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National Rankings: Army leads country in two passing stats

Christian Anderson cracked a smile when Army’s passing game was brought in Tuesday’s virtual press interview.

Anderson and Army are having fun throwing the ball in their first two wins.

And, the Black Knights have been darn near perfect through the air.

Army quarterbacks Anderson, Tyhier Tyler and Jemel Jones have completed 8-of-10 passes for 175 yards and three touchdowns.

The Black Knights have one of the more effective passing games in the country through Week 2.

Army ranks No. 1 in passing efficiency (326.00) and passing yards per completion (21.88). Coastal Carolina is No. 2 in passing efficiency with 222.25. Coastal has thrown 45 passes, completing 37 in two games.

“It just starts with our mindset of our mindset being a quarterback,” said Anderson, who is one of eight quarterbacks up for the Manning Award this week. “One thing that we wanted to focus on this year is efficiency. Obviously, we are going to pass the ball a ton during the game but when we do get those opportunities we want to be efficient and complete them when we can. That’s one thing that we emphasized during the summer going into the season and just being efficient with our pass plays.”

Anderson entered West Point as an accomplished passer. He threw for 3,656 yards in his senior season at Cardinal Hayes, 24 yards shy of the New York state record held by former Duke guard Greg Paulus. Anderson, a senior, has thrown two touchdown passes this season, both of 40 yards, to double his career total.

Army quarterbacks look like they have more confidence when they drop back to pass this season. Nothing feels forced. Offensive coordinator Brent Davis appears to have more confidence in calling pass plays too. Though analytics may have partially dictated the pass call on 3rd-and-1 in Western Kentucky territory on Army’s first drive, the Black Knights still threw on the down and distance where a fullback draw or quarterback keeper is generally used.

“It’s something that fits us,” Davis said. “It goes along with getting the ball on the perimeter more, running execution plays. When you run execution plays, you see more support in the secondary and when you see more support in the secondary you have more of an opportunity to run play-action pass and that’s what we want to do.”

Davis said one of the offense’s goals is, “we want to lead the country in passing efficiency and there’s no reason why we shouldn’t do that.”

Watch Brent Davis weekly virtual press conference below

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