it to. And the defense looked like a whole new unit out there. We don’t have much wiggle room in the rest of the schedule– we’ll probably have to win a game we aren’t “supposed” to. And the defense will have to keep up the improvement. And we’ll all be anxiously awaiting word on Kaipo and Eric Kettani’s conditions. For one half, we saw a little bit of what this team is capable of, and that’s good. But right now we’re walking on the wrong side of a very fine line.

Some stream-of-consciousness thoughts on the game:

— At 1:13 left in the second quarter, Coach Niumat gave the defense a tremendous compliment. With Duke facing 3rd and 9 from their own 14 yard line, he called timeout. He called timeout. In college, 1:13 is plenty of time to march an offense into at least field goal range. Given Navy’s unfortunate habit of giving up big plays on 3rd down, that could have led to disaster. But it didn’t. The defense came through and forced an incomplete pass. That forced Duke to punt. Mario Washington returned it into Duke territory, and Jarod Bryant led the offense in for a go-ahead touchdown before the half. The defense earned Niumat’s trust, and it led to points…

— …which makes the decision to go for the first down on 4th & 1 from our own 38 all the more confounding. Duke had just taken the lead when a combination of bad starting field position and a bad punt gave them the ball at the Navy 38. When Jarod Bryant was stopped for no gain, Navy’s defense had their backs against the wall again. I could understand going for it if this was one of those back-and-forth games where one drive without a touchdown meant certain doom. But it wasn’t, and Niumat’s confidence in his defense in the second quarter demonstrated that. Why he wouldn’t punt there to give his defense some better field position, I have no idea. It was an unnecessarily desperate move.

— Before I pile onto Kyle Delahooke too much, his 46-yard rocket in the first quarter did force the returner to backpedal and fumble. Punting certainly hasn’t been a problem this year.

— There’s no question that the playbook shrinks when Jarod Bryant is in the game. The problem isn’t his execution of the plays that are called, it’s just that those plays don’t work anymore. Remember when Kaipo came in for Brian Hampton after his injury in the 2006 Rutgers game? Rutgers blitzed their linebackers on every play. Well, that’s pretty much what Duke did in the second half, and it overwhelmed the offensive line. Jarod was effective in relief last year because he was a change of pace. But now he’s the main event. That means he’s on a lot of film, and it’s apparent that the book is out on him. Ball State was prepared for the Navy offense. Duke was prepared for the Jarod Bryant offense. It doesn’t take Knute Rockne to see that JB carried the ball 31 times against Ball State, so you should probably key in on him.

Navy’s one second half touchdown came on a long pass play, not on a sustained drive. The offense just couldn’t put any effective plays together.

— There is no question that Shun White is a special player. That said, it’s time to stop forcing the ball to him. Shun had 15 carries against Duke. This came after he got 13 carries against Ball State and 19 carries against Towson. We all knew what the deal was against Towson. But now, it’s a pattern. The strength of this offense does not lie in the ability of one playmaker to move the ball. The strength of this offense lies in the defense not knowing who will get the ball. You undermine that strength when you give the defense someone to key in on. Shun’s 13 carries against Duke are more than double what the rest of the slotbacks have gotten in the last two games combined. Why? Shun’s good, but are the other slots not? They certainly look effective on those rare opportunities. A lot of Zerbin Singleton’s success last year came because defenses were more concerned about Reggie. Well, now they’re keying on Shun.

Shun is the best home run threat. But singles and doubles can keep a rally going, too.

Defense played to win
But without Kaipo, the O
Just isn’t the same.