Army outplayed by Navy

In a game where nearly everything has to go right in order to win, Army seemed to do just about everything wrong or at least not good enough to produce a victory.

The result was a 31-13 decision for Navy in front of a sellout crowd of 60,726 at Northwest Stadium in Landover, Md. and a national television audience. 

The win, Navy’s first over Army since 2021, gave the Middies sole possession of the Commander in Chief’s Trophy for the first time since 2019. With each team still to play in a bowl game later this month, No. 18 Army is now 11-2 and Navy is 9-3 this season. 

The bottom line is that Navy had Army’s much-heralded offensive scheme figured out from the start of the game, outperformed Army in the offensive and defensive trenches and made the key offensive plays to win the game. 

Meanwhile, the Black Knights simply missed just about every opportunity to get back into the contest. Those errors included basic fundamentals such as a missed tackle in the third quarter that turned a simple pass play into a 52-yard touchdown and a fake punt in the fourth quarter, where Navy’s starting defensive nose tackle Landon Robinson took the snap and ran for 29 yards and a key first down with Army down just eight points. 

There was more. Army senior quarterback Bryson Daily, who has looked nearly magical throughout the season, threw three interceptions, including one in the first quarter that quickly led to Navy’s second score of the game and a 14-0 lead that Army could never recover from. The second interception, midway through the fourth quarter, was a careless pass across the field midway through the fourth quarter that sealed the decision. The third came with just a few minutes left in the game.

Daily, who came into the game with 10 straight games where he rushed for at least 100 yards, was held to just 52 yards on 19 attempts. Sophomore running back Kanye Udoh ran for just 53 yards and the entire Army rushing attack produced only 113 yards, about 200 yards off their FBS-leading average per game.

“There is no detail too small in a successful organization” said senior nose tackle Cody Winokur and one of four co-captains at Army. “Some of that stuff gets overlooked when you some success. We are talented, we have talented guys but we are not so talented that we can just roll the ball out and beat anyone we play.”

Let’s be clear, behind Blake Horvath, the Middies junior quarterback who ran for 204 yards and two touchdowns, Navy was pretty impressive. On top of all that, Horvath’s scrambling abilities kept Army’s defense on its collective toes throughout the game.  Horvath, who missed several games in November with an injury, also threw two touchdown passes, one to Eli Heidenreich that the junior slotback eluded off a potential tackle and galloped 52-yards for a score. 

The Navy defense was nearly impeccable. With Robinson shining at nose tackle, neither Daily or Udoh were able to find the holes needed to sustain touchdown-scoring drives and the Middies shut down both Army’s outside running game and any type of passing game that Army tried to build. 

“They beat us in every phase,” said Army coach Jeff Monken, who is now 6-5 in 11 games against Navy. “They outcoached us. They blocked better and beat blocks better. They tackled better and they broke tackles better than we did. And, they did not turn the ball over. They took care of the ball a lot better than we did.”