Last week was beautiful.  The Army team played physical, dominant football for 60 minutes, and that resulted in a 63-7 blowout.  For the first time all season, we finally saw the Army team of the last few years, and they kicked ass.

This weekend should be more of the same against the Keydets of VMI.  Your Keys to Victory are as follows.

 

Stretch the field

Army’s opponents have played 10 men in the box all season to stop the inside run.  To alleviate the pressure, we’ve been trying to throw the ball.  Last week, we finally tried some sweeps and some pitches, and surprise!  They worked great!  The slotbacks were able to get free outside, and eventually, that opened up the inside running lanes, too.

If VMI has watched their film, they should play the safeties low and outside.  This should make it easier to run up the middle.  However, we still need to continue to run to the outside in order to keep our options open.

Your need to know for Senior Day at Michie Saturday.#GoArmy pic.twitter.com/WAgm3Sj121

— Army Football (@ArmyWP_Football) November 14, 2019

 

Get pressure on the quarterback

Since VMI isn’t a service academy, they don’t run the typical service academy option offense. Interestingly, they run a spread set with their 6’4” quarterback.  The Keydets would love nothing more than to have QB Reece Udinski sit in the pocket and throw all over Army’s secondary.

The Black Knight defense forced two interceptions and multiple quarterback hurries last week.  They’ll need to step up again in order to disrupt the Keydets’ potent passing attack.

 

Don’t get beat deep

UMASS had two successful passing plays last week, one of which went for a long touchdown. The defense got fooled by the reverse flea flicker, and that let UMass beat them deep.

With their spread offense, VMI can hit the deep ball at least as well as UMass did.  That can wreak havoc on defenses. The Army secondary has had injury issues throughout this season, but the underclassmen have been stepping up and turning their heads to make plays.  We need more of that to win this week.

.@ShrineBowl ✅

Riley accepts invite to the 95th East-West Shrine Bowl on Jan. 18 in St. Petersburg, Fla.#GoArmy pic.twitter.com/x3hJnmzTqs

— Army Football (@ArmyWP_Football) November 15, 2019

 

Run the damn ball!

Last week the Army team had 498 yards rushing.  We were oh so close to that magical 500 number.

While resurgent VMI is better this year, they still aren’t exactly good.  They’re 4-5 in the FCS Big South Conference.  We should therefore have no problem running them out of Michie Stadium.

It will be interesting to see which Army quarterback starts and how that impacts the running game.  However, as long as we hang onto the ball and run hard, we should be more than fine running right at these guys.

The longest TD run for an Army QB since 1923.

From all angles. #GoArmy pic.twitter.com/N2UxeSCPnu

— Army Football (@ArmyWP_Football) November 14, 2019

This should be pretty simple this week.  Army fans ought to walk away happy.  The game is at noon on CBS Sports.  It’s the last game at Michie Stadium this season.

As we’ve talked about on the podcast, winning this game  — and the next 2 — is crucial to keeping our bowl hopes alive.

Go Army!  Beat VMI!!!

* Cover image via USMA Flickr.