The Black Knights played at Tulsa for the first time yesterday, heading into the game as heavy favorites. At kickoff, prevailing oddsmakers made Army a 14-point favorite with an Over/Under of 50.5. That gives us a rounded score prediction of Army 32, Tulsa 18. With that, the Black Knights made Army bettors very happy on Saturday afternoon by nearly covering the total all by themselves with a 49-point performance while remaining perfect on the season, not just in the record books but against the spread, too.
Selling Out to the Dive
On the first Army offensive play, Tulsa put just seven players within five yards of the line of scrimmage. On the second play, Tulsa had nine, and on the touchdown pass to Noah Short, they stacked the box with ten. This proved indicative of how the day would go for the Golden Hurricane.
Tulsa’s defensive staff committed to not letting Army beat them between the tackles. As Coach Monken pointed out in the postgame presser, one way they did this was by coming out in five-man front when Army’s staff had been expecting four. Army responded by passing for 140 yards and two touchdowns in the first half.
That must’ve softened the linebackers at least a little.
In the second half, the linebackers tried a few more looks, but they didn’t stay remotely as stacked against the line of scrimmage. The Black Knights therefore pivoted from the air to a perimeter running game. Sure, technically FB Kanye Udoh’s pair of 60+ yard touchdown runs started between the tackles. Regardless, they were zone runs designed to spring him to the perimeter. Coach Monken appeared as surprised as anyone to finally see just how fast Udoh can be.
FEED HIM 😤
— Army Football (@ArmyWP_Football) October 5, 2024
📺 ESPNU pic.twitter.com/sqNWHVWZnx
Offensive Adjustments
As we saw, 140 passing yards in the first half led to 251 rushing yards in the second half. How? Well one of the questions we asked Coach Monken after the game was how the in-helmet communications and tablet might play a unique role in his team’s triple-option offense. He told us that the new tech gives the offensive staff a way to respond and improve quickly when the defense comes out with something unexpected. Indeed, we’ve seen this the last two weeks in a row. Both Temple and now Tulsa came out in five-man fronts when Army had come into the game expecting something different.
To say the very least, the Black Knights have been able to adjust and make their offense work anyway.
Even so, when you’re practicing all week against one front with the scout team, it’s hard to shift from that in an instant. But with tablets, the correction can become instantaneous. Additionally, while most offenses may use their most-used play something like four times in a game, Army may only use eight different plays altogether. Many of these have similar blocking schemes. So when the team makes a correction for a particular situation, that correction often applies to a great percentage of the team’s remaining plays as well.
This connection today 🔥🔥🔥
— Army Football (@ArmyWP_Football) October 5, 2024
Daily to Short. 58 yards.pic.twitter.com/Ikvk3bNLgM
Keys to Victory Revisited
We told you that Army had to do three things to win this football game. Let’s take a look and see how that played out.
1. Bend-Don’t-Break in full effect. Check. Army did not allow a play of over 20 yards all day. In fact, Tulsa only made it to the red zone once.
2. 3rd down Defense. Army didn’t have to completely shut down Tulsa, but they did have to keep the status quo. The Golden Hurricane entered the day 31/78 (39.7%) on 3rd down. Army held them to 8/17 (47.1%).
Good enough for government work.
3. Finish the first half strong. After allowing Tulsa to tie the game and stalling out on their second offensive drive for the first time in the season, Army scored fourteen unanswered in the remainder of the first half while holding Tulsa scoreless.
Final Thoughts
Army continues to have their way against teams they’re expected to beat. The only time they’ve been an underdog this season was at FAU, and they’d be a favorite in Boca Raton if they played again next week. Now the Black Knights have three straight home games, and they’ll likely be considerable favorites in all three.
UAB has struggled in recent weeks, and we expect the Black Knights to play well against them so long as they keep their heads. However, East Carolina visits West Point after a bye that the Black Knights don’t have, and Air Force is a rivalry game against a team that has shown steady improvement all season. Army can and should win all of these games, but plenty of trap opportunities exist across the length of this homestand.
Somebody pointed out to the Supe today that Mizzou lost, leaving Army with undisputed control of the nation’s longest winning streak. The Supe very quickly shut down that conversation, smiled, and said, “Please, just one game at a time.”
That’s solid advice, especially when it’s working.
Go Army! Beat UAB!!!
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