Wow, what a game!  I’m telling you, I really enjoyed that one.

Folks, this UTSA team is really good.  We all saw that, right?  They’ve been good against the run all season, they’ve been good running the football themselves, and their quarterbacks have been accurate throwing the football, too.  Yeah, they need to find a little more consistency in the red zone — this was as true this week as it has been the last two, in losses to both UAB and BYU — but that was still a terrific victory for the Army Black Knights.

I gotta say, I set myself up for success yesterday.  Got up late, had a cup of coffee, and then hit the bike for a good two hour ride.  Put in just over 35 miles.  It was gorgeous out by the beach but very windy, so I rode up into the hills on the north side of town.  No luck there, alas.  Wound up climbing the steepest hill in town directly into a 20 mph headwind.  Still, all that riding put me in a better headspace this week.  By the time I got both TVs set up downstairs, I felt mellow enough to watch Army take on a tough opponent on the road.

Turns out I probably didn’t need all that after all.

Win No. 5️⃣ ✅#GoArmy pic.twitter.com/VvPS8plz8d

— Army Football (@ArmyWP_Football) October 17, 2020

Let’s start with the offense.  OC Brent Davis gets tons of crap from fans, and indeed, the AFF Crew has been pretty hard on him over the years, but he called an absolutely outstanding game this week.  Two completely untried quarterbacks and an O-Line coming off a game in which they really struggled to get push against a smaller D-Line, and yet he and his guys somehow found some real magic out there.  The O-Line attacked all day long, and both quarterbacks played extremely well despite their collective first start coming in such a tough, high-leverage situation.  We can’t possibly say enough good things about new Quarterbacks Coach Cody Worley and the job he’s done getting his guys ready to go.  Army played their 5th and 6th quarterbacks yesterday, and they didn’t miss a beat.

On a personal note, I really enjoyed watching QB Tyhier Tyler play.  We’ve been doing this thing with AFF long enough now that I remember watching Tyler’s high school highlights before he reported to the Prep School.  Maybe you remember me raving about him in the Black and Gold Game two years ago?  And now we’ve seen him take the field and legitimately lead this team to victory.

Good for him!

Cade Ballard and Tyhier Tyler took the reins under center and combined to lead Army to a win on the road at UTSA.

Hear from the two QBs and @CoachJeffMonken following the 28-16 victory. #GoArmy pic.twitter.com/Ya9IfXR777

— Army Football (@ArmyWP_Football) October 17, 2020

Captain Amadeo West on performance of quarterbacks Cade Ballard & Tyhier Tyler in UTSA win #ArmyFootball pic.twitter.com/yj1eqTrEeT

— Sal Interdonato (@salinterdonato) October 17, 2020

It looked to me like Brent Davis made a real commitment to maintaining a balanced rushing attack this week, working the edges quite a bit but leaning into the Fullback Dive once UTSA’s defensive line started wearing down.  Moreover, it’s not like they just worked the fullback right up the gut every time.  Rather, they ran to daylight, bouncing the ball outside or just to a different gap when that was there.  UTSA did a decent job stringing out the pitch and stuffing the Rocket Sweep throughout most of this game, but both Tyler and QB Cade Ballard found room running off-tackle or behind the fullback on the Quarterback Follow.  And yeah, it helped having some of Army’s veteran leadership back to block UTSA’s linebackers and talented safeties and set up those big runs.  FB Sandon McCoy and especially SB Artice Hobbs had a number of key blocks for big gains yesterday.  Add in FB Anthony Adkins’s long run to cap the first drive and his noticeable improvement blocking as well and FB Jakobi Buchanan’s hard running in traffic, and we got a real vintage Army Football performance.

These guys were on point from start to finish.  I loved it!

What can we say about Army’s defense?  Those guys are outstanding.  They really are one of the very best units in the country.  They held UTSA’s normally high-powered offense to just 6 conversions on 15 attempts on 3rd down with exactly one successful conversion in the 2nd half, and they turned UTSA over twice on downs in just three attempts.  Wow!

Truth is, QB Lowell Narcisse was darned impressive throughout most of this game.  16/31 passing for 155 yards and a touchdown in limited action with another 47 yards rushing on just 10 carries, and really, his running when the pocket broke down was what kept UTSA in this game throughout the first half.  Army was better about containing Narcisse after the break, but even so, the guy played awfully well.  It is super hard to complete quick outs all the way down the field like that, which is why Army plays that bend-but-don’t break scheme.  They give up those quick slants and tackle exactly because driving down the field with the short passing game is so hard to do.  However, with Army stuffing the run and bringing pressure all game long, Narcisse had to try all those quick outs.  The fact that he actually made it work most of the time, either with his arms or with his legs, was honestly amazing.  You almost never see that kind of repeated quick-accuracy from college-level quarterbacks.

Think about it like this: Tom Brady is Tom Brady because he’s so good at that short passing game.  So if we’re here comparing the way Narcisse plays to the way Brady plays, well, that’s a pretty good comparison for Narcisse, right?

Narcisse to Franklin is becoming quite the connection.

UTSA with its fourth pass for a first down on this drive.
#BirdsUp ? pic.twitter.com/icOxIQNQNS

— UTSA Football ? (@UTSAFTBL) October 17, 2020

I said in AFF’s Firstie Club, though, that I didn’t think Narcisse was gonna make it all the way through the game, and when he finally went out, well…  I wish the guy a speedy recovery, but he was taking a lot of chances out there, and they finally caught up with him.  I truly hope he’s okay because he’s a good player and a Hell of a lot of fun to watch, but I was honestly not surprised at all that he had to be carted off the field.

I should say, too, that I thought UTSA went away from the running game a little prematurely.  RB Sincere McCormick is the nation’s leading rusher for a reason.  He was kind of boom-or-bust in this game, and indeed, I don’t think short yardage situations ought to be his specialty, but he still finished with 18 carries for a whopping 133 yards (7.4 yards/carry).  By way of comparison, UTSA attempted 39 passes.  The Roadrunners have run a lot of read-option looks this season, and they have two quarterbacks who can really run and make that work, but for whatever reason, pretty much everything they ran to McCormick was by design.  I don’t get that.  And still, McCormick got outside several times for big gains.  Army was terrific in short yardage situations for the most part, but I’ll never understand why UTSA didn’t lean into the running game more, especially since it seemed to be working.  As it was, they wound up in 3rd-and-long an awful lot, and yeah, they converted a few of those, but overall, that’s a tough way to make a living.  

It’ll also get your quarterback beat up, which is exactly what we saw.

It’s funny because Army’s defense finished with just 1 sack and 3 quarterback hurries, but it felt like they were hitting Narcisse on almost every drop back.  Narcisse obviously felt it, too.  We saw him grab his ribs late in the 2nd quarter, and his accuracy went down noticeably as the game wore on.  That didn’t happen because he felt comfortable back there.  Pressure is a hallmark of DC Nate Woody’s defense, and he really brought it this week.

Adkins put up some numbers on that run.

Career long 6️⃣6️⃣ yard rush.
4️⃣th TD of the year. #GoArmy pic.twitter.com/87mqYVcNSp

— Army Football (@ArmyWP_Football) October 17, 2020

Finally, it’s worth pointing out how good Army’s special teams were.  P Zach Harding had 3 punts for 139 yards, including one from Army’s 25 yard line that went 59 yards.  UTSA wound up backed up in their own end when it looked like they were going to come out with at least decent field position.  On the other side, SB Tyrell Robinson had 1 kick return for 19 yards — it would’ve been more save for a penalty — and 2 punt returns for about 16.5 yards each.  That’s good!  On the other side, UTSA had one punt return for all of 3 yards and 4 kick returns, none of which resulted in anything better than average starting field position.  Oh by the way, Army also blocked an extra point off the very best kicker in all of college football.

Penalties were a problem in this game.  Especially for the refs.  Army finished with 5 for 51 yards; UTSA had 9 for 85 yards.  The Roadrunners came out undisciplined after Narcisse left the game with the leg injury, but at least half of those penalties were phantom calls on both sides.  Neither of Army’s pass interference calls would’ve been penalties in the SEC or the NFL, and I’ll never understand how Army’s defense got called for UTSA’s false start, but the crazy calls went both ways.  UTSA got called for a couple of ticky-tacky blocks in the back just for openers.  And yet, the refs could have legitimately called the Roadrunners for false starts on maybe a half-dozen occasions, and they let those slide.

Weird, yeah?  It was just sloppiness, I think.

Go Baby Go!! ⁦@anthonyadkinss⁩ ?? @tone4130 ⁦@JeremiahJBelto1⁩ @jamieson20 ⁦@laruecofootball⁩ ⁦@GHE7v7⁩ ⁦@ArmyWP_Football⁩ pic.twitter.com/Te0DixKHsH

— Tonya Adkins (@lsa0205) October 17, 2020

Anthony Adkins joins our list of 100-yard rushers in 2020. #GoArmy pic.twitter.com/EjuQVwzi7U

— Army Football (@ArmyWP_Football) October 17, 2020

FB Anthony Adkins finished as Army’s leading rusher with 8 carries for 101 yards (12.6 yards/carry) and 1 touchdown.  He also left the game early, so let’s hope he’s okay.  Tyler finished second with 19 carries for 95 yards and another touchdown.  Buchanan and Robinson rounded out the top four.  Buchanan had 10 carries for 40 yards with a touchdown while Robinson had 8 for 34 yards.  Scheme-wise, it was really good to see Davis and company working so hard to keep Robinson involved in the running game, but it was better that they stuck with what was working once the fullbacks started running downhill.  

LB Jon Rhattigan led the defense with 11 tackles, 5 solo, including 1 tackle-for-loss.  DB Julian McDuffie had 5 tackles, 3 solo, and 2 passes defensed.  He played great… right up until he was ejected for targeting.  DL Ryan Duran III had the team’s only sack.  

With today's win @CoachJeffMonken passes Bob Sutton (1991-99) for fourth place on Army’s all time wins list with victory No. 4️⃣5️⃣#GoArmypic.twitter.com/ARfBZ9e4gq

— Army Football (@ArmyWP_Football) October 17, 2020

So.  The Black Knights have a home game against FCS Mercer next week, then a bye, and then a tough-looking home match-up against Air Force.  

Is Air Force that good, or is Navy that terrible?  

We still have no idea.  Navy has been the most up-and-down team in the country this season.  However, this Army  team emphatically has enough talent and tenacity to finish strong and perhaps even run the table no matter what else happens.  The Black Knights need to play consistent, hard-nosed football like we saw yesterday, but I feel much, much better about this team having watched their performance against the Roadrunners.  It’s not easy to do great work week-in and week-out, especially with such a young football team, but the longer the season goes, the better these guys should play.

Honestly, I’m excited, and you should be, too.

Go Army!  Beat Mercer!!!