Army West Point Athletics
Feinstein's Findings: A Big Day for the Cannon
October 04, 2020 | Football
         This past Friday afternoon, I was on the phone with Dean Taylor, USMA Class of 1981, who served as an Army doctor for 20 years and was the Army football team's doctor in the 1990s and early 2000s.
        Taylor still follows the fortunes of his alma mater's football and hockey teams (he played hockey at West Point) closely. "Should be a big day for the cannon tomorrow," Taylor said, referencing Saturday's game against Abilene Christian, the first of three Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) teams Army will face in October.
            As it turned out, Taylor knew from whence he spoke. The cannon got a lot of work from the beginning of the day until the end Saturday afternoon as the Black Knights raised their record to 3-1 with a comfortable 55-23 victory against the Wildcats, who are now 0-2.
            And yet, as Coach Jeff Monken put it at game's end: "Frankly, I think there are ways for us to play better. We were 3-1 a year ago."
            Coaches are paid to never be satisfied, especially in early October. Monken left the last sentence un-finished, but his point was that records can be deceiving. Injuries were a factor last fall, but no one on post was satisfied with the final record of 5-8 that ended on as down a note as you can find, a 30-7 loss to Navy after three straight wins over the Mids.
            A cursory look at the numbers Saturday would lead one to think Monken was just doing a coach-speak thing after a 32 point victory that was never in any serious doubt. It was 23-0 in the second quarter; 31-3 early in the third and the closest ACU got after that was 41-24.
            Army rushed for 441 yards and had 493 yards in all—including the team's first touchdown pass of the season. ACU rushed for a total of 86 yards, 55 net after sacks of quarterback Peyton Mansell were factored into the total. One thing that seems certain about defensive coordinator Nate Woody's defense is that it can stop the run. Of course, the real—and most important tests—will come against Air Force next month and against Navy in December.
            But Monken's concerns were genuine and legitimate.
            The most discouraging thing about the loss a week ago at Cincinnati had to be the penalties: 10 for 87 yards, most of them at crucial moments when the offense was trying to move the ball against a very good defense. The Black Knights cleaned a lot of that up, but still managed to be penalized four times for 27 yards, including back-to-back infractions in the first quarter that led to the most disturbing moment of the game.
            There were also moments when the defense was badly burned—Mansell, an Iowa transfer whose parents are BOTH Army graduates (something CBS Sports Net only brought up 168 times during the telecast)—threw three second half touchdown passes, two of them big plays (45 and 61 yards) to receivers who could have run all the way back to Texas untouched.
            There was also the sight of wide receiver Lionell McConnell running a jet-sweep from right to left in the second quarter that should have resulted in a 64-yard touchdown run. But, with his team down 23-0, McConnell somehow thought a victory strut starting at the 20-yard-line—two fingers in the air in the 'peace-out,' sign in celebration—was a good idea. As a result, Julian McDuffie, arguably the fastest player on the defensive side of the ball for Army, ran him down at the nine-yard-line. From there, the Wildcats stalled and were forced to settle for a field goal, cutting the margin to 23-3.
            It was a great hustle play by McDuffie, never giving up on the notion of catching McConnell. It was a boneheaded play by McConnell, who was otherwise brilliant, catching 11 passes for 101 yards. Remarkably, he wasn't the only player to make that mistake Saturday. Kentucky's Asim Rose did the exact same thing, same 'peace-out,' sign too soon and was also tackled from behind on his way to a touchdown. McConnell's mistake didn't affect the game's outcome; Rose's did. Kentucky fumbled two plays later and ended up losing to Mississippi, 42-41 in overtime.
            Until McConnell's run, Army had dominated the game in every possible way. The Wildcats came to town with 42 transfers on their team—that's not a typo—including 15 who had come down to the FCS from FBS schools. Coach Adam Dorrell took an early, 'nothing-to-lose,' approach, going for fourth downs on three occasions in the first quarter.
            On the first one, a fourth-and-five from the Army 47, Kerron Henderson came in untouched on a blitz from Mansell's left and buried him for an eight-yard-loss. From there, the Black Knights did their thing, going 45 yards in 10 plays, all on the ground, culminating with Sandon McCoy's one-yard run for his fifth touchdown of the season. Clearly wanting to establish the fullbacks after a tough day at Cincinnati, offensive coordinator Brent Davis got all four—McCoy, Jakobi Buchanan, Christian Barnard and Anthony Adkins—onto the field and all but Barnard carried at least once on the drive—accounting for seven of the 10 plays.
            Down 7-0, ACU went for fourth downs twice on its next drive, picking up the first one and almost converting the second. That came on a fourth-and-four from the Army 35. Mansell tried to thread a pass to Kobe Clark at the 11. He dove and, for a moment, looked like he had cradled the ball for a catch. But the officials ruled the pass incomplete and replay showed that the tip of the ball had hit the ground just before Clark pulled it in.
            To make matters worse for the Wildcats, Clark—who had 87 catches a year ago—apparently thought he'd made the catch.  After arguing for a moment, he angrily flipped the ball to the official—too hard. The unsportsmanlike conduct penalty put Army in business at midfield.
            It looked like the Black Knights would score with ease again until the penalty bugaboo reared its head. On first down from the 14, Army was called for a false start. One play later came a chop block call. Suddenly, it was first-and-30 at the 34. Quarterback Christian Anderson dropped to throw for the first time in the game. Finding no one open, he took off and picked up four-yards before three defenders hammered him—legally.
            Anderson went down and stayed down. When he finally got up, it was clear he had very little idea what day of the week it was.  Sophomore Jemel Jones came in and Landon Salyers salvaged the drive with a 43-yard-field goal to make it 10-0.
            Army then found out why Dorrell had been so reluctant to punt, when ACU punter Logan Burke got off a THREE-yarder from his own 13, almost whiffing on the ball. Two plays later, Jones was in the end zone from three-yards out. Salyers, who hasn't yet missed a field goal this year, somehow missed an extra point for the second time and it was 16-0.
            Army then went for an onside kick, having seen something on tape that led the coaches to think it might work. It did. Ironically, the Black Knights took over with their WORST field position of the day to that point, their own 42. A Jones 41-yard run set up a three-yard Buchanan touchdown and it was 23-0 less than 20 minutes into the game.
            The rest of the half was a mess for both teams offensively and it was 23-3 at the break. A week ago, trailing 10-7 at the half Army got the ball to start the third quarter and turned it over. This time was radically different: The Black Knights needed exactly three plays to go 75-yards: Jaylen Robinson, who was back to his lightning-like self, picked up 35-yards; Jones ran for seven and then, on a play-action play with the Wildcats (naturally) looking run, threw a perfect pass to a wide (very wide) open Michael Roberts for a 33-yard touchdown. Artice Hobbs IV took a pitch and ran right to the corner of the end zone for the two-point conversion making it 31-3.
            If there had been even a shred of doubt about the outcome at halftime, it went away at that moment. Monken and Woody will no doubt have plenty to say about the three touchdowns the defense gave up after that, but all they did was make the score more respectable.
            And give the coaches something to lecture their players about this week.
            The offensive stats were impressive. In Anderson's absence, Jones rushed for 138 yards and two touchdowns on just 14 carries. Robinson, who had been more or less bottled up the last two weeks after his stunning debut against Middle Tennessee State, was even better: he picked up 126 yards on just seven carries, dazzling again not just with his speed but with his balance and shiftiness. Adkins led the fullbacks with 70 yards on 10 carries and two touchdowns; McCoy and Buchanan chipped in with 38 and 32 and a touchdown apiece.
            Monken even gave plebe placekicker Quinn Maretzki a shot after Salyers had an inconsistent day on kickoffs and he drilled a 40-yard field goal.
            The only real question as the players sang the alma mater was Anderson's condition. He wasn't needed the rest of the day Saturday, but one never knows how a player will react after that kind of blow to the head.
            In all,  cannon, as Dr. Taylor had predicted, got quite a workout.
            Next up is another FCS team—and another military school—the Citadel. The Bulldogs have been a solid team in recent years—reaching the second round of the FCS Tournament in 2016 while going 10-2 and they run the triple-option.
            Should Army win the game? Of course, but a Monken comment to radio play-by-play man Rich DeMarco prior to the Abilene Christian game sums up the approach the Black Knights need to take every week. "I'm concerned," Monken said, "whenever we play, regardless of who we're playing."
            A-men.
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        Taylor still follows the fortunes of his alma mater's football and hockey teams (he played hockey at West Point) closely. "Should be a big day for the cannon tomorrow," Taylor said, referencing Saturday's game against Abilene Christian, the first of three Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) teams Army will face in October.
            As it turned out, Taylor knew from whence he spoke. The cannon got a lot of work from the beginning of the day until the end Saturday afternoon as the Black Knights raised their record to 3-1 with a comfortable 55-23 victory against the Wildcats, who are now 0-2.
            And yet, as Coach Jeff Monken put it at game's end: "Frankly, I think there are ways for us to play better. We were 3-1 a year ago."
            Coaches are paid to never be satisfied, especially in early October. Monken left the last sentence un-finished, but his point was that records can be deceiving. Injuries were a factor last fall, but no one on post was satisfied with the final record of 5-8 that ended on as down a note as you can find, a 30-7 loss to Navy after three straight wins over the Mids.
            A cursory look at the numbers Saturday would lead one to think Monken was just doing a coach-speak thing after a 32 point victory that was never in any serious doubt. It was 23-0 in the second quarter; 31-3 early in the third and the closest ACU got after that was 41-24.
            Army rushed for 441 yards and had 493 yards in all—including the team's first touchdown pass of the season. ACU rushed for a total of 86 yards, 55 net after sacks of quarterback Peyton Mansell were factored into the total. One thing that seems certain about defensive coordinator Nate Woody's defense is that it can stop the run. Of course, the real—and most important tests—will come against Air Force next month and against Navy in December.
            But Monken's concerns were genuine and legitimate.
            The most discouraging thing about the loss a week ago at Cincinnati had to be the penalties: 10 for 87 yards, most of them at crucial moments when the offense was trying to move the ball against a very good defense. The Black Knights cleaned a lot of that up, but still managed to be penalized four times for 27 yards, including back-to-back infractions in the first quarter that led to the most disturbing moment of the game.
            There were also moments when the defense was badly burned—Mansell, an Iowa transfer whose parents are BOTH Army graduates (something CBS Sports Net only brought up 168 times during the telecast)—threw three second half touchdown passes, two of them big plays (45 and 61 yards) to receivers who could have run all the way back to Texas untouched.
            There was also the sight of wide receiver Lionell McConnell running a jet-sweep from right to left in the second quarter that should have resulted in a 64-yard touchdown run. But, with his team down 23-0, McConnell somehow thought a victory strut starting at the 20-yard-line—two fingers in the air in the 'peace-out,' sign in celebration—was a good idea. As a result, Julian McDuffie, arguably the fastest player on the defensive side of the ball for Army, ran him down at the nine-yard-line. From there, the Wildcats stalled and were forced to settle for a field goal, cutting the margin to 23-3.
            It was a great hustle play by McDuffie, never giving up on the notion of catching McConnell. It was a boneheaded play by McConnell, who was otherwise brilliant, catching 11 passes for 101 yards. Remarkably, he wasn't the only player to make that mistake Saturday. Kentucky's Asim Rose did the exact same thing, same 'peace-out,' sign too soon and was also tackled from behind on his way to a touchdown. McConnell's mistake didn't affect the game's outcome; Rose's did. Kentucky fumbled two plays later and ended up losing to Mississippi, 42-41 in overtime.
            Until McConnell's run, Army had dominated the game in every possible way. The Wildcats came to town with 42 transfers on their team—that's not a typo—including 15 who had come down to the FCS from FBS schools. Coach Adam Dorrell took an early, 'nothing-to-lose,' approach, going for fourth downs on three occasions in the first quarter.
            On the first one, a fourth-and-five from the Army 47, Kerron Henderson came in untouched on a blitz from Mansell's left and buried him for an eight-yard-loss. From there, the Black Knights did their thing, going 45 yards in 10 plays, all on the ground, culminating with Sandon McCoy's one-yard run for his fifth touchdown of the season. Clearly wanting to establish the fullbacks after a tough day at Cincinnati, offensive coordinator Brent Davis got all four—McCoy, Jakobi Buchanan, Christian Barnard and Anthony Adkins—onto the field and all but Barnard carried at least once on the drive—accounting for seven of the 10 plays.
            Down 7-0, ACU went for fourth downs twice on its next drive, picking up the first one and almost converting the second. That came on a fourth-and-four from the Army 35. Mansell tried to thread a pass to Kobe Clark at the 11. He dove and, for a moment, looked like he had cradled the ball for a catch. But the officials ruled the pass incomplete and replay showed that the tip of the ball had hit the ground just before Clark pulled it in.
            To make matters worse for the Wildcats, Clark—who had 87 catches a year ago—apparently thought he'd made the catch.  After arguing for a moment, he angrily flipped the ball to the official—too hard. The unsportsmanlike conduct penalty put Army in business at midfield.
            It looked like the Black Knights would score with ease again until the penalty bugaboo reared its head. On first down from the 14, Army was called for a false start. One play later came a chop block call. Suddenly, it was first-and-30 at the 34. Quarterback Christian Anderson dropped to throw for the first time in the game. Finding no one open, he took off and picked up four-yards before three defenders hammered him—legally.
            Anderson went down and stayed down. When he finally got up, it was clear he had very little idea what day of the week it was.  Sophomore Jemel Jones came in and Landon Salyers salvaged the drive with a 43-yard-field goal to make it 10-0.
            Army then found out why Dorrell had been so reluctant to punt, when ACU punter Logan Burke got off a THREE-yarder from his own 13, almost whiffing on the ball. Two plays later, Jones was in the end zone from three-yards out. Salyers, who hasn't yet missed a field goal this year, somehow missed an extra point for the second time and it was 16-0.
            Army then went for an onside kick, having seen something on tape that led the coaches to think it might work. It did. Ironically, the Black Knights took over with their WORST field position of the day to that point, their own 42. A Jones 41-yard run set up a three-yard Buchanan touchdown and it was 23-0 less than 20 minutes into the game.
            The rest of the half was a mess for both teams offensively and it was 23-3 at the break. A week ago, trailing 10-7 at the half Army got the ball to start the third quarter and turned it over. This time was radically different: The Black Knights needed exactly three plays to go 75-yards: Jaylen Robinson, who was back to his lightning-like self, picked up 35-yards; Jones ran for seven and then, on a play-action play with the Wildcats (naturally) looking run, threw a perfect pass to a wide (very wide) open Michael Roberts for a 33-yard touchdown. Artice Hobbs IV took a pitch and ran right to the corner of the end zone for the two-point conversion making it 31-3.
            If there had been even a shred of doubt about the outcome at halftime, it went away at that moment. Monken and Woody will no doubt have plenty to say about the three touchdowns the defense gave up after that, but all they did was make the score more respectable.
            And give the coaches something to lecture their players about this week.
            The offensive stats were impressive. In Anderson's absence, Jones rushed for 138 yards and two touchdowns on just 14 carries. Robinson, who had been more or less bottled up the last two weeks after his stunning debut against Middle Tennessee State, was even better: he picked up 126 yards on just seven carries, dazzling again not just with his speed but with his balance and shiftiness. Adkins led the fullbacks with 70 yards on 10 carries and two touchdowns; McCoy and Buchanan chipped in with 38 and 32 and a touchdown apiece.
            Monken even gave plebe placekicker Quinn Maretzki a shot after Salyers had an inconsistent day on kickoffs and he drilled a 40-yard field goal.
            The only real question as the players sang the alma mater was Anderson's condition. He wasn't needed the rest of the day Saturday, but one never knows how a player will react after that kind of blow to the head.
            In all,  cannon, as Dr. Taylor had predicted, got quite a workout.
            Next up is another FCS team—and another military school—the Citadel. The Bulldogs have been a solid team in recent years—reaching the second round of the FCS Tournament in 2016 while going 10-2 and they run the triple-option.
            Should Army win the game? Of course, but a Monken comment to radio play-by-play man Rich DeMarco prior to the Abilene Christian game sums up the approach the Black Knights need to take every week. "I'm concerned," Monken said, "whenever we play, regardless of who we're playing."
            A-men.
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