The Navy Blitz, Volume 2: The Mids Serve Notice; Take Down Conference Favorite Memphis

Welcome to the second edition of the Navy Blitz! 

Today, we'll break down Navy's huge upset of the Memphis Tigers. Among other things, you will hear where and when the  defense came up with the key plays to seize the advantage in the first half to put the team in a position to win in the second half. 

And on offensive, we'll talk about the one key stat that has been directly responsible for the Mids getting off to a 3-0 start. 

It was a terrific win. And with this game, Navy has officially served notice as a team to be taken very seriously in the American Conference. 

So stick around! I think you'll find it very interesting. As always, I welcome you comments! Send us a text!

Related Links:

• Navy Knocks Off Memphis to Stay Unbeaten at 3-0!
• Navy-Memphis Highlights

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Music is provided courtesy of Audio Jungle. Artists featured in order:

• Seven In Music (Intro)
• Cinematic Alex (Closeout Music)

Chapters

• 0:14 The Navy Blitz Intro
• 1:02 A Quick Memphis Preview
• 2:52 Three Critical Defensive Stops
• 8:10 Another Offensive Explosion
• 9:58 The Difference Making Statistic
• 11:23 Closing Comments and Show Credits

Transcript

Karl: 0:14

Hi everybody. My name is Karl Darden and I'd like to welcome and thank all of you for joining us today on Navy Sports Central. I'm your host and this is the official podcast of the Navy Sports Nation where we take a deeper dive into Navy sports. In this second edition of the Navy Blitz, I'm going to give you all my breakdown of Navy's game against Memphis. We will start with a quick look at the history between the two teams, as well as how the Tigers have performed so far this season. From there I'll move into the game itself, where you'll hear the three key things that the defense did in the first half to give the mids a chance to win the game. Then I'll get into what the offense is doing at such a high level that has resulted in this dramatic turnaround. These first three games. There's a lot to talk about, so stick with us and we'll get started when we come back. All right, it's great to have you guys with us. Thanks so much for dropping in. I really appreciate you taking the time. Let's go ahead and get right into things.

Karl: 1:10

I started looking at Navy's chances to beat Memphis almost as soon as the Temple game was over, and even though I didn't go so far as to think that the mids would definitely pull off an upset. I did give them a puncher's chance for three reasons. First of all, they had the extra time to prepare because of the bye week. That gave the offense extra time to add in another layer of the hybrid wing T offense that has been so productive. Over the first two games, coach Cronic could include some plays that the mids didn't even use against Bucknell or Temple. So I'm sure part of the goal was to make sure that the Tigers' defense would be seeing some things for the first time. The second reason is, even though Navy had lost five straight to Memphis, they usually played them pretty tough. Last season the offense came up just short inside the Memphis 10-yard line on fourth down and the Tigers were able to escape with the win. Finally and this is a combination of two things Navy was playing with a ton of confidence at home and their fans were well aware of how important this game was to their season. So I had to figure that the home crowd would be an advantage. And you put that together with the fact that the Tigers were probably still feeling pretty good about their win over Florida State the previous week. I mean, who knows, maybe they weren't focused on the mids as well as they should have been. So, taking all that into account, this game definitely had the makings of an upset. Still, that was going to be a pretty big hill to climb.

Karl: 2:20

The Tigers were coming off a 10-win season and they were bringing back a lot of weapons. One of them was senior quarterback Seth Henigan, who some people think has a pretty good chance to play in the NFL, so the Navy defense was going to have their hands full with this guy who had beaten them three straight times. On defense, Memphis was extremely quick reacting to the ball, and they didn't waste any time getting there either. They created all kinds of problems for the Florida State offense in that 20-12 upset win, coming up with four sacks and 12 tackles for a loss. I mean, that's a pretty big number, and the Seminoles only got into the end zone once. That's what the Mids were up against. So now the question is how in the world were they able to pull off such an incredible win? Let's take a look and see how everything played out. I'm going to get into the offensive performance in a few minutes, but first I'd like to focus on three things that the defense did in the first half. That put the team in a position to win the game in the second half.

Karl: 3:11

If you watched the game, you know that the Mids won the toss and elected to defer, as they usually do at home. Unfortunately, the Memphis offense scored in less than four minutes to move ahead 7-0. And then they got the ball back after holding the Navy offense to a three and out possession. So here was a chance for things to go sideways in a hurry. As improved as the Navy offense had become, it wasn't going to be easy to come back if the defense spotted the Tigers' 14 first quarter points. That didn't happen, though. The Mids forced a three and out of their own, and the offense went 77 yards and 10 plays to tie the score. Within the next three minutes and six seconds of game time, each team scored again, making it 14-all.

Karl: 3:43

Both drives were highlighted by explosive plays, which is something that seems to be becoming a habit with the Navy offense this year, and it was on Memphis' next possession that the Mids came up with another three and out on defense. Here was the offense's chance to take the lead, and they made the most of the opportunity after Brandon Chatman took it in from 12 yards out. Now Navy was in a pretty good spot. If they could hold Memphis one more time before the half and get a score of their own, they'd start to get some separation. The offense would also get the ball to start the second half with a chance to build on the lead even more. Anyway, the defense wasn't able to keep the Tigers from scoring, but they still accomplished the next best thing by keeping them out of the end zone. And when Horvath's three-yard TD run made it 28-17 at halftime, the Mids had that all-important two-score cushion, with a chance to add to it when the third quarter got underway.

Karl: 4:26

So the foundation for the upset was laid by the defense. In the first half they forced two three-and-out possessions and the offense followed those up with touchdowns. And then they held Memphis to a field goal on their last possession of the first half, allowing the offense to put up another touchdown. And, like I said before, this was huge because the Tigers were on their heels defensively, and so if the Navy offense could score on their first possession of the second half, Memphis would be three scores down. And that's exactly what happened. Horvath hit Chapman on that nicely designed 46-yard TD pass and less than four minutes into the second half the Mids were up 35-17. But anyone who's seen Memphis play knows they can score in bunches, and it took them less than two minutes to get the lead back down to 11. And then, after forcing a Navy punt, they marched 95 yards in 12 plays to score another touchdown, making the score 35-30. So clearly Memphis made some adjustments at halftime that were having an impact. It was back to a one-possession game and now it was up to the Navy offense to keep the pressure on, and they wound up delivering.

Karl: 5:22

On the very next series, Horvath came up with another explosive run that led to his third rushing touchdown and with the score now 42-30, the Navy defense came up big again. After Hannigan led the Tigers to the Navy 10-yard line, he faced fourth down. Needing two scores to win and with less than 10 minutes to go in the game, memphis had to go for it. There just wasn't much of a choice. So, on the play, one of his receivers did briefly come open in the end zone, but Andrew Duhart knocked away the pass and it fell incomplete. And then the offense took over and, in what has to be one of the shortest drives in Navy history in terms of time, horvath scored from 90 yards out, taking only 14 seconds to do so.

Karl: 5:56

But then again, this is Memphis and I don't know what you guys were feeling when the Tigers put up those two touchdowns to make the score 49-44, but I can tell you that I was about ready to lose my mind. And then, when the Tigers recovered the onside kick with over a minute to go in all three of their timeouts, I could barely watch. This had already been an emotionally taxing game for all the players and I just sat there wondering whether or not the defense had one more stop left in them. Now I did want to take a real quick minute to skip to the post-game press conference, just for some context. Rayuan Lane was one of the defensive players taking questions from the reporters, along with Colin Ramos and Andrew Duhart. One reporter asked him a question relating to. You know how he felt going back out onto the field, knowing that you know Memphis might come down and score again, and he just told her look, at no time did I think that Memphis was going to score. I knew that we were going to come up with a stop Now. You'll remember that it was Lane that got knocked off the ball while he was trying to recover that onside kick. But rather than dwell on that, he went right back to work as the leader of the Navy secondary and when Henigan was looking to connect on that second and 10 from the Navy 26, lane read it all the way. He timed his break on the ball perfectly, picked off the pass and took it to the house to seal the win. So even though the defense gave up 27 more points in the second half than they did in the first, the mids got the stops when they needed them the most. So hats off to them for putting that game away when the pressure was on.

Karl: 7:14

I did want to say one last thing before moving on to the offense, regarding the Navy defense's get six strategy. They forced those two, three and out possessions in the first half and then they turned the Tigers over on downs in the fourth quarter. So that makes three, and then Lane's interception counts as four. But it was a pick six which, as far as I'm concerned, basically triples the point value. So according to my math, the defense did reach their goal. Of course I'm half joking, but seriously I do think that pick sixes and those scoop and score fumble recoveries. All right. Really quickly, taking a look at individual performances, colin Ramos led the defense with 20 tackles, including a sack and two tackles for a loss. Kyle Jacob had 12 tackles and Jackson Campbell was right behind him with 10. As a team, the Mids also had five pass deflections. This Navy secondary is very experienced, and I think we're just beginning to see how much of an impact they can really have on a game.

Karl: 8:10

Now let's jump over to the offense. Obviously, it was an incredibly productive day. The mids rolled up 566 yards of total offense, and Blake Horvath accounted for over 400 of those, but I'll bet the pass he wishes he could have over again was the very first one of the game. He rolled to his right and had Nathan Kent wide open about 30 yards downfield. Now, if Horvath puts that in the right place, kent easily cruises into the end zone. Unfortunately, it was too high and on the wrong side, and Kent had to twist his body around just to get his hands on the ball, and it fell incomplete. Horvath's accuracy out to about 20 yards has really improved, but it's not quite there on some of those longer throws. His touchdown pass to Heidenreich was much better, though, and so was the one to Chapman to open the second half. Horvath is definitely capable of making those throws, so really it's just a question of consistency. But clearly Horvath is doing a masterful job running that Navy offense. He's making great reads in the option game and his decision making is quick, precise and just about always correct.

Karl: 9:04

The offensive line did an incredible job all game holding their blocks and creating lanes for Horvath and Tuska to pick up some big yards. It was just a great effort all around. Now, if I had to pick my favorite touchdown of the game, it would have to be Horvath's 90-yard run. Not only are long runs fun to watch, but you got a pretty good sense for how fast he really is. There was this Memphis linebacker who took what looked to be a decent angle on him just after Horvath crossed the line of scrimmage. But the guy totally underestimated Horvath's speed and he got left in the dust Downfield. The guy that had the best shot at him could not shed Nathan Kent's outstanding block and that allowed Horvath to blow right past him on his way to the end zone.

Karl: 9:40

Earlier I mentioned the things the defense did in the first half to put the mids in a position to win the game and, of course, the offense needed to close the deal in order for that to happen, and they did that in a big way. Three of their touchdowns came on explosive plays of 39, 46, and 90 yards, and they converted on the other four opportunities that came in the red zone. And let me just say this if you're looking for one single metric that is responsible for the mid-3-0 start, it's the number of touchdowns scored once they get into the red zone. In 2023, the offense got into the red zone 29 times and they scored 14 touchdowns. That's less than a 50% conversion rate and it ranked near the bottom of all FBS teams. This season, the mids have gotten into the red zone 11 times and they've scored a touchdown on every single occasion. The only other team that is perfect in the red zone, scoring only touchdowns every time, is Ohio State. Improving on those red zone numbers from last year was a big priority for Coach Kronick, and so far, I think it's fair to say that the offense has delivered.

Karl: 10:35

Another interesting metric from the Memphis game was time of possession. This is something that's obviously still important to the Navy offense. It's all about moving the chains and keeping the drives going. The more they possess the ball, the better chances they have of winning, but in this game, memphis had the ball for over 35 minutes. They also had 11 more first downs, did a better job of converting on third down and outgained the mids by almost 100 yards. 99% of the time that would translate into a Navy loss, but not with this offense.

Karl: 11:03

The Mids have demonstrated the ability to score very quickly. In fact, they've produced touchdowns on their first play from scrimmage on five separate occasions so far this year, and that currently ranks first in the FBS. To tell you the truth, I'm not even sure there have been many seasons where the offense has scored a touchdown on their first play in a series five times. Until now, that was a stat that really didn't seem worth tracking. So here's the bottom line. The way I see it, coach Cronic is proving himself to be an excellent game planner and play caller, and Blake Horvath pointed that out during the post-game press conference. He also stated that every single player that got on the field on offense did their job, and if the Mids can continue to do that on both sides of the ball, they're going to be very, very dangerous. That's going to do it for this edition of the Navy Blitz.

Karl: 11:46

Thank you all so much for joining us. Remember, if you want to get your thoughts out there on any of these games, feel free to text the show directly and I'll share your comments on the next podcast. Next week the Mids will be on the road for the first time this year. They will be taking on the University of Alabama-Birmingham, a team that I think is a little bit better than their 1-2 record. And just a quick reminder the views expressed on Navy Sports Central are my own and do not reflect those of the US Naval Academy or Navy Athletics. By the way, the music used in Navy Sports Central comes to you courtesy of Audio Jungle. This is a great site for purchasing the rights to use the music from thousands of artists around the world, and those featured in the podcast will be credited in our show notes. Talk to you soon, everybody. Until next time. This is Karl Darden. Go Navy Beat Army.