There haven’t been too many service-academy teams in recent memory who could play badly and go undefeated anyway, at least for any significant stretch of time. Yet that is the plateau the Navy Midshipmen have ascended to while contending in the AAC.
The vibe coming out of Annapolis right now is that while the Middies may be 3-0, they’re not executing or protecting the football, and are just scraping by. QB Zach Abey has had fumble-itis to the extent that coaches have asked him to grip the ball a different way on carries. A more-athletic defense is still flaky, and the kicking game is shaky. Yet Navy has out-scored its opponents FAU, Tulane and Cincinnati by a combined 35 points.
Tulsa’s Golden Hurricane can tell the opposite story. An August loss to OKST set things off on a bad foot. Later heartbreaking defeats to Toledo and New Mexico would send them to 1-3, but it’s not as if Tulsa is playing all that badly.
Can the ‘Cane summon the willpower to fight off the Flexbone for 3+ hours?
Who: Navy Midshipmen at Tulsa Golden Hurricane
When: Saturday, September 30th, 3:30 PM EST
Where: Chapman Stadium, Tulsa, OK
Lines: Navy (-6) at Tulsa (+6) / O/U Total: (71)
The action is going all Navy’s way (the point spread opened just yesterday at a 3-to-4 point margin) and we think we know why.
Make no mistake, Tulsa is a solid football team from a deep mid-major conference. But the question isn’t whether the Golden Hurricane can play – it’s a question of psychology. The squad has just been through awful losses in a row against teams of the sort you don’t get much national credit for playing tough against.
Saturday’s hosts held a sizable lead on Toledo, but gave up 6 touchdown passes to Logan Woodside as the Rockets came back to win 54-51. The following week, New Mexico calmed the Hurricane with a last-second FG winner. Put those results together, and it’s a bummer that could be hard to rebound from. The defense did play well against triple-option plays last weekend, a tactic Navy is sure to employ. But sophomore QB Chad President is struggling with only 1 TD pass on the season so far and almost zero production in the run game, despite the decoy of senior RB D’Angelo Brewer running the other way.
Navy’s defense is not the team’s calling-card, but it does specialize in shutting down opposing offenses which are showing weakness in areas. The Mids will likely dare President to throw, and try to pick off balls over the middle to set up Abey and a host of talented backs with more TD-drive opportunities.
Playing at home doesn’t help a ‘D out as much if it’s never time to tee off on the passer. Navy will control the football by ground as usual, and Tulsa is capable of answering and answering again with points of their own. Capable – not likely. It’s just bad timing to have the 2016-17 conference runners-up coming to town right now.
Take Navy (-6) and do it soon…before the spread gets any wider.