Feinstein's Findings: What a Game

            The question after a football game like the one that took place inside Michie Stadium on Saturday is this: Where in the world does one begin?
            Do you start with the bizarre and breath-taking ending? Or do you begin with sophomore linebacker Andre Carter, who didn't play a down as a freshman and got his first college start Saturday. All he did was block the extra point that was the difference in Army's 28-27 victory over Georgia Southern and get what SHOULD have been a game-clinching interception.
            Then there was sophomore quarterback Tyhier Tyler, also making his first start, turning the ball over three times in the first half before coming back to lead Army's rally from a 21-7 deficit in the second half. Or you could mention Coach Jeff Monken's decision to stick with Tyler after the three fumbles.
            What about the defense, which gave up several big plays, but also made several plays of its own in the fourth quarter to allow the Black Knights to hang on…barely. There should be kudos for Army's offensive line; for the fullbacks and for several players who had barely touched the ball all season who made big plays.
            Then again, it is impossible to escape Monken's self-confessed over-coaching that gave The Eagles a chance to steal the game. What's more, Tyler's start could have been catastrophic and who knows what would have happened if the officials—after what felt like the 58^th review in the fourth quarter—had given Georgia Southern's beleaguered kicker Alex Raynor, who had already missed from 28-yards and had an extra point blocked one final chance. The kick would have been 49-yards and Raynor's never made a field goal longer than 41-yards.
            Even so, when the replay official finally ruled that the game was over, the celebration almost matched a postgame victory celebration after a win over Air Force or Navy.
            "Relief," Monken said. "The first thing I felt when they said the game was over was relief."
            Understandable. He might have added, 'exhausted.' This was the game that wouldn't end. It was also a game that was a straight uphill climb for the Black Knights almost from the beginning.
            Everyone on-post knew this was going to be a difficult game. Georgia Southern has always played excellent football—first at what was then the Division 1-AA level (now FCS) and now at the FBS level. Under Erk Russell, Tim Stowers and Paul Johnson—Monken's mentor—Georgia Southern won six 1-AA/FCS national championships. In his four seasons as head coach, Monken twice took the Eagles to the FCS semifinals before leaving for Army after the 2013 season.
            Georgia Southern is now coached by Chad Lunsford—a Monken hire—and continues to run an option offense, the only real difference being that quarterback Shai Werts, who made his 43d start on Saturday, operates strictly out of the shotgun.
            Both teams came into the game with 6-2 records. Georgia Southern had lost two conference games to ranked Sun Belt teams—28-14 to 15^th-ranked (and undefeated) Coast Carolina and 20-18 on a buzzer-beating 53-yard field goal to 24^th-ranked Louisiana. Army's losses were to 7^th-ranked (and undefeated) Cincinnati and, a week ago to a Tulane team that lost in overtime this past Thursday to 25^th-ranked Memphis.
            Monken wasn't happy with his offense in the 38-12 loss to Tulane, so he decided to start  Tyler at quarterback. Because of injuries, the quarterback position has been a game of musical uniforms all fall and Tyler had been moved back to the position when injuries left the Black Knights without the first FOUR QBs on the pre-season depth chart going into the game at Texas San-Antonio.
            Tyler is tiny, listed at 5-foot-8 and 185 pounds but fast, quick and elusive. He can find a hole running the quarterback zone faster than anyone and he can also break tackles.
            Monken decided to gamble that his play-making ability would outweigh his inexperience.
            For a half, that decision looked to be the worst move made by someone in authority since some genius decided to launch New Coke in 1985.
            In the first quarter, Georgia Southern's offense netted one yard and had zero first downs. The score: Eagles-14, Black Knights-0.
            The reason for that was a series of almost un-imaginable mistakes. The first came on Georgia Southern's second punt, when Army was called for holding—on a kick that returner Tyrell Robinson didn't even field. That pushed the offense back to the 12-yard line. Two plays and a delay-of-game penalty later, Tyler tried to run to his left from the four-yard-line. The ball was slapped from his hands and Rashad Byrd fell on it inches shy of the goal line.
            Two plays later, Werts scored easily and it was 7-0.
            It stayed that way for two plays—a kickoff into the end zone and another Army fumble. This time Tyler and fullback Jakobi Buchanan juggled the ball on a simple mesh handoff. The ball popped into the air and Derrick Canteen grabbed it and raced untouched into the end zone. Ten seconds after it had been 7-0, it was 14-0.
            If there's one thing about Monken's teams that is always true, it is that they don't panic. With 51:45 left in the game, there was no reason to change anything. Tyler and the offense got their act together on the next possession and drove 75-yards on 15 plays—a classic Army drive---even overcoming yet another holding penalty. Buchanan went back to doing what he does best—picking up first downs on third or fourth-and-short and Sandon McCoy did what he does best, scoring from a yard out with 13:45 left in the half to make it 14-7.
            Okay, the Black Knights had taken a gut punch but were now ready to dig in and play football.
            Except that Georgia Southern promptly went 86-yard on eight plays to make it 21-7. The touchdown came on a gorgeous Werts to Cam Brown 24-yard touchdown pass down the left sideline. The key play—and decision—came at the start of the drive. The Eagles had to start from their own 14-yard-line and they were promptly called for holding—apparently the disease is contagious. Rather than push them back to their seven with a first-and-17, Monken took the play—a one-yard loss. On second-and-11 Werts found Darion Anderson on a short out-pass for 10 yards. Then, on third and 1, Wesley Kennedy III picked up 24-yards and the visitors were out of the hole and on their way to a two-touchdown lead.
            Soon after, it looked like the game might become a blowout. Army went three-and-out. On the Eagles first play after Zach Harding's punt, Gerald Green blew threw a huge hole and down the sideline. Marquel Broughton made a touchdown-saving tackle but was called for grabbing Green's facemask.
            He did—but the officials missed Green reaching back and grabbing Broughton's face mask. Instead of offsetting penalties, the ball was moved to the Army 15 and the Black Knights were staring a three-touchdown deficit in the face.
            But, as has so often been the case all season, the defense dug in when it had to dig in. They stopped the Eagles cold and Raynor, 12-of-14 on the season, trotted in for what looked like a chip-shot 28-yard field goal. Except he pushed it right and it was still 21-7.
            It looked as if that might go down as the game's turning point (this game had about 14 turning points before it was over) when the Black Knights promptly drove to a first down at the Georgia Southern 10-yard line with under a minute on the clock—Tyler doing most of the work, at one point carrying the ball on seven of eight plays. He would finish with 121 yards on 35 carries.
            A 25-yard completion to Chris Cameron on the ONLY pass Army threw all day, got the ball to the 10. But on the next play, Tyler was stripped by Jalen Jackson as he tried to twist forward. Jackson fell on the ball. Somehow the officials missed the fact that Jackson was still standing almost upright when he lost the ball and several minutes of everyone's life had to be wasted for the replay official to make the correction.
            The half ended with Georgia Southern still leading 21-7 and with Monken needing to make a decision during the break. Did he stick with Tyler—who clearly could make good things happen when he had any kind of space to work with—or go with Anderson, less explosive but less likely to make mistakes?
            This time, Monken was the guy who brought back Coke Classic. He stuck with Tyler and was rewarded.
            Robinson helped the cause by returning the kickoff to the 48. From there, the Cadets marched 52-yards, Braheam Murphy scoring the touchdown from 12-yards out. Murphy is part of a talented sophomore class which is starting to see playing time. He had carried the ball for a total of 20-yards (all in the Citadel game) before Saturday. His scoring run made it 21-14.
            This time it was Army that scored back-to-back touchdowns quickly. On third-and-seven from the 28, Carter tackled Werts for no gain. That was just the first of Carter's key plays. Anthony Beck II came into punt and the Black Knights went after him. Fabrice Voyne blocked the punt and Kemonte Yow picked the ball up and returned it to the two-yard-line.
            McCoy—who else?—scored on the next play and it was 21-21 with 6:16 left in the third quarter.
            Werts and company came right back, needing just four plays to go ahead again. This time, Werts found running back Logan Wright, who had somehow been lost by the defense for 39-yard and the touchdown made it 27-21.
            It was time for Carter's second huge play of the day. He got a hand on Raynor's extra point attempt and it never got close to the goal posts. No one knew it at that moment, but that was the play of the day.
            Army's offense was in gear now. The Black Knights took 10:50 off the clock, driving 71 yards in 18 plays: Tyler carried 9 times; Buchanan six times and Robinson three. Buchanan, who also picked up five first downs during the game, scored from six yards and, when Quinn Maretski nailed the extra point, Army led for the first time—28-27 with 8:16 left.
            The length of the drive shortened the game considerably. On the Eagles first play after the kickoff, Wert picked up eight-yards, but stayed down. Justin Tomlin replaced him, then Werts came back for one play. Georgia Southern drove to a fourth-and-two at the Army 45. Tomlin handed to Wright, who weighs 225 pounds and he twisted into the hole. Javhari Bourdeau, all 5-9 and 185 pounds of him, stepped in front of Wright and twisted him to the ground, a half-yard short of the marker. Even though the ball was clearly short, the officials went to replay and another five minutes of everyone's life was wasted.
            One first down and the game was over. Army didn't come close but did force Georgia Southern to use its two remaining time outs. Harding punted to the 16 and Tomlin immediately found Anderson for a 19-yard pickup. But then, trying to throw a short pass in the left flat, Tomlin somehow didn't see the 6-5, 265 pound Carter, who had dropped in coverage. He jumped in and made the interception with 2:07 left.
            Ballgame. The Eagles had no time outs left. A couple of runs by Tyler without risk of a handoff would either run the clock out or leave it under 10 seconds.
            But Monken, as he said later, out-thought himself. After Tyler had taken a knee that only took a couple of seconds off the clock, he called Tyler over and told him to drop and kill some time before taking his next knee. Tyler did as he was told but nobody told Army's offensive lineman NOT to hold. Two did. Even though Georgia Southern declined the penalties, the clock STOPPED. Now, Army couldn't run out the clock. It didn't help matters that on Tyler's final drop-and-kneel, the officials threw ANOTHER flag, then picked it up. But the false-flag caused the play clock to start at 25 instead of 40.
            Harding, trying not to punt into the end zone, popped the ball into the air for only 26 yards and Georgia Southern had the ball with 39 seconds left at the 24. Three plays later, they were on the Army 30—a 16-yard Tomlin run, a spike and then a 30-yard Tomlin pass to a rolling Murray.
            Again, the officials went to replay where they correctly confirmed Murray had made the catch, moved the clock back from 17 seconds to 22 seconds, but somehow didn't notice that Murray had rolled forward to the 30 from where he caught the ball on his knees at the 32.
            One of the all-time disasters loomed.
            But then, Georgia Southern went brain dead. Instead of throwing a quick sideline pass to pick up a few more yards for Raynor, Tomlin dropped and, before he could even start to pick up a receiver, was sacked by Nathan Cockrill and Arik Smith at the 32. The Black Knights took every possible second to unpile as the clock ticked down. By the time Tomlin got his team lined up to spike the ball, the clock was under two seconds. If he had taken the snap and simply slammed the ball down, Raynor would have gotten his chance to be a hero.
            Instead, he stood up straight and THEN clocked the ball. That instant was the difference. The clock ran to zero—barely—and, after yet another replay, the game was over.
            Finally. Call it a miracle, call it an escape, call those who made the biggest plays heroic. Monken's postgame emotions, almost breaking down during his TV interview, was understandable. Most of all though, call it a win—the best one of the season—and note that Army will host Navy in three weeks with a record of 7-2.
            By then, everyone should be breathing normally again.

Army West Point Athletics

Feinstein's Findings: What a Game

Related News

Players Mentioned

Javhari Bourdeau

Marquel Broughton

Jakobi Buchanan

Chris Cameron

Zach Harding

Sandon McCoy

Braheam Murphy

Tyrell Robinson

Arik Smith

Tyhier Tyler

Fabrice Voyne

Kemonte Yow

Related Videos