Army West Point Athletics
Photo by: Danny Wild-USA TODAY Sports
Feinstein's Findings: Army-Navy
December 13, 2020 | Football
        The location was different, there were no traffic jams four hours before kickoff and, in truth, it wasn't a completely neutral site even though both schools made every possible attempt to make Michie Stadium appear to be no different on Saturday than Lincoln Financial Field would have felt in a normal year.
        In the end though, the most important aspect of Army-Navy was the same: the way it FELT. Let's face it, the March-ons of the Corps of Cadets and the Brigade of Midshipmen could take place in the parking lot of the McDonald's just outside the Thayer Gate and they'd still give you chills. The same would be true of the singing of the alma maters.
            And, if the two teams decided to play one another on The Plain, (where the first Army-Navy game was played 130 years ago) the intensity wouldn't go down even one tick. That may explain why the players briefly skirmished after the clock went to zero and Army had earned the right to sing second with a convincing 15-0 win. Army had waited 364 days to play this game; Navy was attempting to save a lost season.Â
            Yes, the atmosphere was surreal—only the cadets and the midshipmen (who had a 2 a.m. wake-up call in Annapolis in order to board buses to arrive in time for the march-ons) and a handful of VIPs from the two schools were allowed inside the stadium. Throw in the fog and darkness that rolled in at kickoff and never went away and you had football in The Twilight Zone. How hard was it to see? Both coaches brought most of their assistants who normally sit in the press box to the sidelines for the second half because they couldn't see the game from upstairs.
            To say that both teams played hard is a little like saying the sun is likely to rise in the east tomorrow. It's Army-Navy; everyone plays their guts out. Occasionally, one team is just a lot better than the other and the game's not close. That was the case a year ago when Navy quarterback Malcolm Perry ran wild for 304 yards and the Mids won 31-7—breaking a three- game losing streak against the Black Knights.
            Navy coach Ken Niumatalolo, who had shaken up his coaching staff after the third loss, declared afterwards that his team had, "gotten our domination back."
            Monken was as upset and angry about the loss as Niumatalolo was gleeful. The two men are friends, having been on Paul Johnson's staff at Navy together years ago, but there is no love lost when it comes to competing with one another. Monken decided to bring Nate Woody in as his defensive coordinator and Army's defense was outstanding all fall—opening the season with a shutout and then shutting Navy out for the first time since 1969.
            Army has given up 147 points in 10 games—an average of 14.7 points per game. Even I can do that math.Â
Saturday was no different. Navy, which finished the season 3-7, has struggled on offense all fall. In its last three games—against Memphis, Tulsa and Army—the defense only gave up 44 points—actually 42 since the Black Knights got two on a safety on Saturday. Normally, that's good enough to win. But the Midshipmen only scored seven, six and goose-egg and lost all three. Perry is in the NFL now and none of the four quarterbacks Niumatalolo tried during the season ever came within light years of playing the way he did.
            "Obviously you can't win a football game if you score zero points," a clearly frustrated and upset Niumatalolo said. "We have a lot of soul searching to do."
            Monken did that a year ago after the loss to Navy culminated a 5-8 season, Army's first losing record in four years. He returned John Loose to his job coaching linebackers and brought Woody in. That might have been awkward if not for the fact that Loose is one of the best PEOPLE to ever work at Army.
            Army played musical shoulder-pads at quarterback this fall even more than Navy did. Six different players took snaps at the position and four started before Monken settled on sophomore Tyhier Tyler after the loss at Tulane. Tyler is short—5-foot-9—but strong and fearless. For 30 minutes against Georgia Southern a week later, it looked as if Monken had made a mistake when Tyler turned the ball over three times and Army trailed 21-7 at halftime.
            But Monken stuck with Tyler and he delivered, leading his team to a 28-27 victory, the game ultimately decided by a blocked extra point.
            Niumatalolo also decided to go young late in the season, benching senior Dalen Morris in favor of highly-touted freshman Xavier Arline. There is no doubting Arline's potential, especially as a runner. But his passing skills remind no one of Roger Staubach. Or, for that matter, Perry, who became a reasonably good passer as a senior. Arline may become that someday.
            But not yet. And not Saturday. He attempted four passes and didn't complete any of them. He DID rush for 109 yards on 17 carries, 52 of them on what turned out to be—arguably—the key play of the game.
            The Black Knights led 3-0 at halftime, their one drive set up by a foolish Navy penalty—running into Tyrell Robinson as he attempted to fair-catch a punt. Tyler then threw the one and only pass he threw all day, finding Robinson for a 28-yard over-the-shoulder catch that moved the ball to the Navy 18. The drive stalled but freshman Quinn Maretski, justifying Monken and special teams coach Sean Saturnio's faith in him, drilled a 37-yard-field goal through the fog for the only points of the first 30 minutes.
            There were some—me—who thought Niumatalolo might go to Morris to start the second half, in part because Morris was a senior playing his last game and in part because Morris can throw the ball better than Arline can.
            Niumatalolo, who has won 101 more college football games than I have, stuck with Arline. On the opening play of the third quarter, Arline ran left and picked up 11-yards. On the next play, he ran through the exact same hole and, this time, broke free. It looked as if he would score.
            Enter Cedric Cunningham Jr. The junior defensive back has been a big play guy all fall and, at that moment, he might have made the biggest play of the season. With Arline angling to the left sideline, Cunningham spun away from a block, chased him down and JUST pushed him out-of-bounds at the two-yard-line.
            "I thought if I can get to him, we can stop them on the goal line," he said. "I believed in our defense."
            His belief proved justified. Navy fullback Nathan Smith, who is Navy's answer to Sandon McCoy on the goal line, was stopped twice. Then Arline took a shot. He got the ball across the goal line but the officials—correctly—said his knee was down a split second before the ball crossed. On fourth down—there was never any doubt that Navy would go for it—Smith tried once more and the middle of the Army line, led by captain Amadeo West, stopped him cold. The Mids would argue that Smith pushed into the end zone before the whistle—which came late—ended the play. But even the late whistle wasn't late enough. The Mids had been stopped. They never came close to scoring again.
   In a game like this one a 7-3 deficit might have felt like 17-3 or 27-3. But it never happened. The offense couldn't produce a first down starting from the six-inch-line but punter Zach Harding, who has been an unsung hero all season, got off a 48-yard-punt pushing Navy into its own territory at the 45. From there, the Mids went backwards and had to punt on fourth-and-13. Army only picked up one first down on the next series, but it came on a 28-yard Tyler run that critically flipped the field.
            Two fumbles then decided the game. The first came when Tyler, trying to pitch, was hit and fumbled near midfield. Navy's Jamal Glenn had a golden opportunity to recover but went for the scoop (which almost undoubtedly would have led to a score) rather than just falling on the ball. Instead, it rolled off his hands out-of-bounds and everyone on the Army sideline breathed a huge sigh of relief.
  Two players later, Army had a fourth-and-seven at the Navy 39. Monken thought about going for it, then thought again. He called time out and sent Harding out to punt. Harding got the ball out-of-bounds on the Navy 14.
            On first down, Arline tried to pitch the ball to slotback C.J. Williams. Cunningham—who else?—was right there and slammed into Williams, popping the ball loose. Jon Rhattigan, who waited three years for his chance to play and then became a star as a senior, took no chances (ala Glenn) diving on the ball at the 13.
            "I knew if I got on the ball there was no doubt our offense would punch it into the end zone," Rhattigan said.
            Well, maybe some doubt. No one but Tyler touched the ball. He picked up a first down at the three on three plays, but a motion penalty pushed it back to the eight. Those eight yards could have looked like eighty in this game and the Black Knights did NOT want a Maretski field goal. Tyler picked up four and then, with Navy's defensive line having shifted to Army's left, ran right behind a caravan of blockers and scored to make it 10-0.
            There was still 11:02 left to play but the game was over. Unless Army turned the ball over twice, Navy wasn't going to score any time before Christmas. Desperate, Navy tried a trick play, running a reverse to wide receiver Mark Walker who was chased and tackled in the end zone by Daryan McDonald for a safety. A second Maretski field goal made the final 15-0.
The numbers for this game were remarkable. The winning team had eight first downs; the losers four. Army had 162 yards in total offense—96 from Tyler on the ground; 28 on the Tyler to Robinson completion and 38 from everyone else. Navy had 117 yards—109 from Arline on the ground; minus-one from everyone else rushing the ball and nine yards on a final minute Morris completion. Total for the two teams: 279 yards or, if you're scoring at home, 25-yards less than Perry's total a year ago.
            But none of that mattered. This was an old fashioned 'bare-knuckled brawl,' as Monken called it and Army's list of heroes was lengthy, starting with Cunningham and Rhattigan and extending to West and the entire defense before moving on to Tyler and Robinson and Harding and Maretski. Actually, everyone in uniform.
            It was a sweet answer to what happened a year ago, even if the setting was unique and eerie. Singing second is singing second, regardless of the where, when or how.
            But what comes next is—again—unlike any other season. Instead of walking around on-post to cheers and pats-on-the-back, the Black Knights must report to practice Monday to get ready to play a rested Air Force team at Michie this coming Saturday.
            Normally, the game would have been played in early November. But this is 2020 and nothing is normal. The Commander-in-Chief's Trophy will be at stake. As satisfying and redeeming as it was to sing second on Saturday, the Black Knights will need to do it one more time to make this season an un-qualified success. The goal line is now in sight, but there is work still to be done.Â
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        In the end though, the most important aspect of Army-Navy was the same: the way it FELT. Let's face it, the March-ons of the Corps of Cadets and the Brigade of Midshipmen could take place in the parking lot of the McDonald's just outside the Thayer Gate and they'd still give you chills. The same would be true of the singing of the alma maters.
            And, if the two teams decided to play one another on The Plain, (where the first Army-Navy game was played 130 years ago) the intensity wouldn't go down even one tick. That may explain why the players briefly skirmished after the clock went to zero and Army had earned the right to sing second with a convincing 15-0 win. Army had waited 364 days to play this game; Navy was attempting to save a lost season.Â
            Yes, the atmosphere was surreal—only the cadets and the midshipmen (who had a 2 a.m. wake-up call in Annapolis in order to board buses to arrive in time for the march-ons) and a handful of VIPs from the two schools were allowed inside the stadium. Throw in the fog and darkness that rolled in at kickoff and never went away and you had football in The Twilight Zone. How hard was it to see? Both coaches brought most of their assistants who normally sit in the press box to the sidelines for the second half because they couldn't see the game from upstairs.
            To say that both teams played hard is a little like saying the sun is likely to rise in the east tomorrow. It's Army-Navy; everyone plays their guts out. Occasionally, one team is just a lot better than the other and the game's not close. That was the case a year ago when Navy quarterback Malcolm Perry ran wild for 304 yards and the Mids won 31-7—breaking a three- game losing streak against the Black Knights.
            Navy coach Ken Niumatalolo, who had shaken up his coaching staff after the third loss, declared afterwards that his team had, "gotten our domination back."
            Monken was as upset and angry about the loss as Niumatalolo was gleeful. The two men are friends, having been on Paul Johnson's staff at Navy together years ago, but there is no love lost when it comes to competing with one another. Monken decided to bring Nate Woody in as his defensive coordinator and Army's defense was outstanding all fall—opening the season with a shutout and then shutting Navy out for the first time since 1969.
            Army has given up 147 points in 10 games—an average of 14.7 points per game. Even I can do that math.Â
Saturday was no different. Navy, which finished the season 3-7, has struggled on offense all fall. In its last three games—against Memphis, Tulsa and Army—the defense only gave up 44 points—actually 42 since the Black Knights got two on a safety on Saturday. Normally, that's good enough to win. But the Midshipmen only scored seven, six and goose-egg and lost all three. Perry is in the NFL now and none of the four quarterbacks Niumatalolo tried during the season ever came within light years of playing the way he did.
            "Obviously you can't win a football game if you score zero points," a clearly frustrated and upset Niumatalolo said. "We have a lot of soul searching to do."
            Monken did that a year ago after the loss to Navy culminated a 5-8 season, Army's first losing record in four years. He returned John Loose to his job coaching linebackers and brought Woody in. That might have been awkward if not for the fact that Loose is one of the best PEOPLE to ever work at Army.
            Army played musical shoulder-pads at quarterback this fall even more than Navy did. Six different players took snaps at the position and four started before Monken settled on sophomore Tyhier Tyler after the loss at Tulane. Tyler is short—5-foot-9—but strong and fearless. For 30 minutes against Georgia Southern a week later, it looked as if Monken had made a mistake when Tyler turned the ball over three times and Army trailed 21-7 at halftime.
            But Monken stuck with Tyler and he delivered, leading his team to a 28-27 victory, the game ultimately decided by a blocked extra point.
            Niumatalolo also decided to go young late in the season, benching senior Dalen Morris in favor of highly-touted freshman Xavier Arline. There is no doubting Arline's potential, especially as a runner. But his passing skills remind no one of Roger Staubach. Or, for that matter, Perry, who became a reasonably good passer as a senior. Arline may become that someday.
            But not yet. And not Saturday. He attempted four passes and didn't complete any of them. He DID rush for 109 yards on 17 carries, 52 of them on what turned out to be—arguably—the key play of the game.
            The Black Knights led 3-0 at halftime, their one drive set up by a foolish Navy penalty—running into Tyrell Robinson as he attempted to fair-catch a punt. Tyler then threw the one and only pass he threw all day, finding Robinson for a 28-yard over-the-shoulder catch that moved the ball to the Navy 18. The drive stalled but freshman Quinn Maretski, justifying Monken and special teams coach Sean Saturnio's faith in him, drilled a 37-yard-field goal through the fog for the only points of the first 30 minutes.
            There were some—me—who thought Niumatalolo might go to Morris to start the second half, in part because Morris was a senior playing his last game and in part because Morris can throw the ball better than Arline can.
            Niumatalolo, who has won 101 more college football games than I have, stuck with Arline. On the opening play of the third quarter, Arline ran left and picked up 11-yards. On the next play, he ran through the exact same hole and, this time, broke free. It looked as if he would score.
            Enter Cedric Cunningham Jr. The junior defensive back has been a big play guy all fall and, at that moment, he might have made the biggest play of the season. With Arline angling to the left sideline, Cunningham spun away from a block, chased him down and JUST pushed him out-of-bounds at the two-yard-line.
            "I thought if I can get to him, we can stop them on the goal line," he said. "I believed in our defense."
            His belief proved justified. Navy fullback Nathan Smith, who is Navy's answer to Sandon McCoy on the goal line, was stopped twice. Then Arline took a shot. He got the ball across the goal line but the officials—correctly—said his knee was down a split second before the ball crossed. On fourth down—there was never any doubt that Navy would go for it—Smith tried once more and the middle of the Army line, led by captain Amadeo West, stopped him cold. The Mids would argue that Smith pushed into the end zone before the whistle—which came late—ended the play. But even the late whistle wasn't late enough. The Mids had been stopped. They never came close to scoring again.
   In a game like this one a 7-3 deficit might have felt like 17-3 or 27-3. But it never happened. The offense couldn't produce a first down starting from the six-inch-line but punter Zach Harding, who has been an unsung hero all season, got off a 48-yard-punt pushing Navy into its own territory at the 45. From there, the Mids went backwards and had to punt on fourth-and-13. Army only picked up one first down on the next series, but it came on a 28-yard Tyler run that critically flipped the field.
            Two fumbles then decided the game. The first came when Tyler, trying to pitch, was hit and fumbled near midfield. Navy's Jamal Glenn had a golden opportunity to recover but went for the scoop (which almost undoubtedly would have led to a score) rather than just falling on the ball. Instead, it rolled off his hands out-of-bounds and everyone on the Army sideline breathed a huge sigh of relief.
  Two players later, Army had a fourth-and-seven at the Navy 39. Monken thought about going for it, then thought again. He called time out and sent Harding out to punt. Harding got the ball out-of-bounds on the Navy 14.
            On first down, Arline tried to pitch the ball to slotback C.J. Williams. Cunningham—who else?—was right there and slammed into Williams, popping the ball loose. Jon Rhattigan, who waited three years for his chance to play and then became a star as a senior, took no chances (ala Glenn) diving on the ball at the 13.
            "I knew if I got on the ball there was no doubt our offense would punch it into the end zone," Rhattigan said.
            Well, maybe some doubt. No one but Tyler touched the ball. He picked up a first down at the three on three plays, but a motion penalty pushed it back to the eight. Those eight yards could have looked like eighty in this game and the Black Knights did NOT want a Maretski field goal. Tyler picked up four and then, with Navy's defensive line having shifted to Army's left, ran right behind a caravan of blockers and scored to make it 10-0.
            There was still 11:02 left to play but the game was over. Unless Army turned the ball over twice, Navy wasn't going to score any time before Christmas. Desperate, Navy tried a trick play, running a reverse to wide receiver Mark Walker who was chased and tackled in the end zone by Daryan McDonald for a safety. A second Maretski field goal made the final 15-0.
The numbers for this game were remarkable. The winning team had eight first downs; the losers four. Army had 162 yards in total offense—96 from Tyler on the ground; 28 on the Tyler to Robinson completion and 38 from everyone else. Navy had 117 yards—109 from Arline on the ground; minus-one from everyone else rushing the ball and nine yards on a final minute Morris completion. Total for the two teams: 279 yards or, if you're scoring at home, 25-yards less than Perry's total a year ago.
            But none of that mattered. This was an old fashioned 'bare-knuckled brawl,' as Monken called it and Army's list of heroes was lengthy, starting with Cunningham and Rhattigan and extending to West and the entire defense before moving on to Tyler and Robinson and Harding and Maretski. Actually, everyone in uniform.
            It was a sweet answer to what happened a year ago, even if the setting was unique and eerie. Singing second is singing second, regardless of the where, when or how.
            But what comes next is—again—unlike any other season. Instead of walking around on-post to cheers and pats-on-the-back, the Black Knights must report to practice Monday to get ready to play a rested Air Force team at Michie this coming Saturday.
            Normally, the game would have been played in early November. But this is 2020 and nothing is normal. The Commander-in-Chief's Trophy will be at stake. As satisfying and redeeming as it was to sing second on Saturday, the Black Knights will need to do it one more time to make this season an un-qualified success. The goal line is now in sight, but there is work still to be done.Â
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Players Mentioned
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LB
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