Season, future turned completely around!

[Lusk2003]

Saturday looked the most like our old offense for the first time all year. Hopefully we've figured out RPOs are not going to work at Army.

[ARMORMAN]

Yeah, you could also say our defense had a day. The entire Army defense actually made Sports Illustrated's Players of the Week (with unnecessary correction for calling us "another triple option team":


Our SI Players of the week: Washington RB Dillon Johnson; Army’s entire defense

Lost in the bright lights of Washington’s passing game is Johnson’s career day: 256 yards on the ground and four scores, three in short yardage but one long 52-yard run. He was the engine for the Huskies tonight.

Air Force’s offense had been among the most efficient in the country. Then, the Falcons met Army. The largest neutralizing force for a triple option team is another triple option team. The Black Knights dominated in a 23–3 upset..

[PrideandDream]

Yeah I wouldn't say our offense played well. By the measure of points you'd be correct. most we scored in years. But we kicked 3 FGs. On the FG drives the first was a 6 yard drive, the second was 24, and the third was a 4 yard drive. Effectively you have Bryson Daily's 62 yard run and an 11 play 43 yard drive that account for half of all offensive yard production. That's out of 13 possessions.

The real point we need to understand is this, when was the last time an opponent gave you 6 turnovers, or you created them, and you only scored 1 touchdown out of that? Think about that. 6 Turnovers and a 4th down stop on the Air Force 34. All 6 of the turnovers were at the Army 40 and better. 3 of them were inside the Air Force 35.

That's the question. How do you get 7 opportunities on a short field and only get 1 Touchdown out of it???

BTW, 35 carries for 108 yards ins't the most stellar of days. Daily is a tough kid, and I like him carrying it. The single best thing he did was secure the football on Saturday and not turn it over.

PD

[gabn92]

Rewatched the game…our offensive penalties killed several drives where they were moving the ball. Couple of holding calls, the chop block call.

Between penalties and a super-conservative kill-the-clock scheme for the second half, this game is not a good one to blame the new scheme. Compared to last year, the O was much better against AF. Not only in points scored, but also in rushing yards. And don’t forget we put up 200+ rushing yards against a defense that was giving up an average of 65/game.

We need to cut down on penalties!

[WrekDivr]

Yeah I wouldn't say our offense played well. By the measure of points you'd be correct. most we scored in years. But we kicked 3 FGs. On the FG drives the first was a 6 yard drive, the second was 24, and the third was a 4 yard drive. Effectively you have Bryson Daily's 62 yard run and an 11 play 43 yard drive that account for half of all offensive yard production. That's out of 13 possessions.

The real point we need to understand is this, when was the last time an opponent gave you 6 turnovers, or you created them, and you only scored 1 touchdown out of that? Think about that. 6 Turnovers and a 4th down stop on the Air Force 34. All 6 of the turnovers were at the Army 40 and better. 3 of them were inside the Air Force 35.

That's the question. How do you get 7 opportunities on a short field and only get 1 Touchdown out of it???

BTW, 35 carries for 108 yards ins't the most stellar of days. Daily is a tough kid, and I like him carrying it. The single best thing he did was secure the football on Saturday and not turn it over.

PD

Daily had 36 rushes for 170 yards (4.7 yards/rush)

[PrideandDream]

Right I forgot to mention I subtracted out the 62 yard touchdown. AF gets a run fit on that play and he's probably 36 for 111. Thank god they didn't. But I do think it highlights that there was very little flash in the offense Saturday.

[ARMORMAN]

The next 3 weeks will tell alot, imho...

The Team has been "legitimized", for lack of a better term. They have now proven to themselves that they CAN play all 4 quarters and beat a good team; something they had yet to demonstrate. Having said that, it still took SIX turnovers and TWO 4th down stops to secure this victory. That's not something we can obviously count on going forward. I hope we can count on sterling defensive and special teams play in the last 3 games. They were the difference vs af.

But it's the offense that now must step up. We can't run Daily up the gut 36 times and be successful. No way. We can't sit on a first half lead for the last 30 minutes going forward. We need to Release the Hounds. We need to get our other war horses involved, and we have a powerful stable: Reed, Odoh, Johnson, Buchanan, Robinson... So, where's the rest of the playbook Thatcher? It's past time. Counters, like UMass ran on us time after time; or a pitch now and then. Get the ball to T-Rob on the perimeter. Especially on 2d and short! We had a second and 1 vs av and ran Daily. Come on man; that's a perfect time to take a shot. Any shot. I know Daily hasn't pitched well, so fix that! It ain't hard. Fake the pitch and Daily gets more room. Anyway, unpredictable plays will also assist the O line in opening holes because our 5 guys won't be trying to move their 8 guys jammed in the box..

Short passes have worked too. Daily doesn't have a predictable arm (although he did hit a long beauty vs Cuse late in the game). So keep it easy. Hooks and wheels. Btw, where is Alston??? Obviously a serious injury, but we could sure use him. When he splits, just seeing # 11 out there opens the defense.

Finally, as P&D has often stated, our O line is the key to everything. Not sure if it's been coaching or player performance or what, but IF we mix up the plays sufficiently so the defense isn't stacking the box, then they need to start opening holes and/or moving the pile, or we need to make a Bold Range Change going forward.

We can win out and bring the CIC home. We can if we "Be All We Can Be".

Jus sayin'

[westcoastarmyfan]

Agree armorman. Being at the game I focused on T Rob when he was in. I am not the football expert that the rest of you are, but I was disappointed. He was targeted two times. One an incomplete pass when he was in the flat--and even if he caught it the AF defender was within a few yards of him. But it was a poor pass. The other was a nice 3rd & 7 pass to him on a wheel route for a 20+ yard gain. A friend of mine from High School is in the Calif sports hall of fame--HS basketball coach. He always told me that in the 4th quarter your stud has to touch the ball 10 times, even if he travels or misses a shot.

[kfan12]

.... So, where's the rest of the playbook Thatcher? It's past time. Counters, like UMass ran on us time after time; or a pitch now and then. Get the ball to T-Rob on the perimeter. Especially on 2d and short! We had a second and 1 vs av and ran Daily. Come on man; that's a perfect time to take a shot. Any shot. I know Daily hasn't pitched well, so fix that! It ain't hard. Fake the pitch and Daily gets more room....

Agree with everything you said, but from what I've seen the blocking scheme for some of our perimeter plays just doesn't seem to be there. We're not lead blocking nor cutting of the pursuit quickly enough to get the runner past the line of scrimmage in a lot of cases, especially when we try to run right. That has to be fixed and I'm not sure it can be during the season.

[USMAPAFAN]

My worry is what P&D referenced in another post. We got 6 turnovers, stopped them on 4th deep in their territory and we only scored 23 points. That’s a major problem. Note I said we got 6, not forced 6. The 2 interceptions were abysmal throws and the QB fumble on his take back was something out of Benny Hill. We are not going to get as many opportunities (drives) in our last 3 games. The takeaway for me is that we need to be much more productive on offense or we will not be 3-0 from this point forward.