Season, future turned completely around!

[ARMORMAN]

Like a Phoenix rising from the ashes, ARMY turned everything around yesterday.

Friday, I was like that Dante mantra: "Abandon hope, all ye who enter here"...

Now, I'm like "The greatest of all Army Upsets!"

Just astounding.

ARMY was 2 and 6. Shut out in 2 straight. Offense, Defense, Special Teams all sputtering hopelessly. Embarrassed in Baton Rouge. Lost to a terrible FCS team. New offense looked awful. No hope, right?

But nope.

air force came in strutting around. Supremely over-confident. Calhoun even said that they "would not parade the CIC trophy around after the game....


But ARMY came loaded for bear. They were violent, angry, hungry, and steely-eyed. They were a totally different team. Offense scored 23 in the first half (then protected the ball and lead). Defense was freaking awesome, all game! Stopped their run, pass, everything. Special teams totally SPECIAL. Punts were all excellent. Kickoffs all through the end zone. And Maretzki??? Just freaking PERFECT. He's a goat-killer and now a zoom-killer. The kid is MONEY.

OK, ALL GOOD. Game balls/Ranger decals to Bryson, Bo, Maretzki, Lowin (and Woody/Monken)....I'm sure I missed many deserving others. BUT ALL GREAT EFFORTS.





small afterthoughts and BFO:

Bryson is an absolute BEAST. He's like Bradshaw, or Tebow. A rhino playing QB. But obviously, we cannot run him 36 times every game. We will hopefully open the playbook now and get Reed, Odoh, Buchanan, Robinson, Johnson, and others more carries. Those guys are all outstanding runners. That wheel route to T-Rob, for example, was low-risk and hi-return. Here's another thought: If we really wanna run the QB over and over, how 'bout Reed in that position now and then?... Just sayin

Did they bring in these officials from MacDill Air Force Base??? SO MANY horrible calls....

Can we please get under center for short yardage? QB push, or Jacobi up the gut would be unstoppable.


But back to the point:

AWESOME WIN. BEST SINCE 2016, AND BEST UPSET IN MY MEMORY. THANK YOU FOR RESTORING HOPE!!

[wpgrad]

I am not trying to pick a fight, but this is why i think it is ridiculous to want to throw out the offense and fire newly hired coaches before it is even november

Am I happy with the season before saturday? Of course not. In fact, this might be the first season in 2 decades I don't attend a game in person (still watch on tv). But do I trust Monken to know what he is doing? 100% yes.

Dude has won 5 of 7 versus AF (and 5/7 versus navy)which hasn't been done since 1972 to 1978. From 1989 to 2004, air force was 15-1 against us and that includes the much ballyhooed 1995 and 1996 teams (96 won, but 95 lost to AF by almost 3 touchdowns). Incredible. And now we go into Navy with a chance to be CIC again, which is rare enough for us that we should really just enjoy it.

I don't love 4-8 but if we finished 4-8 or 5-7 with a CiC trophy, I hate to tell everybody, but that is probably a top 6 or 7 season for us since the late 1990's.

Could we lose to holy cross? Would not surprise me one single bit.

But I trust that these coaches have us on the right path. And yesterday second half, while very ugly with all those 2 yard QB runs, was EXACTLY the way Army should play a 20 point lead. Burn the clock, secure the ball, and let the defense make plays.

[USMA76]

Walking along the concourse outside the stadium after the game yesterday, you could hear the Army team celebrating inside their locker room and it was absolutely joyous. Like their football team, the Air Force fans were shocked. They came to the game arrogant and overconfident and they walked out with a resounding "L."

After last week, I was seriously wondering if Monken had lost (or was starting to lose) the team. That concern is now gone. Let's go mash some squids and make sure Air Force has to ship the trophy to New York.

[ARMORMAN]

Yesterday was an incredible victory, and as I tried to convey, it was a stand-alone accomplishment. And like most other important wins, it was a total team effort. Coaches, players, offense, defense, special teams, etc, etc.

But as I also noted in a Blinding Flash of the Obvious, it was not perfect. What was most not perfect, imho, was the non-existent 2d half offense. Don't get me wrong. What we did was successful. We sat on our lead, held the ball, bled the clock, and watched the amazing defense shut them down. It worked, thank the gods. But is that "exactly like we should have played?" Not in my book.

What we did was successful, but as anyone knows, it was a very dangerous strategy. Like a "prevent defense", it can ofttimes prevent victory. We're lucky the af qb missed 2 wide open receivers for td's, for example. Here's the point: I don't think the "new offense" led us to victory yesterday. I think the "Old Army" philosophy of smash mouth football was what won it. We basically ran it between the tackles; down their throats; albeit from the gun vs under-center. And we did it with basically ONE MAN.

We were damned fortunate that the defense held together for 60 minutes, because we went 3 and out over and over and over in the 2d half, as you all saw. Maddening, actually. We could and should have done better. Defense handed us turnover after turnover and we rewarded them by going 3 and out too often. It worked, again, thankfully, but it's not a long-term working strategy. We can do better.

Soooooooo, at least imho, the jury on our new offense and our OC is still out, as it has been all year. Frankly, there were more than glimmers of hope in the 1st half, so maybe it will work long term. Maybe the O line will get better and better without a coaching change. Maybe we will run under-center now and then when we need a yard or 2. Maybe we'll open up the playbook and let our other warhorses carry the load. Maybe we can actually OPTION now and then.

The next 3 games might just answer a lot of these questions. The team has been re-invigorated. They have now demonstrated to themselves and the world that they CAN play 4 quarters and beat good teams. Hopefully the offense will "Release the Hounds" against our last 3 opponents and show us what is possible going forward.

Hope so!

[wpgrad]

Crazy stat. I remember Davidson the fullback seeming like he ran every play versus Navy in 2016. He had 28 Carrie‘s. I remember Bradshaw running every play versus San Diego State, that was 32 carries. Yesterday our quarterback ran 36 carries. Amazing. I really wonder where that stands on the all-time army list for number of rushing attempts in a songle game.

Edited—just looked. Most all time is 40 rushing attempts. QB yesterday is now 4th most in single game

[3Yards&Dust]

Great game. I remember reading that Monken made this offensive change in part because of the rule changes, and also in part because he said he was tired of stalemates against the other SA's. His lifetime record was 9-9 in CiC games. So I guess it's possible both things can be true - that the team has looked awful and also this new offense gives us an edge against the other SA's. Relying on 36 carries by our QB doesn't give me a lot of confidence that there is any edge at all, but if we beat Navy and win the CiC I feel like that buys this offense another year to hopefully improve.

[3Yards&Dust]

Great game. I remember reading that Monken made this offensive change in part because of the rule changes, and also in part because he said he was tired of stalemates against the other SA's. His lifetime record was 9-9 in CiC games. So I guess it's possible both things can be true - that the team has looked awful and also this new offense gives us an edge against the other SA's. Relying on 36 carries by our QB doesn't give me a lot of confidence that there is any edge at all, but if we beat Navy and win the CiC I feel like that buys this offense another year to hopefully improve.

[rbmarmy]

At Syracuse we did the samw thing in the first half only to self destruct in second half. Yes this is an issue that must be addressed. That and being under center with 4th and 1.

[Dong Fong '09]

I am not trying to pick a fight, but this is why i think it is ridiculous to want to throw out the offense and fire newly hired coaches before it is even november

Am I happy with the season before saturday? Of course not. In fact, this might be the first season in 2 decades I don't attend a game in person (still watch on tv). But do I trust Monken to know what he is doing? 100% yes.

Dude has won 5 of 7 versus AF (and 5/7 versus navy)which hasn't been done since 1972 to 1978. From 1989 to 2004, air force was 15-1 against us and that includes the much ballyhooed 1995 and 1996 teams (96 won, but 95 lost to AF by almost 3 touchdowns). Incredible. And now we go into Navy with a chance to be CIC again, which is rare enough for us that we should really just enjoy it.

I don't love 4-8 but if we finished 4-8 or 5-7 with a CiC trophy, I hate to tell everybody, but that is probably a top 6 or 7 season for us since the late 1990's.

Could we lose to holy cross? Would not surprise me one single bit.

But I trust that these coaches have us on the right path. And yesterday second half, while very ugly with all those 2 yard QB runs, was EXACTLY the way Army should play a 20 point lead. Burn the clock, secure the ball, and let the defense make plays.

no one will admit, but thats the best our offense has played against another service academy in maybe 10-15 years (i'm going to have to look this up now). i can't remember the last time we scored 23 points. Even our 2018 offense struggled to score points in those games.

[kfan12]

I am not trying to pick a fight, but this is why i think it is ridiculous to want to throw out the offense and fire newly hired coaches before it is even november

Am I happy with the season before saturday? Of course not. In fact, this might be the first season in 2 decades I don't attend a game in person (still watch on tv). But do I trust Monken to know what he is doing? 100% yes.

Dude has won 5 of 7 versus AF (and 5/7 versus navy)which hasn't been done since 1972 to 1978. From 1989 to 2004, air force was 15-1 against us and that includes the much ballyhooed 1995 and 1996 teams (96 won, but 95 lost to AF by almost 3 touchdowns). Incredible. And now we go into Navy with a chance to be CIC again, which is rare enough for us that we should really just enjoy it.

I don't love 4-8 but if we finished 4-8 or 5-7 with a CiC trophy, I hate to tell everybody, but that is probably a top 6 or 7 season for us since the late 1990's.

Could we lose to holy cross? Would not surprise me one single bit.

But I trust that these coaches have us on the right path. And yesterday second half, while very ugly with all those 2 yard QB runs, was EXACTLY the way Army should play a 20 point lead. Burn the clock, secure the ball, and let the defense make plays.

no one will admit, but thats the best our offense has played against another service academy in maybe 10-15 years (i'm going to have to look this up now). i can't remember the last time we scored 23 points. Even our 2018 offense struggled to score points in those games.

I'd offer that if we'd faced another team that turned the ball over 6 times, it is likely we'd have scored more points in those games as well. Short fields help the offense.