Let me begin by apologizing for not writing anything last week. I drove up to Washington on Tuesday, and didn’t have internet access for the rest of the week. It wouldn’t have mattered even if I did, as busy as I was. Busy, but in a good way. I had a fantastic time, which included meeting quite a few readers. If you weren’t one of them, please don’t hold it against me. The one thing I learned from this trip is that I don’t visit Annapolis nearly as often as I should; with any luck we’ll be able to meet up on my next expedition to the far reaches of the Mid-Atlantic. To those I did meet, thank you. It’s hard to imagine a better time than the one I had.

My itinerary for the week included attending practice on Wednesday and Thursday. I’m always amazed at the coordination and efficiency of a Navy football practice. I’m sure it’s the same with most any Division I team, but I don’t attend their practices, so I’ll continue to be awestruck at Navy’s. Other than marveling at the organization of it all, though, I really have no idea what in the hell I’m looking at. I mean, sure, I can see what plays are being practiced, but when I read posts on message boards saying “great practice today!” I think to myself, how can you tell? I never can. Is that assessment based on how much the coaches yell? Dropped balls? Missed tackles? I don’t know. Every practice looks good to me. Despite my woefully untrained eye, the one thing I was sure of was that there would be no hangover from the Ohio State game. The coaches would have none of that. There was a very “business as usual” atmosphere; the coaches were upbeat, but there was no tolerance for mistakes. Louisiana Tech might win, I thought, but not because Navy wasn’t going to give them their best effort.

Six minutes into Saturday’s game, there was little doubt left in my mind that I was a complete idiot. After Phillip Livas returned a punt 85 yards for a touchdown, Louisiana Tech had a 14-0 lead before Navy even had a first down. The game had “letdown” written all over it. Fortunately, my judgement of the Navy coaches’ psychological prowess was eventually redeemed as the Mids scored on their next three possessions while completely stuffing the Bulldog offense, turning the 14-0 deficit into a 32-14 thumping before an underwhelming crowd of 29,102. Navy moves to 1-1 on the year, while Louisiana Tech fell to 0-2 heading into their home opener with Nicholls State. 

(My hope is that the overcast skies and apparent threat of rain kept the crowds away. My fear is that the 3:30 start time might have something to do with it. We know how fickle Navy fans can be. I guess we’ll find out.)

There was plenty to take from this game, both good and bad. We’ll start with the good. The most encouraging thing was clearly the play of the defense. Of Louisiana Tech’s 167 yards of offense, 74 came on the first drive. That was a dominating defensive performance, led by Craig Schaefer’s two late sacks, Chase Burge’s two batted passes, and Tyler Simmons and Ross Pospisil clogging up a Tech running game that was held to a mere 11 yards (due mostly to the sacks). The emergence of Tyler Simmons is particularly encouraging for the future, with much of the rest of the linebacker depth chart set to graduate after this season. Tackling was solid for the second straight week, as the secondary limited Louisiana Tech’s ability to gain yards after the catch and held them to only 8.7 yards per completion. After two games, you have to feel good about the ability of the Navy defense to carry the team if they have to.

Fortunately, that wasn’t really the case on Saturday. After starting the game with a rare 3 & out, the offense went on to rush for 290 yards on the way to putting 32 points on the scoreboard. That, despite Louisiana Tech coming out with a pretty solid defensive game plan. Bulldog defensive coordinator Tommy Spangler spent a decade as an assistant at Georgia Southern, and it showed. You can tell the difference when a coach actually understands how the Navy offense works. Spangler’s plan wasn’t to try to match scheme “gimmicks.” Instead, he chose to keep things simple, but work on confusing the quarterback and the offensive line. Knowing that the line’s blocking assignments change depending on whether they’re facing an odd or an even front, Spangler had his front seven alternate between the two frequently before the snap. He also tried to make reads difficult for Ricky Dobbs, utilizing the cross charge. The cross charge, you’ll recall, is when the dive key plays the quarterback, but the pitch key takes the fullback instead of the pitch man. The quarterback sees that his first read is playing him, so he gives the ball to the fullback, not knowing that the pitch key will be waiting.

It only took one possession for Ricky and Coach Jasper to adjust. The correct read on the cross charge is to pitch the ball, which forces a down lineman to try to chase down a speedy A-back from behind. Louisiana Tech stuck with the cross charge for most of the game, which is why Marcus Curry and the other slots accounted for the majority of Navy’s rushing yardage.

With the defensive end taking himself outside on his own, Coach Jasper also called the midline triple. Notice how the playside tackle disengages the end and blocks the run support safety.

Eventually, Louisiana Tech was forced to try a different tactic, and used the backside safety to follow the tail motion. Coach Jasper countered by throwing the ball over the top, since the corner on that side of the field would have no safety help. This pass was called back by a (correct) holding penalty, but the message was sent:

The holding call was just one problem among many for the offensive line. Pass protection, which was a pleasant surprise against Ohio State, regressed a bit last week. Louisiana Tech had some legit talent up front, and some of those breakdowns in pass protection were the result of Mids just getting beat one-on-one. One of Louisiana Tech’s two sacks was the result of what appeared to be confusion on Navy’s part regarding their assignments. Whatever the reason, this is a problem. Ricky did have his second consecutive 100-yard passing day, but if the Mids are going to make use of the pass, they’re going to have to protect their quarterback.

One other thing I noticed was that the timing on toss sweeps seem to be off. Take a look at these plays. Look at where the playside tackle is lined up, and where the slotback ends up catching the toss. In both examples, the toss is caught inside the tackle box:

This shouldn’t be happening. The goal of the toss sweep is to get the ball to the edge of the defense as soon as possible. The closer the ball is tossed to the middle of the formation, the easier it is for the defense to read the play and catch up to it. Compare those tosses to two random ones from the past:

On these, the slot catches the toss almost two yards past where the tackle lined up. That’s especially apparent on Karlos Whittaker’s run, since the midfield logo provides a good reference point. The timing of the play is dependent on the snap count, so maybe Ricky is a little too quick on the trigger.

Coming into the game, Louisiana Tech was a bit of an enigma. Somehow they managed to lose to Army last year, but they still won 8 games, including the Independence Bowl. They’ve been picked as a dark horse challenger to unseat Boise State at the top of the WAC. It will be hard for them to shake off an 0-2 start, but they’ll get a win against Nicholls State before heading into the conference schedule. I wouldn’t be surprised if this win turns out to be better than originally thought at the end of the season.

Editor’s note: On my trip to Annapolis last week, it became painfully obvious that I am very, very stupid for choosing to live anywhere else. Fortunately, there are those who do not share my imperfection. One of those people is Andy, who lives about as close to Gate 1 as my kitchen is to my driveway. He went to Friday’s JV game against perennial prep powerhouse Hargrave Military Academy, and took notes to share with the rest of us, which he posted here. He also really does live in his mother’s basement, which adds to his blogger cred.

JV Football Report

The JV squad took on Hargrave’s Post-Grad (PG) team this past Friday on Rip Miller Field. Before we talk about the game, let’s be sure we’re all on the same page. Navy’s JV squad is comprised of mostly plebes (there are 20 youngsters on the roster of 78). The JV team is also the scout team for the varsity practices. Translation: the offense rarely runs the spread option. Because of this, I won’t be offering up slams of reads or fumbles when looking at the offense. I’ll let you know what the highlights were and what players impressed.

Also, this is the first time I’ve watched a game with the intent of reporting on it afterward. That means I may (and by may I mean there is a 100% chance of it) make some mistakes or have misidentified a player. So any corrections are welcome.

Finally, Hargrave is essentially a BCS feeder program. The kids on their field are future SEC, ACC, etc. players. Last year Hargrave beat Navy’s JV team 32-4.

Ok, onto the meat of the report. Friday was a nasty day to play on Rip Miller. There was a constant light rain and a 15-20 mph wind blowing from land out to the bay. I also showed up midway through the 1st quarter, so I missed some action. Here’s what I saw:

Fullbacks
We rotated 3 different FB’s throughout the game. #15 Austin Beaty (Friendswood, TX) was the best performer of the bunch. He carried the majority of one scoring drive and had an 18 yard TD run of his own. #43 Jarred Mack (Houston, TX) had the 2nd most carries. He was a strong runner, busting some up the middle and at times carrying defenders with him. #40 Kevin Eckel (Haverford, PA) was in for a few plays and had one impressive run of over 10 yards.

Quarterbacks
#8 Tyler Lynch (Irving, TX) and #9 Gordy Law (Berwick, PA) both played admirably given the conditions. Saw one fumble on the QB/FB mesh. Given my viewing position, it was hard to tell if there were bad plays because of missed reads or because Hargrave was just that much bigger.

Slotbacks
Hargrave did a good job of shutting down the pitch lanes. #5 John Howell (Hatfield, PA) had a couple of good carries. He was also back for a lot of the punt and kick returns. Those were a mixed bag as well, with equal parts muffed and decent returns. Again, I can not stress enough how much of an impact the wind had on the kicking game.

Wide Receivers
Navy didn’t do much passing. There were two plays that stood out. #11 Brandon Turner (Renton, WA) had a 4 yard TD reception on 4th and goal. Navy sent him iso on the left side of the field with 3 receivers right and Lynch hit him on a short under slant. #89 Jonathan Gazaille (Grand Prarie, TX) took a pass to the flats at the line of scrimmage, put a move on his defender and busted a 10 yard gain for a 1st down. #19 Darian Hess (Largo, FL) had a great reception on 3rd and long, leaping above tight coverage to pull down a nice pass but landed on the line out of bounds.

Offensive Line
On the two scoring drives, they were able to open holes for the FB’s and protect the QB. There was a lot of backfield penetration on the day. Chalk that up to inexperience and an overwhelming size disadvantage. Given that I have no baseline for comparison, I can’t say much more than that.

Defensive Line
I noticed that most of the game we were running the same 3 guys on the line (at least every time I checked numbers). #72 Francis Archibald (Rye, NY) was at nose guard. But I think I wrote the wrong numbers down for our ends – I had #86 and #87, but according to the roster that’s a WR and an OLB. Regardless, the line had some good pressure, opening lanes for LB’s to get to the running backs and QB. Again, given the size difference and inexperience, I thought they performed very well.

Linebackers
Lots of LB’s made plays in the game. There were TFL’s, great open field tackles, tipped passes, etc. Here’s a quick list from my notes:
– #17 Keegan Wetzel (Palos Heights, ILL) had an interception in man coverage. The WR he was covering came back to the ball, but Wetzel got a great break and picked it off.
– #46 Andrew Sharp (State College, PA) had an interception in what looked to be zone coverage. He was sitting in the middle of the field and just read the QB’s eyes for a nice pick.
– #26 Josh Dowling-Fitzpatrick (Westerville, OH) and #42 Mason Graham (Brentwood, TN) combined for a pressure sack. Graham also got good penetration on another play to force an incompletion.
– #53 Craig Veech (Longwood, FL) had a great tipped pass at the line of scrimmage.

Defensive Backs
Hargrave had a great QB and WRs. Most of the damage was done in the air…had the wind not been so brutal, I think they would have been able to leverage this more against Navy’s squad. But as it was, we did have a few plays that stood out from our backs.
– #14 David Sperry (Las Vegas, NV) made a textbook open field tackle to stop what would have been a big gain.
– #4 Jordan Fraser (Chandler, AZ) had a great tackle for a loss on a safety blitz.

Kicking Game
Not much to take away here given the conditions. With the win we were great, against it not so much. We did try one FG with the wind…about 45 yards out from that had the distance but was pushed left. And of course I didn’t write down the number of who was kicking. I think it was the same kicker who converted our only PAT – #6 Scott Blasinsky (North Royalton, OH) – into the wind.

It was 12-7 at the half and the final was 18-13. Hargrave was relatively undisciplined and penalty prone. I wouldn’t be shocked if they had 100 yards of penalties or more, including 3 or 4 personal fouls (a couple of which were unsportsmanlike conduct). They won on sheer talent and size. Like I said, this is a team that rarely runs our offense except for these games, so try to look more at individual performances than the W/L column for this one.

If we can expect
The defense to play like this,
Houston here we come.

For a school so small, Navy is no stranger to big crowds and big games. Bowls, Army-Navy, and games against Notre Dame are annual events on the Navy schedule, as is the occasional contest against teams like Maryland, Stanford, and Pitt. Still, there are big crowds, and there are big crowds. Games at Ohio Stadium are most certainly the latter. Navy probably hasn’t played in front of a crowd as big as the 105,000 that showed up for Saturday’s game since the 1926 Army-Navy game, but if the Mids had felt any stage fright, they didn’t show it. Navy went toe-to-toe with #6 Ohio State on Saturday, but fell short, 31-27.

Half of me wants to feel giddy after seeing the Mids take the #6 team in the country down to the wire. Conventional wisdom said that Navy would have to play a perfect game to beat Ohio State, and maybe that’s still true. But if you were told before the game that Navy would be -2 in turnovers, would you think that they’d have a shot to tie the game with a little more than two minutes left? If you were told that Ohio State’s average starting field position for the game would be their own 42-yard line, would you think that Navy’s defense would have a chance? Ohio State made their fair share of mistakes as well– dropped passes, Jim Tressel’s Charlie Weatherbie moment, Pryor’s interception– but there was more to the closeness of the game than that. Navy belonged on that field, and they played like it.

On the other hand, the other half of me would like to remind you that it was, in fact, a loss. You might recall that Air Force took Tennessee to the brink in 2006 before falling, 31-30. You might also recall that Air Force stunk that year, finishing 4-8 and losing to both San Diego State (3-9) and UNLV (2-10). Now, I certainly don’t expect a 4-win season, but it just serves to demonstrate that there’s only so much you can take from one game. It was a long offseason, and a lot of energy was focused on preparing for this game. Now that it’s over, there’s a long season ahead. It will be very difficult to match the focus and intensity of the preparation that went into that first game.

Oh, but what a first game it was. It started out somewhat forebodingly, as what appeared to be a fairly obvous block in the back went uncalled and led to an Ohio State kickoff return all the way to the Navy 49. Navy’s defense spent spring and fall practice emphasizing the importance of getting off the field on third down, but the ensuing drive included conversions on 3rd & 8 and 3rd & 10 on the way to the game’s first touchdown. But the Mids answered with a touchdown of their own, driving 80 yards on 15 plays. It would be Navy’s only points of the half, with their remaining drives resulting in two punts and a fumble. Ohio State, on the other hand, was able to capitalize on good field position, and took a 20-7 lead into the break. The second half didn’t start out any better, as a rookie mistake from Gee Gee Greene and a dropped pitch by Marcus Curry forced the Mids to punt from the shadow of their own goal post. The Buckeyes had good field position after the punt, but self-destructed with penalties and punted themselves, again putting Navy on their own 1-yard line. This time the Mids responded, and they spent the next eight and a half minutes going 99 yards and scoring on a Ricky Dobbs pass to Marcus Curry.

Unfortunately, Navy’s next two posessions resulted in turnovers. The first was a tough fumble by Mario Washington as he was just fighting to keep posession as he went down. Ohio State was able to turn that into a touchdown and a 29-14 lead. The second turnover was an interception. The Buckeyes took posession and drove all the way to the Navy 14, and could have kicked a field goal to go up by three scores and put the game out of reach. For reasons unexplained, Jim Tressel did not elect to do so, and it cost him. After stopping Ohio State on 4th & 2, Ricky Dobbs connected with Marcus Curry, who ran past a gambling Ohio State DB and took the ball 85 yards for a touchdown. Then it was Ohio State’s turn to turn the ball over; Emmett Merchant picked off Terrelle Pryor and rambled down to the Ohio State 33. Three plays later, Ricky Dobbs trotted into the end zone, and the Mids were a two-point conversion away from tying the game. But Dobbs’ pass was intercepted and returned for two points the other way, and after a failed onside kick attempt, Ohio State ran out the clock.

If you hadn’t watched the game, maybe you’d think that Ohio State just called a vanilla game, hoping to avoid tipping their hand before their “real” opener this week against USC. That wasn’t the case. I wrote last week that I thought Tressel would keep the ball on the ground, hoping to avoid taking chances through the air in a game they should have (on paper) won easily. Boy, was I wrong. Ohio State came out throwing early and often, and with some success. Well, at least until Terrelle Pryor’s interception gave Navy a chance to tie the game, anyway. When the Buckeyes did elect to run the ball, Navy’s defense more than held their ground. It wasn’t until the second half, when they started running outside with the option, that Ohio State started to see any real success in the running game. Navy was able to put pressure on Pryor in the pash rush as well, but this is the one area where Ohio State’s physical superiority played a big factor. Usually Coach Green doesn’t like to blitz too much early in the game in order to keep from giving the offense a chance to adjust. He came after Pryor quite a bit on Saturday, though. Pryor was so friggin’ huge that he was able to shed off the blitzing linebackers and get the pass off. Without such a monster at quarterback, this might have been a much different game.

But schools like Ohio State can recruit monsters, which is how they got to be Ohio State in the first place. On to the video.

We’ll start with the number one question going into the game: the nose guard position. How would Jordan Stephens and Chase Burge do filling in for Nate Frazier? In a word, great.

You can see that the nose guards didn’t just absorb blocks; they made plays. If this is what we can expect every week, than this will be a very good defense indeed.

The nose guards weren’t the only playmakers on the defensive line:

I particularly like Nechak’s play, coming from five yards behind the line of scrimmage to tackle Terrelle Pryor from behind. While Ohio State had some holes to fill on the offensive line, they’re still Ohio State. The defensive line performed about as well as we could have hoped.

And then, of course, there was the offense. It appeared that the Ohio State game plan revolved around stopping the fullback. In doing so, they actually made it easier to run up the middle; of Navy’s 186 rushing yards, 153 came from the quarterback and the fullbacks. There are a couple of reasons for this. One thing Ohio State tried to do was bring the linebackers up to fill the A-gaps. You’d think that this would be a problem, but in reality the opposite is true. The fullback gets to the line of scrimmage so quickly in this offense that he’ll run right by the linebacker. That also means that once the fullback hits the line, he has a free path to the secondary. That’s exactly what happened on this next play; the guard actually whiffed on the block, but Alex Teich was already gone by the time the LB knew what happened:

Ohio State usually runs a 4-3 defense, but against the Mids they ran more of a 3-4 look, especially in the first half. They brought a linebacker up to the line of scrimmage on one side, and stood a defensive end in a 2-point stance on the other side. They liked to blitz them both, and it worked a couple times. The blitz on the backside caused Ricky’s fumble, for example. There is also the first play of this next video. Here, Ricky avoids the rush, but is brought down when the DT recovers from his cut block to make the play. On Navy’s first touchdown,  Ohio State did the exact same thing, only this time, the tackle missed his block. Missing that block is actually what allowed Ricky to get lose up the middle; the DT was so committed to the fullback that Ricky ran right behind him.

When Ohio State lined up more in their traditional 4-3, they had their middle linebacker jump at the fullback’s first move towards the line of scrimmage. This made the fullback trap very effective; the LB would aim for one gap, but the FB cut back and hit another gap. It also set up Ricky’s second TD run. This wasn’t a midline option; this was just the usual short yardage play where the fullback acts as the lead blocker for the QB. But the MLB committed to the fullback, and the safety was following the tail motion slotback. There was nobody left to tackle Ricky as he marched up the middle.

A couple other tidbits…

Here’s the fine line between success and failure. Ricky had a pass batted down at the line of scrimmage, but it wasn’t his fault. The tackle is supposed to cut his man to the ground to open a passing lane. Matt Molloy couldn’t do it the first time, but came through on his second try:

Kaipo was harshly criticized for throwing an interception on the same play in the 2007 Rutgers game, but it wasn’t his fault then, either.

We talked a little about how some option blocking schemes set up various pass patterns, and we could see that on Saturday. Here we have the triple option run to the weak side of the trips formation. We saw Georgia Tech run this play against Georgia with success, and it worked here too. Gary Myers blocked (angrily) the safety spying on Bobby Doyle, and the corner followed him before adjusting to make the tackle. On the very next play, Coach Jasper called play action, with Myers looking like he’s going to block the safety again, but instead continuing on his route:

It was incomplete, but it’s good to see how the gears turn.

There’s only so much you can take from one game. Nevertheless, there were a lot of good first impressions. The offensive line certainly wasn’t overwhelmed. Blake Carter and Ross Pospisil tackled very well, as did the team in general. The passing game was all that we hoped it would be; 3rd & long is no longer a death sentence. Perhaps most importantly, the defense responded after the first quarter to hold Ohio State to 3/12 on third down conversions, including 0/5 in the second half. There is a lot to build on here. And build they must. We get annoyed by the constant predictions of Navy’s demise year after year. Air Force is going to overtake Navy, they say. It’s games like this that will change that perception, but only if Navy goes on to a good season. Win, and this game becomes evidence that Navy is, in fact, a good football team. Lose, and Saturday’s effort falls into the dustbin of countless past “fluke” games in college football history.

Programming note: Believe it or not, I haven’t been to a home football game since the stadium was renovated. Bowl games, away games, spring games, and lacrosse games, yes. Home football, no. That is changing this week, as I’m headed up tomorrow. However, I don’t know what my schedule is going to be like, so don’t freak out if Louisiana Tech posts are kind of lacking this week. The world probably needs a break from my crap anyway.

Oh, and one more thing… I know I said I didn’t like the whole “don’t boo Navy” thing, but even I thought it was cool for both teams to run onto the field together.

Hard not to feel proud.
No moral victories, but
No shame in this loss.

I don’t know if I’m ready for football to start. Sure, the offseason can be a dismal time for the unimaginative blogger; it’s a bit of a struggle find something interesting write about in that vast expanse between actual, you know, games. But at least during the offseason I have the time to think of these things at my own leisure. Sadly (for me), that isn’t so once the season begins. Now there’s all kinds of stuff to write about, but I can’t take three lazy, glorious weeks to write it. You people are so demanding. There isn’t even a bye week this season until the end of November! Friggin’ Hawaii road games… Hopefully my performance at the paying job so far this year has been stellar, because the next four months are going to be spent averaging things right back down to mediocre. Time, tide, formation, and Ohio State wait for no one. It’s football season again.

Continue reading “GAME WEEK: OHIO STATE” →

It’s been a few days now since the Nate Frazier news dropped. The team is moving on, as is Nate, although his first plan appears to have been derailed. There really isn’t all that much else to say on the subject, but it just feels like there should be more. Where’s the analysis? What’s the impact? The truth is that we’ll never really know. The one thing we do know is that whoever steps in at nose guard– whether it’s Chase Burge, Jordan Stephens, someone else, or most likely a combination of the three– is not only getting a tremendous opportunity, but is also going to be stuck with hearing “if Nate was here” from fans all season (see: Johnson, Paul). That’s unfortunate, even if it sort of comes with the territory. It’s hard enough to replace a player as good as Nate. It’s almost impossible to measure up to the mythical image of Nate that people are inevitably going to develop (if they haven’t already).

Continue reading “PASSING THOUGHTS” →

Bill Wagner is reporting that starting nose guard and beastmaster Nate Frazier has been dismissed from the team. This is bad in so many ways. Everyone knows that the key to a good 3-4 defense is having that talented nose guard that can cover two gaps and draw a double-team, keeping offensive linemen occupied and allowing the linebackers to move to the ball. Nate really grew into that role last year, and a big part of the optimism people had about the defense this year came from the anticipation that he would continue that development and be even more dominating. So much for that.

As far as the big picture goes, losing Nate puts more pressure on the offense. Just as the offense carried the defense in 2007, the defense was expected to do the same for the offense this year, with that unit breaking in new starters at almost every position. Losing what is arguably your defense’s best player makes that task a bit more difficult.

The #2 NG on the depth chart as of now is junior Chase Burge (6-4, 270).