The Black Knights won big at Michie Stadium yesterday, beating East Carolina by three scores and remaining perfect since late last season. The still own the nation’s longest winning streak, which now stretches to eleven games. Army came into this game ranked 23rd in the AP Poll and 24th in the Coaches Poll, and we probably didn’t see anything yesterday to change that. Still, this ECU team was by far the best opponent Army has faced this season. Though the Pirates’ rally came too late to make any real difference, they made the sometimes invincible-looking Black Knights look merely mortal for the first time all season, at least for a little while.
The Army Team played about as well as they could possibly play for the first two and a half quarters of yesterday’s win. They forced two three-and-outs plus a turnover on downs in the first half, and they scored the game’s first thirty-one points unanswered through the middle of the third quarter. Army then scored again when ECU broke a tackle for a long touchdown off a short pass to get their first points of the game. After Army’s answer, we had a score of 38-7, all but ending the competitive portion of yesterday’s contest.
That’s when East Carolina woke up and started fighting, earning their own three-and-outs and scoring their own unanswered touchdowns. The game was already out of reach by then, but we finally saw in them, however briefly, the team that everyone expected to see before the season started. Big lead or no, the Black Knights looked like a team that had just been punched in the mouth for the first time all season, and for just a moment, they maybe didn’t quite know how to respond.
Thankfully, Army did respond. They recovered an onside kick, and then QB Bryson Daily threw a 41 yard pass to WR Casey Reynolds before taking a keeper in for yet another touchdown. With that, the Black Knights climbed back out to a more comfortable 45-20 lead, maintaining both game control dominance on the scoreboard and physical dominance on the football field.
ECU’s frantic fourth quarter heroics notwithstanding, this game ended with exactly the kind of one-sided stat lines that we’ve come to expect from this Army Team, especially on offense. QB Bryson Daily furthered his ultra-longshot Heisman bid, running for 171 yards and 5 touchdowns on 5.5 yards/carry while throwing for an additional 147 yards and another touchdown. Oh by the way, he completed 7/10 passes yesterday. He had to throw that much because ECU consistently stacked the box, all but daring Army to throw, especially in the game’s early going. Somehow, FB Kanye Udoh fought through that stacked box to put forth an outstanding performance between the tackles, running for 102 yards on just 19 carries in extremely tough conditions. SB Tyrell Robinson also made his return to the Army lineup, taking his only carry for 23 yards on a Rocket Sweep. WR Casey Reynolds led all receivers with 3 catches for 85 yards, including a gorgeous one-hander in Army’s late, dominance-saving drive that sealed the win.
On defense, the Black Knights held ECU to just 3/11 on third downs and to just 87 yards rushing on 4.4 yards/carry. Army’s defense never sacked QB Kaitin Houser, but they did get after him quite a bit. They finished with 4 tackles-for-loss, and much more importantly considering the way the game played out, they didn’t let Houser get into a rhythm until late in the third quarter. ECU WR Chase Sowell had an outstanding game, finishing with 7 catches for 138 yards and a touchdown. But that made up almost half of ECU’s passing offense and more than a third of their total offensive output for the day. Houser finished with 282 yards passing and 3 touchdowns, but by the time he settled into the game, the issue had long since been decided. He also threw one crucial pick to Army CB Justin Weaver.
ECU’s offense remains unstoppable when it’s working, but they also continue to make as many offensive mistakes as any team in the AAC. They finished yesterday’s game with 9 penalties for 62 yards and less than 23 minutes total time-of-possession. Their defense looked well and truly gassed by the middle of the third quarter and only revived once their offense found its rhythm late in the game, giving the defense a rare chance to catch its breath this season.
Final note: Army K Trey Gronotte made his only field goal of the day from 32 yards out. That was only his second field goal of the entire season!
At the end of the day, this Army Team maybe has a few things to clean up in the film room this week. Certainly, they’d rather not give up 21 points in the fourth quarter of a football game, even if it turns out that those points came in garbage time. Even so, they rushed for 295 yards and 5.3 yards/carry against what’s probably the best rushing defense in the American Athletic Conference, and they did enough on defense throughout the game to make it look like they might pitch a shutout — at least through the game’s first forty or so minutes.
Whatever their faults, this was a dominant win against a good football team that came in off a bye and therefore had an extra week to prepare. In previous seasons, this would’ve been a two-point win decided on the last play of the game. This year, we saw a 17-point blowout in which the Army Team finished strong despite its half-quarter swoon. As fans, we need to appreciate that for what it is and recognize the strides this team has taken over the last few years.
Our 7-0 Victory Song 🔊🔊🔊 pic.twitter.com/Qc3pBWSMCl
— Army Football (@ArmyWP_Football) October 19, 2024
Looking Forward
Army heads into a bye this week; they will face Air Force at home on November 2nd. The Zoomies also have a bye this week, and if they’ve not looked like the perennial bad-ass rivals that Army fans have come to expect year-in and year-out, we should all still realize how badly they’d like to come into Michie Stadium and wreck Army’s perfect season the way the Black Knights wrecked their perfect season last year.
We’ve said repeatedly this season that Army’s opponents will continue to evolve and improve over the course of the season. That’s as true of Air Force as it is of the other teams in the American Athletic Conference. With that in mind, we should all realize that things will not get any easier from here.
Go Army! Beat Air Force!!!
Leave a Reply
Your email is safe with us.