If you tuned in to CSTV on Saturday hoping to see wide-open, exciting football, you probably came away disappointed.

But if you wanted to see a Navy win, clinching a 5th straight winning season and sending the seniors out on top in their last appearance at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium, then you got your money’s worth.

It wasn’t the kind of game that’ll win CSTV any ratings wars, but that’s hardly what matters in Navy’s 35-24 win over Northern Illinois. Navy’s defense was reeling after hitting rock bottom against North Texas, and the offense had to keep pace with starting quarterback Kaipo-Noa Kaheaku-Enhada sidelined with a knee injury. It looked like the perfect formula for disappointment, but the Mids came through. 

Reading most of the postgame accounts and watching Coach Johnson’s press conference, the story of the game seems to be the performance of the defense. Am I the only one who wasn’t all that impressed? I mean, yes, it was better than North Texas. It was impossible not to be better than the North Texas game. But NIU was banged up and starting their backup quarterback. They were a running team anyway, so with their QB out it was pretty obvious what to expect. And when they did throw, we knew it wasn’t going to be downfield. We knew what was coming, yet Justin Anderson still ran for 140 yards and a touchdown. The Huskies were a ridiculous 7-7 on 4th down conversions. Maybe it was an improvement over last week, but I don’t think that the defense was any better than they had been the rest of the year. NIU just wasn’t very good offensively.

OK, maybe that’s a little harsh. There were some good things that stood out. First and foremost are the two sacks. There was better pressure on the quarterback overall even when it didn’t result in a sack. And despite allowing NIU to convert on all 7 of their 4th downs, they were only 7-21 on 3rd down– a HUGE improvement over weeks past. Hell, even having that many 3rd downs felt unusual. Ross Pospisil had 20 tackles, which he should have had the way NIU was running the ball; that means that he wasn’t out of position.

So maybe those praising the defense have a point. I’m not ready to hop on the bandwagon yet, though. NIU was a wounded team with a conservative, predictable gameplan, and still moved the ball pretty easily. If you’re optimistic, I hope it’s cautious optimism. The last time we were optimistic about the defense was after the Notre Dame game, and we know what happened the following week.

Moving right along, the other story of the game was the offensive game plan under Jarod Bryant. To say that it was conservative would be an understatement. We knew that was coming, though. I said on Friday to expect the offense to consist of a lot of midline option and a lot of toss sweeps, and that’s pretty much what we got. Jarod has trouble with triple option reads, so PJ just called plays that gave him the best chance to succeed. It worked.

Let’s take a look at the plays that were called, shall we? I was very intersted in how PJ would call a full game with Bryant at the helm, so I took note on each of Navy’s 11 drives. Here’s what I saw. Keep in mind that there are probably some mistakes in here, since I don’t know what was called in the huddle. Sometimes we’ll run a designed handoff showing an option look, and it’s hard to tell the difference. I took my best guess. Usually you can tell by looking at the quarterback’s eyes on the replay, but they didn’t show one for every play.

1st Drive

1. Designed handoff to FB
2. Toss sweep
3. Triple option, Bryant pitches, gain of 7
4. Give to Ballard, I think off the triple option
5. Triple option, Bryant pitches
6. Toss sweep
7. QB keeper for a 1st down
8. Give to FB (looked like it was by design and not an option)
9. QB keeper, stopped short of goal line
10. Toss sweep, Zerb TD

3 triple option plays, 7 predetermined runs (2 FB, 3 toss sweeps, 2 QB keepers)

2nd Drive

1. Toss sweep
2. Toss sweep (and a little awkward. It looked like Bryant called an audible, but Kettani didn’t hear it and ran to the wrong side. Play still worked, though)
3. Triple option give. (I think it was a triple option, anyway, although it might have been the midline)
4. Toss sweep, Zerb TD again.

1 triple option play, 3 predetermined runs (3 toss sweeps)

3rd Drive

1. Designed handoff to FB
2. Midline, Bryant keeps
3. Triple option, trainwreck. Mesh problems. Chop block penalty called, declined. Navy punts.

1 triple option play, 1 predetermined run ( FB), 1 midline option

4th Drive

1. Double/speed option
2. Double/speed option
3. PA pass, huge gain to Zerb
4. Double/speed option
5. Give to fullback (I think designed) w/option motion
6. Shun White on end around/counter play that I’ve never seen before. 3rd & 8, timeout
7. Midline, Bryant keeps for huge gain
8. False start penalty; next play, double/speed option, Shun White TD

0 triple option plays, 2 predetermined runs (1 slotback counter, 1 FB give), 1 midline option, 4 speed option, 1 pass

5th drive

1. Designed give to the FB
2. Triple option, give to FB
3. 3rd & 6, pass broken up. Navy punts.

1 triple option play, 1 predetermined run, 1 pass.

6th Drive (last drive of the 1st half)

1. QB draw
2. FB screen. FG attempt was short

0 triple option plays, 1 predetermined run (QB draw), 1 pass

7th Drive (opening drive of the 2nd half)

1. Midline, FB give
2. Midline, QB keep
3. Midline, QB keep
4. Midline, QB keep
5. Midline, QB keep
6. Pass, slotback in the flat
7. Midline, QB keep
8. Toss sweep
9. Midline, QB keep
10. Midline, QB keep
11. Toss sweep. 4th & 2, drew NIU offside.
12. Toss sweep
13. Toss sweep
14. Designed QB keeper, TD

0 triple option plays, 5 predetermined runs (4 toss sweeps, 1 QB keeper), 8 midline option, 1 pass

8th Drive

1. Counter option, pitch
2. Midline, QB keep
3. Toss sweep (stuffed)
4. Pass
5. 4th & 5. Rollout pass, dropped.

0 triple option plays, 1 predetermined run (toss sweep), 1 midline option, 1 counter option, 2 passes.

One quick note: the counter option was good for 15 yards and was set up by all the midline option runs on the previous drive. Running up the middle that much causes the defensive ends to cheat towards the inside, which makes them easier to block on the counter option.

9th Drive

1. Midline, QB keep
2. Midline, QB keep
3. Triple option, pitch (looked like misssed read)
4. Midline, QB keep
5. I have no idea what I just saw… looked like designed QB keep
6. Designed rollout QB keep
7. Same crazy play I hadn’t seen before, QB keep
8. Midline, QB keep
9. Designed rollout QB keep
10. Counter option, pitch to Zerb, TD

1 triple option play, 4 predetermined runs (QB keepers), 4 midline option, 1 counter option.

This was the most interesting drive of the game for me. I’ve watched a lot of Paul Johnson football going back a long way, and I had never seen the QB keeper he called here. The play looked like it was an option play, only it couldn’t have been because Bryant wasn’t facing the direction he would end up running. On the triple option play, I said it looked like a missed read but I’m not sure that it was truly a triple option. I think that PJ ran those two midline options to start the drive and saw that the DE was taking the fullback. It looked like he called the triple on the next play but told Jarod to not to give to the fullback, expecting the DE to play the dive again. I might be out to lunch on that one. Also, once again the counter option is set up by the midline.

10th Drive

1. Midline, QB keep (Holding)
2. Midline QB keep (Personal foul)
3. FB trap
4. 3rd & 23… Midline, FB give.

0 triple option plays, 1 predetermined run (FB trap), 3 midline option.

11th Drive

1. Midline, QB keep
2. Midline, QB keep
3. Troy Goss in to take a knee

0 triple option plays, 2 midline

OK, so let’s tally it up. That’s 65 plays, including penalties and not including taking a knee. Only 7 out of our 65 plays were the triple option– roughly 11%. 26 were predetermined runs, or 40%. There were 6 pass plays, or 9%. That leaves 26 plays, another 40%, for a combination of midline option, counter option, and speed option; those are all option plays with only one read, as opposed to triple option plays which have 2 reads. So on our running plays the ratio of non-triple option runs to triple option runs was 8:1. Jarod has trouble with his reads. PJ knows this, and didn’t put him in a position to make a mistake.

Birddog Game Balls

— The offensive line: When the offense is as conservative as we saw on Saturday, you had better execute. The line did, and Navy ran for 359 yards.

— Jarod Bryant: He had 27 carries for 139 yards, and most importantly he didn’t turn the ball over. The playbook might shrink when he’s in the game, but Jarod did his job.

— Ross Pospisil: 20 tackles. Yo.

— Corey Johnson: Corey appeared to have found a niche on special teams, covering kicks and using his basketball ability to serve as a jumper on field goal & extra point attempts. The coaches must have seen something last week, because he got even more playing time against Northern Illinois. Coming in at linebacker, Johnson didn’t have the most incredible game statistically (4 tackles), but he made a very athletic play to deflect a pass that Greg Thrasher was able to pick off. He also was able to generate a little bit of pressure on the quarterback. Corey isn’t graduating until next December, so there is a chance that he could be back for another season. With the progress that he’s made so far this season after not having played for years, maybe there’s a potential playmaker in Johnson.

— Zerbin Singleton: Duh.

I have seen some more
exciting games in my life.
But a win’s a win.

The 2006 Poinsettia Bowl runners-up take on the 2005 Poinsettia Bowl champions on Saturday as the Northern Illinois Huskies make the trip out to Annapolis to take on the Mids on Senior Day. NIU enters the game with a 2-8 record, 1-5 in the MAC. The game is a 3:30 start this week, so don’t be surprised if you tune into CSTV at 1:00 and get the second quarter of the VMI-Citadel game. If you like option football, you might want to tune into that game anyway. VMI’s offensive coordinator is Brent Davis, who coached running backs for Paul Johnson at Georgia Southern. When Johnson left for Navy, Davis stayed on as GSU’s offensive line coach under Mike Sewak. He runs an offense that’s based on what he did in Statesboro.

Anyway, moving right along… Northern Illinois has hit some hard times this season, but they’ve been a solid team for years under head coach Joe Novak. The Huskies went 3-30 in Novak’s first three years, but NIU’s patience paid off and he was able to turn things around after that. His 2003 team went 10-2 with wins over Maryland, Alabama, and Iowa State, and there were a lot of people at the time who felt that NIU should have received the at-large berth in the Houston Bowl that was instead given to Navy. Records are, of course, secondary to ticket sales when it comes to bowl games, but that’s beside the point. Novak is a good coach, and he puts together solid teams.

So what gives this season? Graduation losses– especially that of all-world RB Garrett Wolfe– meant that the Huskies figured to take at least a little bit of a step backward. Not this much, though. No, this year almost seems cursed as Novak’s team has been hit hard by injuries. You think Navy is banged up? As of last week, 26 NIU players have had to sit out at least one game due to injury. Fourteen of those players were starters. Ten of them are out for the season. It’s as if Shaun Carney decided to make a proclamation that he just can’t see Northern Illinois players getting hurt. And if you think that Navy’s secondary has issues, check this out: six NIU defensive linemen are out for the season. Six! Like Navy, NIU has also lost their defensive captain for the year, linebacker Tim McCarthy. So when you see stats like Northern Illinois being ranked 108th in rushing defense, you know why.

One player to watch that has thus far avoided the injury bug is DE Larry English. English, a 6-3, 255 lb. junior, is on the watch list for both the Lombardi and Nagurski awards and leads the MAC in both sacks per game and tackles for loss per game. Against Idaho he had 12 tackles, 5 sacks, and returned a fumble for a touchdown. The 5 sacks English had in that game are more than half of what the entire Navy team has all year.

Last week against Kent State, it looked like NIU might have finally turned things around. The Huskies put up 510 yards of offense in a 27-20 win over the MAC’s top rushing team. NIU has become a poor man’s Tailback U under Novak, with running backs like Wolfe and Michael Turner topping the 1,000-yard mark in each of the past 9 seasons. Justin Anderson made this the 9th consecutive season last week, as his 19 carries for 98 yards and 2 TDs in the first half gave him 1,096 yards for the year. Just as things looked like they were going OK, though, the curse struck again. Anderson, a redshirt sophomore, sat out most of the second half of the game with an injury. But the Huskies wouldn’t be denied, as David Bryant picked up the slack with 28 caries and 110 yards of his own. NIU quarterback Dan Nicholson had his most efficient game of the season, throwing for 275 yards and 2 touchdowns on 21-28 passing.

But it was just too good to last. Anderson is expected to play this week, but Bryant is questionable. If Anderson goes down again, NIU is left with a couple of safeties as their emergency running backs since their other tailback, Montell Clanton, is already out for the year. And now Nicholson is out with his second concussion of the season, meaning backup Ryan Morris will probably get the start at quarterback. If there was ever a week for Navy’s defense to come alive, this is it. At least on paper, anyway. Not that paper matchups have meant much up to this point.

Injuries are the big news out of Annapolis too, as Jarod Bryant will get the start at quarterback instead of Kaipo. Kaipo’s knee was banged up against North Texas, and he was unable to practice all week. Hopefully he’ll be healed enough to be back for the Army game, but for now he’s tossing the keys to PJ’s steamroller over to Bryant. Jarod ran well against the Mean Green last week, running for 57 yards and a touchdown in the second half. He seems to get better every time he gets in the game, as that performance followed up another good relief appearance versus Delaware. Whether it’s in an effort to accentuate Jarod’s strengths or hide Jarod’s weaknesses, PJ likes to run between the tackles more, at least in the option game, when Bryant is behind center. Bryant is considered by most to be a better inside runner than Kaipo, and he’s had trouble reading the pitch key on the triple option in the past. Expect to see a healthy dose of the midline option this week, with some toss sweeps for good measure. This will be Jarod’s first career regular season start, with his only other start coming in the first series of the Meineke Car Care Bowl last season.

And so, the matchup is set. Since 2003, Navy has averaged 49 points per game on Senior Day. Hopefully we’ll see a similar performance this year so those seniors that don’t always get a lot of playing time can have one last chance to take the field at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium.

Don’t Miss: If you haven’t already seen it, Bill Wagner’s piece on the defense this week is a must-read. I don’t see it posted on the Capital’s site yet, but keep checking.

EDIT: Here it is.

Service Selection: Speaking of the seniors, service selection was this week. Congratulations to the entire class of 2008! Here’s the list of football seniors as sent out by Navy SID Scott Strasemeier:

Jonathan Alvarado (Baton Rouge,La.)-Marine Corps Ground, Adam Ballard (Lewisville, Texas)-Marine Corps Ground, Paul Bridgers (Gaithersburg, Md.)-Navy Pilot, Joey Bullen (St. Simons Island, Ga.)-Intelligence; Reggie Campbell (Sanford, Fla.)-Navy Pilot, Ben Gabbard (Arnold, Md.)-Naval Flight Officer, Troy Goss (Shelby, N.C.)-Marine Corps Ground,  Antron Harper (Eastman, Ga.)-Surface Warfare. Matt Humiston (Kennedale, Texas)-Marine Corps Ground, Reyn Kaupiko (Honolulu, Hawaii)-Surface Warfare, Chris Kuhar-Pitters (Spokane, Wash.)-Navy Pilot, Josh Meek (Flower Mound, Texas) Submarine (Nuclear), Matt Oberlander (Pickerington, Ohio)-Naval Flight Officer, Jordan Reagan (Carrollton, Texas)-Surface Warfare, Dell Robinson (Lindenwold, N.J.)-Marine Corps Ground, Zerbin Singleton (Decatur, Ga.)-Marine Corps Pilot, Irv Spencer (Oakwood Village, Ohio)-Surface Warfare, Greg Thrasher (Carrollton, Texas)-Surface Warfare, Greg Veteto (Corpus Christi, Texas)-Marine Corps Ground, OJ Washington (Tacoma, Wash.)-Surface Warfare, Matt Wimsatt (Raleigh, N.C.)-Marine Corps Ground, Jordan Young (Zanesville, Ohio)-Naval Flight Officer.

You know you let it creep into your mind, Navy fan. You know that when North Texas scored to take a 21-3 lead, you thought that Navy was just having a “letdown” game after finally beating Notre Dame. You figured that Navy had a hard time getting focused during practice this week, and that coming out flat was a result of that. Fight it back. Don’t let yourself think that. You’ll just be setting yourself up for disappointment the rest of the year.

Records were falling left and right yesterday as Navy outlasted North Texas, 74-62, before 26,000 people at Fouts Field in Denton. Among the records set: the I-A record for most points in a game (136), the Navy school record for rushing yards in a game (572), and the most combined points scored in a half (94) and a quarter (63). Mean Green quarterback Giovanni Vizza’s 8 touchdown passes are a record for the most ever thrown in a single game by a freshman, and the 7 he threw in the first half tied the record for most in a half thrown by anyone.

Coach Johnson was noticeably irritated after the game. This isn’t the first shootout that the Mids have been a part of this year. After those wins, PJ would usually say something like, “It doesn’t matter if we win 6-3 or 46-43 as long as we have more points than they do.” Not this week. Bill Wagner asked Coach what he thought about being a part of such a record-shattering game:

Wagner: So a game like this is historic. Is this the kind of historic game you want to be a part of?
Johnson: Nope. Nope. I don’t want to be a part of it. I’m happy for the kids that they won, and I’m happy that they’re resilient and they came back, but we’ve got to do something. We’ve got to make some changes, do something.

That wasn’t all.

Wagner: How about their freshman quarterback setting like 5 records tonight?
Johnson: Who hasn’t set a record against us?

We’ve heard him talk like that after a loss before, but not really after a win. Usually he’ll point out some mistakes, but follow that up with, “but they found a way to win.” After the North Texas game, Johnson didn’t mention anything along those lines unless he was prompted to. And even then it didn’t last. PJ was pissed.

It’s hard to blame him. Maybe you could dismiss the defense’s performance as a post-Notre Dame hangover if it wasn’t consistent with everything we’ve seen so far this year. Navy gives up 40 points and 469 yards per game. Navy is still last in I-A in pass effeciency defense. Notre Dame came into last week’s game averaging about 30 rushing yards per game, but put up 235 against the Mids. It doesn’t matter how the offense wants to attack; it’s going to work.

I don’t want to rattle off any more about the defense’s futility because you’ve heard it all before. The story here really isn’t that the defense stinks– and whatever momentum they might have had against Notre Dame is toast– it’s PJ’s postgame reaction. He says that changes need to be made, but the nature of those changes are unclear. The defense can’t really be simplified any more than it has been. Todd Dodge was a high school coach last year, and Navy put up a high school defense against him. He did to Navy what he did every week at Southlake Carroll. Fortunately, he was using a high school defense against Paul Johnson, and PJ ripped it to shreds.

It’s really a shame that the defense is so bad, because it overshadows the best Navy offensive performance in generations. The Mids piled up 680 yards of offense. Shun White and Zerbin Singleton both topped 100 rushing yards. Eric Kettani– a fullback, mind you– averaged 12 yards per carry. Adam Ballard had 87 yards and a touchdown in front of friends & family. Kaipo threw for 108 yards and a wide-open touchdown to Tyree Barnes, and he was relieved by Jarod Bryant, who ran for 57 yards and a touchdown of his own in a little less than a half of work. Eight different mids scored a touchdown. Zerb had three. But instead of marveling at the awesomeness of the offense, we’re stuck worrying about the defense. Ten games into the season, we should be used to it by now. But if you’re like me, you aren’t.

I did mention that we won though, right? At 6-4, Navy is now officially Poinsettia Bowl bound. Hopefully the weather is better than what I’m seeing at the Chargers game right at the moment. Charlotte spoiled me last year, since I was able to drive. I forgot how friggin’ expensive airline tickets are around Christmas. Chet said in his pregame show interview that he expects Utah to be the opponent, with an outside shot at BYU or New Mexico. But we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.

Play of the game: Navy actually forced a 3 & out late in the 2nd quarter, trailing 49-38. After the punt, Navy got the ball at midfield with 24 seconds left in the half. The offense lined up in an unbalanced formation, and it left Reggie Campbell with one on one coverage on the short side of the field. Kaipo hit Reggie with a 47-yard pass down the sideline, and Zerbin Singleton punched it in on the next play. That cut the lead to 49-45 and allowed Navy to take the lead after they got the ball to start to the second half.

Birddog Game Ball: Greg Veteto. He got all of one punt in the game, but he made it count. Greg kicked a 51-yarder that was downed at the 2 yard line. Pinned back against their own end zone, the Mean Green were forced to call a couple of conservative plays that left them with a 3rd & 6. Vizza went back to pass, and completed it for what appeared to be a first down (shocking). But there was a flag on the field; holding in the end zone. That’s a safety. Reggie Campbell blasted past everyone and returned the ensuing free kick for a touchdown. That’s 9 points that were made possible by Veteto’s punt.

I think that Buddy
Green, even though I like him,
will need a realtor.