Army survived Holy Cross 17-14 in a game that featured as many booth reviews in the fourth quarter (4, seemed liked more) as combined touchdowns scored.
Bryson Daily sealed the victory with 4th-and-1 conversion from the Holy Cross 26 with less than two minutes left on the same play that Army ran unsuccessfully twice on the goal line in the second quarter.
It was one of those games. Special teams and the defense bailed out Army’s offense.
Jabril Williams and Elo Modozie deservedly should have received a game ball for their punt block and score to open the game’s scoring. Both, Williams and Modozie confirmed that Army’s first punt block of the season went exactly how they’ve been drawing it up in practice. Williams burst through the middle of the line unblocked. Modozie followed in perfect position to scoop and score his first career touchdown. Modozie said he remembered running the play in preseason camp.
Williams blocked a punt for the second straight season. Remember he had his first career punt block against UConn as a freshman last season.
The Black Knights’ defense stymied a highly-ranked offense for the second consecutive week. Holy Cross was averaging more than 40 points per game. Linebacker Leo Lowin continued to play a high level with his second straight 12-tackle game, his first two-sack game and another forced fumble.
The Campbell Trophy finalist is 24 tackles away from his second straight 100-tackle season with two games left in his career. Lowin is looking to become to first Army player since Greg Washington in 2003-04 to record back-to-back 100-tackle seasons.
What more can be said about Jabari Moore’s fourth-down pass breakup? Here’s our story. Great read, great play, game-saver.
Jackson Powell may be one of the team’s most unheralded players. Powell seems to make at least one impactful defensive play a game. The senior linebacker recovered the fumble caused by Lowin.
Army’s offense produced one touchdown – a 14-yard run by Tyrell Robinson. It’s the fourth time in 10 games this season that the Black Knights have scored one or fewer offensive touchdowns.
Big plays of more than 20 yards are still hard to come. Army managed just two – a 69-yard pass by Daily to Casey Reynolds and Daily’s 29-yard run.
Army did run a few plays from under center but went from the shotgun on four goal-line plays from inside the 2-yard line and didn’t ultimately come away with a score as a would-be Bryson Daily touchdown was called back on holding.
More under center plays could be in Army’s future. Just don’t know if they will happen in the last two games. Jeff Monken said about the offense on SiriusXM’s “Full Ride”: “What we got to figure out is if that is what we need to continue to do on a full time basis or if we need to be a mix of what we had been doing and what we are doing now. Those are offseason decisions. We are in the middle of a season and we have to go what we have trained to do.”
