Report Card From Navy’s 48-45 Come From Behind Win Against Air Force
This w
as a tale of two halves with one of the most exciting finishes ever to a Commander-in-Chief Trophy game played at Annapolis today.
Navy outscored Air Force 28-10 in the first half but in the second half, Air Force came back with a vengeance and with 1:53 left in the game, the Falcons (1-4) took the lead 45-41 when QB Arion Worthman hit Marcus Bennett on a 51-yard TD pass. But Navy (5-0) would get the ball for one final drive and MAN was it a drive!
The Midshipmen would go 75 yards in 11 plays in 1:38. Faced with 4th and 3 at their own 32, it looked like it was not going to be their day. With a completion from QB Zach Abey to Brandon Colon for 25 yards to the Air Force 43. Seven plays later, on 3rd and 10 at the Air Force 16, Abey would throw his second TD pass of the game when he hit his favorite target for the first time in the game, TE Tyler Carmona. With just :17 seconds left on the clock, Navy came back from behind and held on to win 48-45.
Now, to the grades based upon my blog from earlier in the week.
First Key … Effective Running Game … Overall Grade: A+
With a total of 471 rushing yards on just 57 carries, Navy would rush for four TDs. Abey would be the leader rusher with 214 yards and 2 TDs, follow by SB Malcolm Perry with 127 and 1 TD. With these yards, Navy is now leading the FBS in rushing offense.
Second Key … Turnovers … Overall Grade: A
In the first half, the Midshipmen’s defense was stellar. The were able to sack Worthman twice, once causing him to fumble (which was two of three fumble recoveries in the game). Navy had no turnovers but the overall defense was a completely different story in the second half.
Third Key … Abey Throwing The Ball More … Overall Grade: B-
Coming into Saturday’s game, Abey had only thrown the ball 18 times in four games. Today, he would throw the ball 11 times, but only had four completions (for 86 yards) but he made the most out of them, as two of them were touchdown passes. It was the first time that Carmona was not the highest.
Overall Performance Grade: C
If we would only have to grade Navy from the first half, it was an B+. Only giving up 10 points but did allow Air Force 248 offense yards but their defense helped out on the back to back drives when they recovered fumbles.
Up 28-10 at halftime, it appeared Navy was going to have an easy afternoon. But then the third quarter started and Air Force came out guns a-blazin’ where they would score a touchdown on their first five drives in the second half (their final drive was only :15 seconds and Air Force could only muster one yard on two plays). Second half grade was an F.
Next week, Navy goes back to it’s American Athletic Conference schedule when they travel to play Memphis (4-1, 1-1 AAC). Game time is 3:45 pm and the game can be seen on ESPNU.
