Army took the fight to Rice early and landed punches often yesterday, taking control of their first conference home game as a part of the AAC from the very start of the first quarter. Indeed, for the first three quarters of play, Army performed all but flawlessly, going up 7-0 in that first period, 28-0 by the end of the first half, and 37-7 by the end of the third. In that time, Rice only stopped the Army offense once, the Owls struggled to move or possess the football to the point where they never at any point managed more than half of Army’s total overall time-of-possession on the scoreboard, and they only scored because of a seemingly ill-advised* fake punt.
Friends, this game went about as well as it was going to go.
For all of Army’s successes yesterday, Rice’s defense did a decent job clogging up the middle of the field through most of this game. FB Kanye Udoh managed just 24 yards on 8 carries; fellow FB Jake Rendina had an excellent day blocking, but he finished with 6 carries for all of 19 yards. However, those clogged center lanes left passing opportunities all over the field, and for once, the Black Knights took full advantage. QB Bryson Daily finished an outstanding 6/9 passing for 107 yards and 2 touchdowns, and he added another 145 yards rushing and 3 additional touchdowns on 23 carries. Among other achievements, Daily averaged an outstanding 6.3 yards/carry, including a 36-yard run that he took almost all the way to the house. Even when Army’s backups came in at the start of the fourth quarter, QB Dewayne Coleman was able to go 2/3 passing for 13 yards plus 6 carries for another 24 yards. Coleman got close, but he never quite broke the long run that he and the second string offense needed to close out the game with the ball and finish with more than 300 team rushing yards on the day.
By comparison, Rice’s offense finished with 297 yards of total offense but just 41 yards rushing on 3.2 yards/carry. Considering that Rice RB Dean Connors was obviously the Owls’ best offensive player, Army defense’s ability to hold him in check proved decisive. Rice QB E.J. Warner finished 28/43 passing for a very good 65% completion rate overall, but he averaged just 5.8 yards/completion and threw 2 interceptions to go with his 2 touchdown passes. At no point did Warner look anything but gunshy in the pocket yesterday, and maybe half or more of his passes went so short that they either didn’t advance the ball or they advanced it maybe three yards. Those kinds of throws couldn’t help a team down 28 points at the start of the second half.
It’s definitely a quibble, but maybe the only thing that went wrong all day for the Black Knights came off the back of pre-snap penalties that put the second string offense behind the sticks early in the fourth quarter. This led to a punt instead of Army running out the clock on offense, and worse, Rice scored immediately thereafter off a quick touchdown drive. The Black Knights had gone up by 30 at that point, so they could certainly afford to let the reserves get the kinds of game reps that might help iron some of that out in the future. However, Coach Monken sounded legitimately pissed about the way the game played out late afterwards.
"Yes, ma'am. They're studs. Love that O-line and they did that thing today."@ArmyWP_Football all smiles after the big victory pic.twitter.com/6RT65yjIUw
— CBS Sports College Football 🏈 (@CBSSportsCFB) September 21, 2024
Coming off a big win with your coach fired up to make some very real, legitimately necessary improvements sets up maybe an ideal scenario for this team as it heads into a two-game road trip. We’ll see if the Black Knights can keep their heads and maintain their momentum.
* On the fake punt: the Black Knights had gone up four scores, and if they’d converted the fake, they could’ve then started putting in the backups almost immediately and perhaps could have gone deeper into the bench over the course of the game. That was worth trying. Moreover, the failed conversion mattered little to the game’s overall outcome despite leading directly to a Rice touchdown.
However, Coach Monken was still — very obviously — pissed about the way that fake went down after the game.
Belief in the mission. pic.twitter.com/23DcEPcCTM
— Army Football (@ArmyWP_Football) September 21, 2024
Looking Forward
Army travels to Philly to take on Temple this Thursday for their first midweek night game in many years. Everyone on Earth seems to think the Black Knights will win this week’s game easily, but that’s not as likely as the Army faithful might hope. Temple has played much better since making the switch to junior QB Evan Simon two weeks ago. They played a good Coastal Carolina team tough just this past week, and then they beat the Hell out of Utah State yesterday, 45-29.
This might be a game that Army should win, but we should in no way expect it to be a game that Army wins easily. The last of the Owl opponents for this season seems to have put it together despite getting off to a shaky start. That makes them a dangerous opponent, especially on the road.
Go Army! Beat Temple!!!
Cover image via @ArmyWP_Football.
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