Army's Loss to Boston College Today.

[Boris23]

I believe that this loss is solidly representative of some of the on-going problems created by Coach Monken's insistence on trying to elevate a pass based offense from a pro-set for which his team's personnel has a limited upside, and an unwillingness to remedy problematic interior line play, coupled with a general lack of staff preparedness in readying his team with two weeks preparation for a dangerous opponent in Boston College with skilled players, a very good quarterback and in a crucial point of the season for their program.

The interior offensive line play will not improve until Coaches Mike Viti and Matt Drinkell are complemented, if not superseded, by a veteran and competent offensive line coach who specializes in interior line play and Special Teams Coach Saturnino is assisted by a competent, energetic special teams coach who can help him maintain a consistent level of execution.

Coach Monken has, on a stand alone basis, in my subjective opinion, never been a competent coordinator of his team's offensive preparations and performance, and the slip-shod lack of preparation, in game management of personnel, and an overall lack of situational awareness, which can be trained, has been a hallmark of his teams since he arrived at West Point. His flaws, although readily apparent, were hidden during the Bradshaw years by the superior coaching of the offensive line and a fullback based triple option. The present offensive line has some really solld players, but cannot operate at maximum efficiency due to an offensive model that does not make full use of their talent and physical strength. The fact that Army was essentially working with three fullbacks and a generational option quarterback in Ahmad Bradshaw made those teams unique.

Bryson Daily is a gifted tough quarterback, I think clearly the best since Bradshaw, who has not been fully prepared to utilize his skills and who should be operating for a significant period of time from under center..

Based upon the comments made by quarterback Tyler last year, I do not believe that Bryson Daily truly had the latitude to do anything other than to pitch the ball on those two plays, nor was the offense sufficiently trained up to the level required for their successful execution. In this inability to drill, scrimmage and extensively prepare his offensive unit, Coach Monken is vastly inferior to Coach Earl "Red" Blaik and significantly behind Coach Jim Young.

Finally, I believe that Coach Monken should have gone for the first down on the fourth down and four situation, after the penalized pitch-out. Army had the personnel to convert the play and the series was the decisive one of the game. Coach Monken needed to keep Boston College's quarterback Castellanos off of the field. The failure to make the attempt to convert that fourth down play, subjectively, exhibited a lack of both situational awareness and of competitive maturity and "heart".

Army may well yet qualify for a bowl game and beat both Navy and Air Force. This will be a "crap-shoot", at best, however.

[wpgrad]

Coach Young played 4 1-AA schools a year. Make those harder opponents and he isnt even getting to the bowl games

And red blaik benefited immensely from ww2

[Oliphant]

ULM just lost 55-7 to 2-3 South Alabama.

[Oliphant]

Blaik went 9-0 in 1949 and 8-0-1 in 1958.

He won outside of WW2.

[RABBLE]

Coach Young played 4 1-AA schools a year. Make those harder opponents and he isnt even getting to the bowl games

And red blaik benefited immensely from ww2

Yeah but BS also.

Frank Leahy never lost a damn game between 1946 and 1950 because he had returning WW2 veterans on those teams who played in 1942-43. Some of those guys were 27-28years of age in 1949 and they played teams with players 19 years old as late as 1949. In 1950, they finally got beat when all the old guys got thru playing in college.

[PrideandDream]

There’s lost of problems from today. Penalties, defense, execution, etc. But the biggest issue is offense. Bottom line is we aren’t consistent enough moving the ball for 60 minutes.

I’ve seen no advantage to this new offense.

Different? Yes in some ways.
Better? Nope.

I still contend that when we get to Air Force the stark difference in this decision to change will be in full display. The cut block rule was not reason enough to change. Thatcher hasn’t brought such creativity that we are better.

Bigger o line? Sure but still horrible in pass blocking. Lack of a quick hitting inside run game hurts us every series.

Here's the stat that tells me what I know to be true; 37% on 3rd down so far this year.

In 2020, 2021, and 2022 that number was more like 45% conversion rate. We are more consistently behind the sticks. I think it also shows in our average rushing yards per game which is down vs the last 3 years by about 80 yards a game. We have more than made up for it in our passing yards but what you have to remember is that we have only completed about half of our passes but it's not turning in to points which tells me we are inconsistent with it.

Look it's still a game of execution. And if you change the offense you still have to execute. I'll point out the pass to Lingenfelter today on the goal line. A simple pitch and catch and we failed to execute. That lead to a Field Goal instead of a touchdown. That conversion might have at least forced overtime. But when we get into the red zone we should be able to pound the ball and run it in on anyone. But we saw today another flashback to what we saw vs ULM which was ineptness in the Red Zone. We don't have the physical identity we've had before. That's and issue because we don't have the athletes offensively to match up each week against decent teams. I think the worst part for me is I don't see us getting much better. Same level of inconsistency since week 1. Maybe we get a win next week but Troy looks to be another mid level team. Beatable for sure but if we play only a half on offense again and can't get stops on defense well then we could be 2-4 headed to Baton Rouge to face the Tigers.

PD

[WrekDivr]

Another big problem is our defense. They looked good vs. ULM (who just scored all of 7 points vs. South Alabama). They are good enough when we keep the ball for 40 min, but can’t consistently get stops when the game goes the other way. We have some great players, but our only path to victory is through ball control.

BTW, the only FBS QB with more yards than BC’s is AF’s Laurier. Not looking forward to that game.

I want to be optimistic, but yesterday hurt bad.

[gabn92]

Yesterday's loss was a sad dose of reality for me. This team is simply not very good and it's going to take more than a couple of games or a bye week to improve. I was optimistic heading into the season that the changes weren't that dramatic and with returning talent, consistency with most of the coaching staff, that a new offensive scheme could be implemented successfully relatively quickly.

Results on the field are telling a different story. This is going to be a longer process, if it will work at all. There are glimmers of hope, but too much inconsistency and potentially this is not "complementary" football for Army if we can't sustain drives offensively to minimize the time the D is on the field.

Time will tell, but I'm recalibrating hopes and expectations. For me: beating Navy remains the only realistic hope for this season. I don't think the CIC trophy is realistic...AF is going to kill us. I don't see enough potential wins on this schedule to realistically think a winning season or bowl game is achievable.

Navy is not a strong team, but appears to be improving as the season goes along. That game won't be easy, but I think is the only remaining goal that looks achievable.

I hope I'm wrong and something magically "clicks" with this team and they find some consistency on Offense. But, until they show me on the field that they can actually do that...I'm not hopeful about much for the remainder of this season. 3-9 or 4-8 seem likely to be the end result.

[BlackKnight09]

There’s lost of problems from today. Penalties, defense, execution, etc. But the biggest issue is offense. Bottom line is we aren’t consistent enough moving the ball for 60 minutes.

I’ve seen no advantage to this new offense.

Different? Yes in some ways.
Better? Nope.

I still contend that when we get to Air Force the stark difference in this decision to change will be in full display. The cut block rule was not reason enough to change. Thatcher hasn’t brought such creativity that we are better.

Bigger o line? Sure but still horrible in pass blocking. Lack of a quick hitting inside run game hurts us every series.

Here's the stat that tells me what I know to be true; 37% on 3rd down so far this year.

In 2020, 2021, and 2022 that number was more like 45% conversion rate. We are more consistently behind the sticks. I think it also shows in our average rushing yards per game which is down vs the last 3 years by about 80 yards a game. We have more than made up for it in our passing yards but what you have to remember is that we have only completed about half of our passes but it's not turning in to points which tells me we are inconsistent with it.

Look it's still a game of execution. And if you change the offense you still have to execute. I'll point out the pass to Lingenfelter today on the goal line. A simple pitch and catch and we failed to execute. That lead to a Field Goal instead of a touchdown. That conversion might have at least forced overtime. But when we get into the red zone we should be able to pound the ball and run it in on anyone. But we saw today another flashback to what we saw vs ULM which was ineptness in the Red Zone. We don't have the physical identity we've had before. That's and issue because we don't have the athletes offensively to match up each week against decent teams. I think the worst part for me is I don't see us getting much better. Same level of inconsistency since week 1. Maybe we get a win next week but Troy looks to be another mid level team. Beatable for sure but if we play only a half on offense again and can't get stops on defense well then we could be 2-4 headed to Baton Rouge to face the Tigers.

PD

I agree with you. The inconsistency is maddening and has shown to be a critical component of our failure to win games this year. That pass to the open man should’ve been executed, rain or not.

I wonder though….how much of this lack of consistency, if any, do you attribute to the players adjusting to a new offensive system vs the system failing?

Plays like the failed touchdown which you correctly called out are clearly a lack of execution, not a failure of scheme. But is the lack of an inside running game scheme or execution? Is failure to execute causing the middle to be clogged up or are we simply not calling a necessary amount runs up the middle to open things up? (Wouldn’t that be ironic after all the complaints about Davis!)

I don’t have the answers. Just curious what your take is.

[Armyfaninpa]

Another big problem is our defense. They looked good vs. ULM (who just scored all of 7 points vs. South Alabama). They are good enough when we keep the ball for 40 min, but can’t consistently get stops when the game goes the other way. We have some great players, but our only path to victory is through ball control.

BTW, the only FBS QB with more yards than BC’s is AF’s Laurier. Not looking forward to that game.

I want to be optimistic, but yesterday hurt bad.

You know you're in trouble when the highlight reel play of the day is a hit by the umpire laying out the QB. Army sure could have used him on some of those 4th down plays down the stretch!

Yet another game of good half/bad half, only this time in reverse (Bad 1H, Good 2H). The team is simply not good enough to overcome dumb mistakes. They got away with a dumb offsides call on the punt on the first drive, but not able to overcome TO for 12 men on field for FG attempt at the end of half and the illegal forward pass. BTW, had it not been for that play, the discussion would have been about the great game Daily had. Good decision making all the way until THAT PLAY. I know he was trying to make a play, but when you're up by 4 pts late in the 4Q, making a play means keeping the chains moving and keeping your dog-tired defense off the field. Not sure if the defense was tired or just undersized, but they seemed to be in position to make a couple of 4th down stops but were not able to finish plays after initial contact.

I remain optimistic about the CIC. For the first time in years, they have an offense that doesn't think sending the QB off tackle is how you convert 3rd and long situations. I'd like to see AFA stuff 10 guys in the box like they've done in the past against this offense. My wish list is to make Daily a bit more careful with the ball and to have Buchanan carry more than once per game.